On The Feast Of The Conversion Of St. Paul

[poliphilo]

The visiting priest who has taken the morning service these past two weeks is the non-stipendiary curate at  St Anne's- the church where I used to be vicar. He arrived after my time and doesn't seem to recognise me- though he must have seen my portrait on the vestry wall back home. He keeps talking about St. Annes. It's not quite a case of "of all the gin joints in all the world"- because St. Anne's is only a couple of miles away-  but it does mean I'm continually being brought up against my (in)glorious past. Maybe the Goddess wants it this way.

Ailz finds it perfectly easy to meld her Paganism and her Christianity. As soon as we're settled in our pew she mentally erects a little side altar to the Goddess- and she's happy.  "All Gods are one God and all Goddesses are one Goddess". I believe that too. Gods and Goddesses are just masks for a Divine Reality we're incapable of picturing. Still, there's rather a lot of stuff in the service that isn't to my taste- and especially all that harping on and on about Jesus.  One of the great things about Paganism is you're not always staring at the One Mask. You're allowed to swap them around. It can be Hercules one week, Aphrodite the next.  Jesus is lovely: I just can't be doing with him all the time.

We were celebrating our patronal festival this morning- The Conversion of St. Paul.  I'm not one of those who think Paul was a disaster for Christianity. For one thing Christianity would probably not exist without him. And for another he's not necessarily responsible for the "Pauline" teachings that make modern people want to spit. For example: I Timothy, 2, 12-  "I do not suffer a woman to teach etc..." Did he write that?  Probably not. The Epistles to Timothy and Titus are almost certainly forgeries.

Comments

[queen-in-autumn.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying your reflections on all this.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

"All Gods are one God and all Goddesses are one Goddess". I believe that too. Gods and Goddesses are just masks for a Divine Reality we're incapable of picturing.

This is the belief that makes the most sense to me in recent years.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

I'll admit that my studies of Christianity came to a different conclusion- Paul was a disaster for the faith, as were those who closely followed his teachings like Calvin and Luther. He was a hateful misogynist, fought with Jesus' family over the direction the new faith would take, and made a right nuisance of himself everywhere he went. A lot of this is documented in Acts. It makes the Jews look like the bad guys, but you have to wonder why they tried to kill him twice.

I read an interesting book titled "Why the Jews Rejected Jesus" which goes into depth about Paul and how he pissed off the Jewish establishment of the day. Had Christ's family won out, Christianity would probably been another sub-sect of Judaism and not a distinct faith itself.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Your view of Jesus sounds more Unitarian than Episcoplian. Unitarians embrace a much broader view of God than do the more traditional Christian sects and denominations.
I empathize with your discomfort with "all that harping on and on about Jesus". It gives me flashbacks to my days as a young RC sitting in church on a Sunday morning being forced to pray to saints and angels and Mary when all I wanted to do was talk directly to God without all the middlemen.
Like they say, faith is highly personal.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I too enjoy the possibility to "breathe" spirituality, wherever it is given freely. I only avoid places where a)Jesus b)the ONLYNESS of one or the other faith is too directly and unavoidably shoved down my throat continuously. Everything else harmonizes perfectly with my universe.