The earth is at the same time mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.
She is mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all.
The earth of humankind contains all moisture,
all verdancy, all germinating power.
It is in so many ways fruitful.
All creation comes from it.
yet it forms not only the basic raw materials
for humanity, but also
the substance of Incarnation.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Second Sunday of Easter
+ It was fear caused disciples
to abandon Jesus at the crucial time
Fear still gripped them
+ Jesus comes through the close door of their fear
No recriminations ‘Peace be with you’
+ Each of us knows what it is like to be crippled by fear
- Gerald May and the bear
Fear of death basic underlying
Fear of failure – looking foolish
Fear of not having done enough
+ Jesus liberates us from our fear
- To live fully and joyfully in freedom
“By your cross and resurrection you have set us free”
Liberating Christ
Your break the bonds
Of our enslaving fear
That we may be free
To dance in the Spirit
Of your breathing life
That gives us a sure hope
And is the cause of a great joy
In the fullness of life.
to abandon Jesus at the crucial time
Fear still gripped them
+ Jesus comes through the close door of their fear
No recriminations ‘Peace be with you’
+ Each of us knows what it is like to be crippled by fear
- Gerald May and the bear
Fear of death basic underlying
Fear of failure – looking foolish
Fear of not having done enough
+ Jesus liberates us from our fear
- To live fully and joyfully in freedom
“By your cross and resurrection you have set us free”
Liberating Christ
Your break the bonds
Of our enslaving fear
That we may be free
To dance in the Spirit
Of your breathing life
That gives us a sure hope
And is the cause of a great joy
In the fullness of life.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Some quotes for you today
I have just started to look once again at a wonderful writer/poet called Angelus Silesius. He was born Johann Scheffler in 1624 to Protestant parents in the Silesian capital of Breslau. At the age of 29 after graduating from Padua University he became a Roman catholic and took the name Angelus. These excerts come from his collection of poems entitled " The Cherubinic Wanderer" Some sound a bit like Japanese Haiku to me! Do you like them? What is your reaction to them?
God is the purest naught, untouched by time and space.
The more you reach for him, the more he will escape.
God far exceeds all words that we can here express
In silence he is heard, in silence worshipped best
One knows not what God is. Not spirit and not light,
Not one, truth, unity, not what we call divine.
Not reason and not wisdom, not goodness, love or will,
No thing, no nothing either, not being or concern.
He is what I or you, or any other creature
Has never come to know before we were created.
God is the purest naught, untouched by time and space.
The more you reach for him, the more he will escape.
God far exceeds all words that we can here express
In silence he is heard, in silence worshipped best
One knows not what God is. Not spirit and not light,
Not one, truth, unity, not what we call divine.
Not reason and not wisdom, not goodness, love or will,
No thing, no nothing either, not being or concern.
He is what I or you, or any other creature
Has never come to know before we were created.
Monday, February 18, 2008
THOUGHTS WHILE [NOT] SHAVING!
LITURGY
Pope Benedict's desire to reinstate the old Tridentine rite for Mass has been well known for years apparently and this desire was finally turned into a command last summer. But maybe it is yet to go a stage further. Apparently as pointed out in this week's issue of the Tablet there is a letter from Benedict when he was just a Cardinal which reads,' You are asking me to act for a broader availablity of the old Roman Rite. Actually you know I have no deaf ears towards such a request. My work on behalf of this cause is generally known....One would have to reckon with considerable resistance on the part of many bishops against a general admission...I believe though that in the long term the Roman Church must again have a single Roman rite...The Roman Rite of the future should be a single rite, celebrated in the latin or the vernacular, but standing completely in the tradition of the rite that has been handed down.'
