An abuse of a place of Christian worship....

At that renowned Parish Church of all things truly liberal and inclusive, St James Piccadilly (OK not that truly!), I hear, via Damian Thompson's Blog, that there is to be "an alternative service of lessons and carols" this year, at which the following will be sung:

Once in royal David's city
Stood a big apartheid wall;
People entering and leaving
Had to pass a checkpoint hall.
Bethlehem was strangulated,
And her children segregated.

Though this city is a symbol
To the world of peace and love,
Concrete walls have closed around her,
Settlements expand above.
And apartheid Israel stands
All around on stolen lands.

While certain "open" type people may be thrilled at the prospect of such a militant display - it leaves me, and I have no doubt many others, appalled.

While I am not surprised at the liturgical depths to which some parishes will sink, I am amazed at the complete and utter abandonment of rigorous thinking which has descended into a display of such immaturity. This really is childish in the extreme. It is symptomatic of a simplistic worldview that seems to pervade some peoples' thinking.

Yes, of course there are deep and profound objections to the State of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian People, but I am not of the opinion that this sort of claptrap will further the cause of peace. Rather, it is more likely to further the cause of division and disorder, It panders to anti-Jewish sentiment, of which there seems to be an increasing degree amongst many who think themselves intellectually superior. Such people seem to fail to realise that there is a world of a difference between being intellectual and being intelligent.

Then there is the matter of the abuse of an ancient place of Christian worship to peddle crude polemic rather the worship of Almighty God. It has long been known that St James Piccadilly has been a place where unorthodox teaching takes place - no doubt popular with some radical types who love to rejoice in their teenage angst while still in their 50's and 60's, and who seem to think that rebellion always leads to freedom - an all to human condition which Christ our Lord came to heal. I well recall a former incumbent of mine who back in the 1980's visited the cafe at St James Piccadilly and who innocently asked for a white coffee and was told that he was being racist and that he should have asked for a "coffee with milk". If memory serves me correct his reply was "Don't be so stupid." I am not sure I would have been able to be so polite.

A church building is a house of prayer, a place of worship, a place where we encounter the Risen Lord in Word and Sacrament - it is not a place of protest. Neither is it a place where our own predilections and errant opinions are affirmed. Catholic Christians understand that in worship we join with the whole company of heaven in worshipping God. Do our Lord's Mother, the Apostles and the New Testament Saints of the line of David and Abraham really want to be subjected to this? Does the Lord, himself of the line of David, desire this form of worship? To see a beautiful carol which speaks richly of the Incarnation of the Lord parodied in this way does little to promote the Gospel and does no honour to Christ, and plays into the hands of the enemy.

The situation in the Holy Land is a cause for grave concern and it seems to me that the Church should be an agent of reconciliation rather than division. Surely, we should be promoting dialogue rather than confrontation? It should be our prayer that all Abraham's children come to recognise their common semitic heritage and work together for peace and harmony.