O Little Town Of Bethlehem

[poliphilo]

I have sympathy with the vicar who decided he didn't want to be singing "O, Little Town of Bethlehem" this year. He'd been to the real Bethlehem, seen what a shit-hole it is, got involved with the politics- and couldn't square his experience with the fantasy version in the carol. 

"How still we see thee lie"? Actually, no. 

It's the job of a priest to point this sort of thing out.

Christianity isn't just bubblebath for the soul.  There's also the social gospel.

Myth and ethics: a powerful- and volatile-  combination. 

Besides, there are plenty more carols to chose from.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The 20th century was seriously unfriendly to organised religion and its mysteries. The western Churches tried to accomodate themselves to the prevailing mood- and ended up impoverished.

Sometimes I dream of being a country parson, reading my services from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer, Sunday by Sunday, in my tiny, (unheated) 11th century church.

[mamadar.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that be the life? To be a parson the way Herbert was?

upasaka once worked for a Lutheran church that maintained their original building as a historic site. No heat, no artificial light, and a hand-pumped small pipe organ. (No loo, either, I think.) I have a photo somewhere of my stepdaughter at the age of about ten, leaning on the bellows during a concert we gave there. She did a fine job as the blower.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The hero of Parade's End (the novel I've just been reading)- a soldier serving at the front in WW1- has a persistent fantasy about taking holy orders and retiring to a country parish- preferably George Herbert's Bemerton. I really can't think of a more attractive life.