Such a move in my opinion would be a great tragedy. I consider the rite of which he speaks to be an example of the most decadent time in the history of Christian liturgy. The liturghical scholars working so carefully after the Second Vatican Council have wonderfully rediscovered and brought into use something of our most ancient tradition in a form that enables the celebration to in touch with people's lives rather than in a nostalgic leap into a spiritualised never-never land. In an earlier issue of the Tablet Professor Nicholas Lash demonstrates the real dangers of the Pope's attitude to the liturgy as does his lovely book on the Eucharist written soon after the Council. Furthermore we have the scandal now of the Prayer for the Jews in the old rite which even in its new form is an insult to Jews and is certainly contrary to the view of our relatonship with the Jews as in St. Paul's letters see especially Romans 9-11. This sets back our relationship with outr Jewish Brothers and sisters by 40 years.
LENT
Having complained about the above I must say I was pleased to read that Pope benedict said that Lent 'could be a good time to fast from words and images that constantly bombard us.' adding 'We need a bit of silence and a bit of space.'
Indeed this is true, as Master Dogen the 12th century Zen master says we need to take a backward step... but NOT to just to be silent for a bit of peace and quite but in order to come home to our own true nature prior to all our frenetic activity. We need to step back from the words and images, the thoughts and ideas in our heads simply to be in touch with what is truely real namely life itself just as it is.
PEACE
I was pleased to read an article on the 80th birthday of a good friend from the past, Bruce Kent who in a prophetic way resigned from his active ministry as a priest in order to dedicate his own life to working for the Peace of the World. My memory of him was reawakened when I read after some mention was made about minimum wage, ' Does the Church ever talk about maximum wages? It's incredible that we can draw minimum wages. Isn't there a moral issue in that? There jolly well ought to be.'
Pope Benedict's desire to reinstate the old Tridentine rite for Mass has been well known for years apparently and this desire was finally turned into a command last summer. But maybe it is yet to go a stage further. Apparently as pointed out in this week's issue of the Tablet there is a letter from Benedict when he was just a Cardinal which reads,' You are asking me to act for a broader availablity of the old Roman Rite. Actually you know I have no deaf ears towards such a request. My work on behalf of this cause is generally known....One would have to reckon with considerable resistance on the part of many bishops against a general admission...I believe though that in the long term the Roman Church must again have a single Roman rite...The Roman Rite of the future should be a single rite, celebrated in the latin or the vernacular, but standing completely in the tradition of the rite that has been handed down.'
Such a move in my opinion would be a great tragedy. I consider the rite of which he speaks to be an example of the most decadent time in the history of Christian liturgy. The liturghical scholars working so carefully after the Second Vatican Council have wonderfully rediscovered and brought into use something of our most ancient tradition in a form that enables the celebration to in touch with people's lives rather than in a nostalgic leap into a spiritualised never-never land. In an earlier issue of the Tablet Professor Nicholas Lash demonstrates the real dangers of the Pope's attitude to the liturgy as does his lovely book on the Eucharist written soon after the Council. Furthermore we have the scandal now of the Prayer for the Jews in the old rite which even in its new form is an insult to Jews and is certainly contrary to the view of our relatonship with the Jews as in St. Paul's letters see especially Romans 9-11. This sets back our relationship with outr Jewish Brothers and sisters by 40 years.
LENT
Having complained about the above I must say I was pleased to read that Pope benedict said that Lent 'could be a good time to fast from words and images that constantly bombard us.' adding 'We need a bit of silence and a bit of space.'
Indeed this is true, as Master Dogen the 12th century Zen master says we need to take a backward step... but NOT to just to be silent for a bit of peace and quite but in order to come home to our own true nature prior to all our frenetic activity. We need to step back from the words and images, the thoughts and ideas in our heads simply to be in touch with what is truely real namely life itself just as it is.
PEACE
I was pleased to read an article on the 80th birthday of a good friend from the past, Bruce Kent who in a prophetic way resigned from his active ministry as a priest in order to dedicate his own life to working for the Peace of the World. My memory of him was reawakened when I read after some mention was made about minimum wage, ' Does the Church ever talk about maximum wages? It's incredible that we can draw minimum wages. Isn't there a moral issue in that? There jolly well ought to be.'
