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A bishop has investigated the Muslim prayer service that took place in a Church of England building in London and has pledged that no such service will take place again.
I should like to know what the prayers were. The bits of the Koran I heard on TV being chanted in Zanzibar - I remember
'God loves those who fear Him'
did not sound like the God I believe in - though the hotel concierge watched spellbound. But Allah is simply a word for the same God all monotheists worship and Muslim prayers might be ones in which Christians can join. I wonder whether Muslim's would object to saying the Lord's Prayer.
Still I sympathise with the clergyman quoted in the article who said
Bishop Richard Holloway of the Episcopalian Church once described people protesting against an inter-faith service as 'the distant cousins of the National Front.' What an unpleasant man he is.
Still I sympathise with the clergyman quoted in the article who said
"At a time when Christian men, women and children are being slaughtered in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Nigeria and elsewhere for their belief in the unique salvation delivered by Christ Crucified it is a scandal and an offence that a clergyman of the Church of England should embrace an act of islamic worship in a consecrated building dedicated to the glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."Interestingly, I have a friend, an Episcopalian layman, who spent years in Nazareth instructing Muslims who were converting to Christianity and he told me half of them said the Muslim God is not the same as the Christian God.
Bishop Richard Holloway of the Episcopalian Church once described people protesting against an inter-faith service as 'the distant cousins of the National Front.' What an unpleasant man he is.
The article referred to says that "Images and iconography of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and the stations of the cross were covered over during the event." Isn't that taking self-abnegation a bit far? The only thing left is to convert or hand over one's head on a platter.
ReplyDeletemarc
marc
Ballade of Illegal Ornaments, by Hilaire Belloc
DeleteWhen that the Eternal deigned to look
On us poor folk to make us free
He chose a Maiden, whom He took
From Nazareth in Galilee;
Since when the Islands of the Sea,
The Field, the City, and the Wild
Proclaim aloud triumphantly
A Female Figure with a Child.
These Mysteries profoundly shook
The Reverend Doctor Leigh, D.D.,
Who therefore stuck into a Nook
(Or Niche) of his Incumbency
An Image filled with majesty
To represent the Undefiled,
The Universal Mother— She—
A Female Figure with a Child.
His Bishop, having read a book
Which proved as plain as plain could be
That all the Mutts had been mistook
Who talked about a Trinity
Wrote off at once to Doctor Leigh
In manner very far from mild,
And said: “Remove them instantly!
A Female Figure with a Child!”
Prince Jesus, in mine Agony,
Permit me, broken and defiled,
Through blurred and glazing eyes to see
A Female Figure with a Child.