Religious Life

  • A Royal visit to Rome is diplomacy

    The King and Queen’s visit to Rome next week marks another chapter in a developing story of the UK’s eased relationship with Catholics worldwide. We no longer accept the violence of the past and we want peaceful coexistence for all religions, not just Protestant and Catholic.

    Although much has been made of recent strides toward greater harmony, there’s still a striking difference between all faiths, and the creeds of those with none. This forms the bedrock of much contemporary debate about ourselves.

    The Monarchy has now long chosen a path toward greater engagement with everybody, and this has helped keep our heads above water. Although we don’t see eye to eye, at least the schisms aren’t the subject of the same activity as before. However local the hatred, ties still bind us.

  • Even the religious feel a lack of love

    The problem with religion is with religion itself. Any term or concept used by a radical is real.

    A blog doesn’t solve the problem. A sermon may not reduce tensions. Any lack of intervention means people suffer.

    Lives are lost in some cases.

    It’s due to lack of involvement of Police. It also comes because of apathy in a community.

    The loss of Pastors, husbands and wives, and children is now a recent memory in the UK. It’s an event no one looks forward to.

  • The way of being evangelical

    The religious ‘world’ is a turn of phrase for something we believe generally to understand. It’s not as simple as that of course but like the weather it helps if it can be.

    The simple ways in which things are described leads us to such conclusions as to not understand it.

    “If my life is any example to go by, maybe yours is too”, is one such statement made to me once. I didn’t agree but he was so cock sure of it I let it fly.

    The entrance made into a church is long and arduous for some. They are those who have a long road ahead of them because they’re ready for the journey. They also know it takes a lot to start out.

    In the other camp are those who take us along for a ride. It’s not always bumpy, they promise, and it can be fun. This isn’t always the case, but their intentions are laid out first by promises.

    It’s a minefield to navigate around and beyond with care because no one really understands what happens in there. The religious part is the mystery found anywhere else but the people are a real conundrum.

    It’s what I and others find out constantly as we tour religious groups and buildings.

    It isn’t a superior way of seeing things, it’s just a way of saying it.

    In my distant past I met a few key leaders who themselves did greater things than me. The miracles only ever come out of the best of us and folks like me don’t get there at all.

    It’s supposed to be another mystery we just can’t understand yet. The only remaining question is why they think it’s so.

    They’ve never been a mystery and neither are we.