Monday, February 11, 2008
MICELLANEOUS MUSINGS
It is simply ages since I last wrote in this blog and there has been a lot happening in my life and in the world.
ZAZENKAI
On february 2nd. I led a Zen practice day at the Ammerdown Centre near Bath and there were 30 participants. It was a good day with plenty of sitting Zazen and Kinhin [walking meditation]. I gave a Dharma talk and spent the afternoon in Daisan [one on one teaching] while the others continued with their sitting Zazen. There was a really good response and a very positive evaluation from those who attended. If you are interested in knowing more or wishing to attend anything in the future then please see my website [www.northwall.plus.com] or see the website for the Ammerdown Centre. The next event will be a weekend sesshin with my Zen teacher from the USA Fr. Robert Kennedy Roshi on May 30 - June 1.
MEETING PLACE
At the end of last year our little Zen sitting group here named the Wild Goose Sangha had to move from our meeting place in Fairford so we are now meeting at the Ashcroft Centre in Cirencester. There are just 7 of us at the moment and we meet on a Thursday evening from 7.30 -9.00pm. We welcome newcomers interested in Zen practice so why not come anmd join us?
ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS
The press and the media have really laid into Rowan's suggestion that certain aspects of Islamic law could/should be included in our national law. They seem to have seriously got hold of the wrong end of the stick. He wasn't suggesting a parallel legal system but rather like already exists for people of faith already. eg. Seiks do not have to wear crash helmets on motr cycles, there are special courts available for jewish people who wish to use them on marrige and civil cases and Roman Catholic drs. and nurses can opt out of any dealings with abortion. So what is the problem? Did the furore bring out into the open a residual prejudice against muslims? Here in Swindon we had a case of a petrol bomb being thrown into the home of a muslim family of a housing estate! I think that Rowan has challenge us as a nation to look at the ways in whcih we can make our laws considerate and tolerant towrds people of faith. The Cardianla Archbishop of Westmnister seems to agree that this is really needed in our legal system if we are to be seen as a tloerant and inclusive society.
LENT
Here are just a few rambling thoughts on our lenten pratice this year. The gospel reading for the First Sunday of lent in the Common Lectionary speaks of Jesus being driven into the desert by the Spirit. That word'desert' brought to mind the recent 'Extreme Dreams' programme with ben Fogle taking a small group on an expedition in the Sahara desert in Libyia. The horrendously challenging environment was desolate, and totally merciless to those who enetred it. The desert also in the time of writing the gospels was in mediterranean culture see as the place of the evil spirits and Jesus was snt by the good spirit into that formidable territory to be tested [that is what the Greek word means]. So Jesus is to be tested three times challenging his attachment to possessions, power and prestige. These are the thre archetypical attachments of the ego or false, superficial materialistic self that overlays our own true nature. Jesus like a good Bodhisattva in the Buddhist tradition is driven by the spirit to engage in a spiritual encounter that he might discover his [original face before his parents were born as the Buddhists say] or in our terms his true nature that was spoken by the Spirit at his Baptism just before entering the Desert. That which he heard from 'outside' he had to discover and embrace out of his own 'inner' self - his own true nature. St Anthony's entry into the desert as described by Athanasius is to engage in the same test and again he wages the battle secribed ina most graphic way but it really is a profound spiritual and psychological struggle to touch and own his 'own true nature.' One further image that came to me was that od seeing in India the pilgrimages of penitents who came naked and totally covered in ash to the Hindu temple. [No small mark of ash like our Ash Wednesday - this was the full treatment!!]. The threefold pillars of the Judeo-Christian prayer life of prayer, fasting, giving then seems to be a spiritual stripping naked - like the Indians - to let go of the accretions that we 'think' is our indentity to discover our own true nature. The ash reminds us of our true physical nature as nothing but 'star-dust.' This lent then is an engagement in an intense desert-like spiritual practice that will uncover our true nature so let us not trivialise it in any way at all but really enter into it with confidence, courage and joy [that was something I also learnt from the Indian penitents - their faces were all lit up with the loveliest of smiles!].
