This Sunday past, my Church, Trinity Parish Church was filled to the gunwales (to use a naval expression!) . Why? - Isn't Christianity on the wane? - isn't going to Church a little old fashioned these days, we've heard that "God is dead" - as espoused by Nietzsche (countered by some wag who wrote "Nietzsche is dead - God!"). Then we've in more recent times had Richard Dawkins best selling book "The God delusion". With all this scepticism isn't it about time that we turned some valuable real estate, namely Trinity Parish Church into much needed housing?
As our Parish priest Geoff Houghton said to me - "blog about that David!"
What is it about the human condition that seeks spiritual as much as physical comfort? In an era where we have come to believe that science has an answer for everything why do we still seek comfort from something we don't even know exists? - Isn't it just a matter of time before science blows this God myth thing? Somehow I don't believe that that will ever be the case.
It seems as reflected in last Sunday's congregation of young and old that human communities have a great need to commune. To seek out that safe haven in times of turbulence, and what times they are - Unstable financial markets, soaring local house prices, massive borrowings and more recently Haut de la Garenne.
Rowan Williams (the Archbishop of Canterbury) wrote a great article in this weekend's press, when talking about Jesus's crucifixion; how it was all about Jesus being used as a scapegoat; "how groups and societies work out their fears and frustrations by finding scapegoats".
We only have to look around our own community; binge borrowing is all the bank's fault for making money too readily available; house price rises are the fault of unscrupulous speculators; turbulent markets are due to US banks lax lending; Haut de la Garenne - the result of out of control individuals. And so it goes on - but hang on a minute when are we as a society or as individuals going to take the can for our own actions - the actions that result in the problems we want to pass on to someone else?
What Easter reminds us is that a couple of thousand years ago there was someone prepared to die for all of us to save us from ourselves. So is attending Church at Easter just a big guilt trip? - Once done we return to our old ways having as Monty Python would put it "taken the curse off" our guilt.
A few years ago I would have said yes to that question, but today I think a message is coming down to us, a message that our ancestors knew milenia ago , that is one of the fragility of everything we hold dear. Today we use the word sustainability , but sustainability encompasses so much, that it's a bit like trying to picture the size of the Universe; almost incomprehensible in it's vastness.
I believe we're going back to basics - our desire for spiritual help as we try to deal with the powerful elements that swirl around us at an ever increasing speed is something humankind has always returned to and there is something in the Christian message that is enduring - "that you should love one another as I have loved you". By constantly reminding ourselves of the need to help each other; that we're all part of the problem as well as the solution will we ultimately fulfill both our material and spiritual needs.
I don't think we'll be bulldozing Trinity Church for a few years yet!
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