ZAZENKAI
On february 2nd. I led a Zen practice day at the Ammerdown Centre near Bath and there were 30 participants. It was a good day with plenty of sitting Zazen and Kinhin [walking meditation]. I gave a Dharma talk and spent the afternoon in Daisan [one on one teaching] while the others continued with their sitting Zazen. There was a really good response and a very positive evaluation from those who attended. If you are interested in knowing more or wishing to attend anything in the future then please see my website [www.northwall.plus.com] or see the website for the Ammerdown Centre. The next event will be a weekend sesshin with my Zen teacher from the USA Fr. Robert Kennedy Roshi on May 30 - June 1.
MEETING PLACE
At the end of last year our little Zen sitting group here named the Wild Goose Sangha had to move from our meeting place in Fairford so we are now meeting at the Ashcroft Centre in Cirencester. There are just 7 of us at the moment and we meet on a Thursday evening from 7.30 -9.00pm. We welcome newcomers interested in Zen practice so why not come anmd join us?
ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS
The press and the media have really laid into Rowan's suggestion that certain aspects of Islamic law could/should be included in our national law. They seem to have seriously got hold of the wrong end of the stick. He wasn't suggesting a parallel legal system but rather like already exists for people of faith already. eg. Seiks do not have to wear crash helmets on motr cycles, there are special courts available for jewish people who wish to use them on marrige and civil cases and Roman Catholic drs. and nurses can opt out of any dealings with abortion. So what is the problem? Did the furore bring out into the open a residual prejudice against muslims? Here in Swindon we had a case of a petrol bomb being thrown into the home of a muslim family of a housing estate! I think that Rowan has challenge us as a nation to look at the ways in whcih we can make our laws considerate and tolerant towrds people of faith. The Cardianla Archbishop of Westmnister seems to agree that this is really needed in our legal system if we are to be seen as a tloerant and inclusive society.
LENT
Here are just a few rambling thoughts on our lenten pratice this year. The gospel reading for the First Sunday of lent in the Common Lectionary speaks of Jesus being driven into the desert by the Spirit. That word'desert' brought to mind the recent 'Extreme Dreams' programme with ben Fogle taking a small group on an expedition in the Sahara desert in Libyia. The horrendously challenging environment was desolate, and totally merciless to those who enetred it. The desert also in the time of writing the gospels was in mediterranean culture see as the place of the evil spirits and Jesus was snt by the good spirit into that formidable territory to be tested [that is what the Greek word means]. So Jesus is to be tested three times challenging his attachment to possessions, power and prestige. These are the thre archetypical attachments of the ego or false, superficial materialistic self that overlays our own true nature. Jesus like a good Bodhisattva in the Buddhist tradition is driven by the spirit to engage in a spiritual encounter that he might discover his [original face before his parents were born as the Buddhists say] or in our terms his true nature that was spoken by the Spirit at his Baptism just before entering the Desert. That which he heard from 'outside' he had to discover and embrace out of his own 'inner' self - his own true nature. St Anthony's entry into the desert as described by Athanasius is to engage in the same test and again he wages the battle secribed ina most graphic way but it really is a profound spiritual and psychological struggle to touch and own his 'own true nature.' One further image that came to me was that od seeing in India the pilgrimages of penitents who came naked and totally covered in ash to the Hindu temple. [No small mark of ash like our Ash Wednesday - this was the full treatment!!]. The threefold pillars of the Judeo-Christian prayer life of prayer, fasting, giving then seems to be a spiritual stripping naked - like the Indians - to let go of the accretions that we 'think' is our indentity to discover our own true nature. The ash reminds us of our true physical nature as nothing but 'star-dust.' This lent then is an engagement in an intense desert-like spiritual practice that will uncover our true nature so let us not trivialise it in any way at all but really enter into it with confidence, courage and joy [that was something I also learnt from the Indian penitents - their faces were all lit up with the loveliest of smiles!].
Monday, December 24, 2007
Monday December 24, 2007 Christmas Eve
This year my mind has been taken with the words "GOD IS WITH US" These 4 words seemed to jump out of the page when I read then in the nativity narrative in Matthew's Gospel. I immediately also remembered the end of the gospel with Jesus' assurance 'to be with you until the end of the age' So the Gospel of Jesus' earthly life is enfolded in this presence and the whole of his gospel is an affirmation of the presence of God in all that is. Now it isn't that it started with the incarnation but that is more like a sacrament that makes visible that which is invisible and brings alive God's intimate presence. God becomes accessible and vulnerable and is alongside us and not over against us as a strict judge and taskmaster. It is this intimate, loving and totally giving God that we can discover in our hearts as we enter a stillness and silence of contemplative prayer.
On Saturday I had a great time at the 90th birthday of a dear friend, Dom Sebastian Moore a monk of Downside Abbey. We began with mass at noon at which I concelebrated with Seb. Here i are the few words he said at homily time.
God so loved the world that he sent his only Son. A question we don't think of asking is: what does 'so' mean? Does it mean what all assume, 'so much', or does it mean 'in this way' and then go on to explain what 'this way is: sending his Son. Love is an act. God loves us by sending his Son. God loved the world this way, he sent his Son. This is how God loved the world: he sent his Son. I labour the point, it's so important. No one has ever seen God, John explains. God is inaccessible. So God becomes accessible in his Son. Accessible? And how! Accessible, available with a vengeance, vulnerable and able to be killed by us so that he could be manifest beyond the power of death in all his divine reality, in the whole truth of him as his glorious body of which we are members. God the inaccessible becomes God the vulnerable, and when Jesus shows himself his disciples adore, and the Holy spirit rearranges the furniture of the mind to see that Christ had to suffer and so - that little word 'so' again! - come into his glory at the sight of which the heart burns, as we learn from the story of the walk to Emmaus.
How disarmingly simple John is. It's a simplicity that evades busy pious souls. God loved us by becoming vulnerable to us, so that, arrested - in a revelatory film-still - at the act of murder by which, unknowingly, we run the world, we are exposed to the blinding light of his love.
The party afterwards was filled with countless numbers of family and friends and the English public (Exclusively private) school accents were much in evidence. It was a jolly affair with many there whose acquaintance I knew only by seeing their names in the papers, books and magazines.
Here's another of Seb's sayings: "Evil is the desperate being exploited by the unscrupulous"
He also reminded us the the search for God can only be found in the ordinariness of our lives amongst the love of family and friends.
ENGLISH INFO:
Ex prime minister Tony Blair became a Roman Catholic on Saturday evening. It is interesting that while Bishops in the USA excommunicate politicians who are not anti abortion that the cardinal Archbishop of Westminster receives one who as actively worked for many moral issues that are contrary to current catholic teaching!
BOOKS
My enforced extra day in Tulsa due to the ice storm gave me time to read O'Murchu's book @Catching up to Jesus' I found the first half a good summary of current biblical scholarship on the Jesus story that contained many challenging thoughts. The second half where he tells the story as if it were Jesus setting the record straight I found less satisfactory.
As part of my study I have been carefully reading Taigan Dan Leighton's Faces of Compassion where he looks at classic Bodhisattva archetypes and their modern expression. The book begins with a general orientation of Buddhist history and practice of which the portion on practice is particularly helpful. he then goes on to describe the characteristics of the Bodhisattva with their wisdom and compassion. Without much difficulty one can easily apply what he says to the Christan contemplative or Zen practitioner. It would be worth reading!
I WISH YOU ALL A MOST JOY FILLED CHRISTMAS
Finally here's a tip for a long life; just keep breathing !!!
On Saturday I had a great time at the 90th birthday of a dear friend, Dom Sebastian Moore a monk of Downside Abbey. We began with mass at noon at which I concelebrated with Seb. Here i are the few words he said at homily time.
God so loved the world that he sent his only Son. A question we don't think of asking is: what does 'so' mean? Does it mean what all assume, 'so much', or does it mean 'in this way' and then go on to explain what 'this way is: sending his Son. Love is an act. God loves us by sending his Son. God loved the world this way, he sent his Son. This is how God loved the world: he sent his Son. I labour the point, it's so important. No one has ever seen God, John explains. God is inaccessible. So God becomes accessible in his Son. Accessible? And how! Accessible, available with a vengeance, vulnerable and able to be killed by us so that he could be manifest beyond the power of death in all his divine reality, in the whole truth of him as his glorious body of which we are members. God the inaccessible becomes God the vulnerable, and when Jesus shows himself his disciples adore, and the Holy spirit rearranges the furniture of the mind to see that Christ had to suffer and so - that little word 'so' again! - come into his glory at the sight of which the heart burns, as we learn from the story of the walk to Emmaus.
How disarmingly simple John is. It's a simplicity that evades busy pious souls. God loved us by becoming vulnerable to us, so that, arrested - in a revelatory film-still - at the act of murder by which, unknowingly, we run the world, we are exposed to the blinding light of his love.
The party afterwards was filled with countless numbers of family and friends and the English public (Exclusively private) school accents were much in evidence. It was a jolly affair with many there whose acquaintance I knew only by seeing their names in the papers, books and magazines.
Here's another of Seb's sayings: "Evil is the desperate being exploited by the unscrupulous"
He also reminded us the the search for God can only be found in the ordinariness of our lives amongst the love of family and friends.
ENGLISH INFO:
Ex prime minister Tony Blair became a Roman Catholic on Saturday evening. It is interesting that while Bishops in the USA excommunicate politicians who are not anti abortion that the cardinal Archbishop of Westminster receives one who as actively worked for many moral issues that are contrary to current catholic teaching!
BOOKS
My enforced extra day in Tulsa due to the ice storm gave me time to read O'Murchu's book @Catching up to Jesus' I found the first half a good summary of current biblical scholarship on the Jesus story that contained many challenging thoughts. The second half where he tells the story as if it were Jesus setting the record straight I found less satisfactory.
As part of my study I have been carefully reading Taigan Dan Leighton's Faces of Compassion where he looks at classic Bodhisattva archetypes and their modern expression. The book begins with a general orientation of Buddhist history and practice of which the portion on practice is particularly helpful. he then goes on to describe the characteristics of the Bodhisattva with their wisdom and compassion. Without much difficulty one can easily apply what he says to the Christan contemplative or Zen practitioner. It would be worth reading!
I WISH YOU ALL A MOST JOY FILLED CHRISTMAS
Finally here's a tip for a long life; just keep breathing !!!
Friday, December 21, 2007
AMAZING DISCOVERY December 21,2007
PHOTOS OF CLIFTON CATHEDRAL 
Today when I opened my emails I found the following sent from someone in the USA. I thought that you would like to see how one cannot remain hiddn in the depths of the Cotswolds for long
As you see by this email, my name is Donald Conroy. I am writing you because I bought a book on the internet and it has your name on the frontespiece. The book is A Second Collection, by B.Lonergan. I was curious that you were reading this, and I decided to try to contact you. In the process, I learned that you had his complete writings at one time. I found this email address thru the Diocese of Tulsa. I hope it reaches the right person.
I don't want to spend a lot of time describing my interest in this email, I will just say that I was ordained in 1955, spent 12 years in the active life,10 as a Newman Chaplain at the Univ. of MN, Mpls, married and PHD and license as a psychologist, and now retired. I continued to read religious studies (I have an MA in religious studies from the U of Iowa) and mysticism and on to Lonergan. I have not read a lot, nor do I claim to really understand him ( I have Insight but have not been able to get far), but The Second Collection is another story. I am getting a lot out of this and hope it will open Insight for me.
What I am curious about is what a priest today does with Lonergan. It seems to me that he represents a corrective to the institution as I experience it. So that is why I wanted to contact you. I was told that you were a parish priest and not a professor, which also raised questions for me. How did you get along with the other priests in Tulsa? They were not reding this kind of thing were they? I have stayed in touch with the church these years. My older brother is ordained, was a theology prof at our local college and now retired. I talk with him at times.
Thet's enough for now. I hope this reaches you in England and that you are well and will enjoy the Christmas season. Peace, Don Conroy
CLIFTON CATHEDRAL GETS AN AWARD AS THE BUILDING OF THE MONTH
December 2007
Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral, Bristol, by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership, 1966-73
Text and images by Robert Proctor
Set amongst the leafy stone terraces of Clifton, the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul happily ignores its neighbours, concealing itself in a closed sheath of purple aggregate panels, a concrete spire emerging from inside, and a bridge extending almost reluctantly over its car park to pick up pedestrians from the street. Inside, if it were not for the stacking chairs, visitors would probably look up to the light-filled acoustic-sculptural lantern over the sanctuary before making their over-hasty and predictable judgements of ugliness. The building came about despite the economic disasters of late 1960s and early 1970s Britain. It was designed in 1966 by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership before rampant inflation and the devaluation of the pound put the scheme in danger; it was begun in 1970, and opened in the year of the oil crisis. Only an anonymous donation from a local businessman, insistent that the Diocese could not use the money on anything else, convinced a dubious clergy it should go ahead. The Liturgical Movement was, of course, well established by the time of Clifton’s design, and the post-Vatican II New Order of Mass was in use almost everywhere in the Catholic Church by the time it was opened. So it may not be surprising that this building should have been a mature realisation of Liturgical Movement aims. What is surprising is that such an approach finally came about in a cathedral design, where the acute sense of a civic duty and the need to create a visual statement felt by those involved in other cathedrals was replaced by a more unassuming modesty. Clifton is more like a big parish church. British cathedral architects had been given a hard time by architectural critics. Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral was derided as an irrelevant neo-Gothic artwork. Frederick Gibberd at Liverpool tried out the circle in a nod to the Liturgical Movement, and was roundly condemned for over-literal symbolism and naivety. Nobody bothered very much with Guildford (which was, in any case, a pre-war design). At Clifton, in contrast to both Coventry and Liverpool, where competitions were held, the architects announced their intention from the start to work closely with their priestly clients. And so they did, preparing complex diagrams of circulation routes and ceremonies, discussing and carefully noting their meanings. Even the fan-shaped nave was not imposed, but decided by a clergy committee after a range of plan types had been intelligently discussed. The baptistry was located near the entrance so that its symbolic meanings of initiation were clear, and plan drawings of how baptism was carried out were used to decide its form and position. Even the way people queued in chairs for confession was examined (how did they move along when they were at the end of a row?). Organisational bubble-diagrams like those pioneered by RMJM were used alongside sketches of sections and plans. Volume, light and artistic commissions (the Stations of the Cross to William Mitchell, who had worked at Liverpool; the windows to Henry Haig) turned the plan into a dynamic and meaningful building. Clifton Cathedral has recently been accused of ‘relativist’ and people-centred space, but the experience of the building rebuffs such charges as unfounded – its nave is focused on the sanctuary, and subsidiary spaces fixed in liturgically and symbolically appropriate places; ritual movement is woven into its architectural fabric; light and height give glimpses of transcendence and a clear sense of hierarchy. Liverpool Cathedral is something of an architectural precedent for Clifton, especially in the treatment of the podium (Weeks had entered the competition). Inside, the concrete trusses (actually a star beam) over the sanctuary recall the cut-out beams at S. Maria dei Poveri in Milan; and the informal hexagonal geometry is typical of its period. But there is not much point looking for visual precedents with a building so clearly founded on a careful analysis of liturgical function. If the suspicion remains that Clifton Cathedral is not quite as beautiful or exciting as it could have been, it is undeniably intelligent and valuable. Its owners seem to have changed very little in the building in thirty-four years. Only the wooden doors have gone, replaced with glass, so that the original hierarchical contrasts of light and dark are lost.
Dr Robert Proctor is Lecturer in History of Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. He is currently researching post-war Roman Catholic church architecture.
As you see by this email, my name is Donald Conroy. I am writing you because I bought a book on the internet and it has your name on the frontespiece. The book is A Second Collection, by B.Lonergan. I was curious that you were reading this, and I decided to try to contact you. In the process, I learned that you had his complete writings at one time. I found this email address thru the Diocese of Tulsa. I hope it reaches the right person.
I don't want to spend a lot of time describing my interest in this email, I will just say that I was ordained in 1955, spent 12 years in the active life,10 as a Newman Chaplain at the Univ. of MN, Mpls, married and PHD and license as a psychologist, and now retired. I continued to read religious studies (I have an MA in religious studies from the U of Iowa) and mysticism and on to Lonergan. I have not read a lot, nor do I claim to really understand him ( I have Insight but have not been able to get far), but The Second Collection is another story. I am getting a lot out of this and hope it will open Insight for me.
What I am curious about is what a priest today does with Lonergan. It seems to me that he represents a corrective to the institution as I experience it. So that is why I wanted to contact you. I was told that you were a parish priest and not a professor, which also raised questions for me. How did you get along with the other priests in Tulsa? They were not reding this kind of thing were they? I have stayed in touch with the church these years. My older brother is ordained, was a theology prof at our local college and now retired. I talk with him at times.
Thet's enough for now. I hope this reaches you in England and that you are well and will enjoy the Christmas season. Peace, Don Conroy
CLIFTON CATHEDRAL GETS AN AWARD AS THE BUILDING OF THE MONTH
December 2007
Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral, Bristol, by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership, 1966-73
Text and images by Robert Proctor
Set amongst the leafy stone terraces of Clifton, the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul happily ignores its neighbours, concealing itself in a closed sheath of purple aggregate panels, a concrete spire emerging from inside, and a bridge extending almost reluctantly over its car park to pick up pedestrians from the street. Inside, if it were not for the stacking chairs, visitors would probably look up to the light-filled acoustic-sculptural lantern over the sanctuary before making their over-hasty and predictable judgements of ugliness. The building came about despite the economic disasters of late 1960s and early 1970s Britain. It was designed in 1966 by Ronald Weeks of the Percy Thomas Partnership before rampant inflation and the devaluation of the pound put the scheme in danger; it was begun in 1970, and opened in the year of the oil crisis. Only an anonymous donation from a local businessman, insistent that the Diocese could not use the money on anything else, convinced a dubious clergy it should go ahead. The Liturgical Movement was, of course, well established by the time of Clifton’s design, and the post-Vatican II New Order of Mass was in use almost everywhere in the Catholic Church by the time it was opened. So it may not be surprising that this building should have been a mature realisation of Liturgical Movement aims. What is surprising is that such an approach finally came about in a cathedral design, where the acute sense of a civic duty and the need to create a visual statement felt by those involved in other cathedrals was replaced by a more unassuming modesty. Clifton is more like a big parish church. British cathedral architects had been given a hard time by architectural critics. Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral was derided as an irrelevant neo-Gothic artwork. Frederick Gibberd at Liverpool tried out the circle in a nod to the Liturgical Movement, and was roundly condemned for over-literal symbolism and naivety. Nobody bothered very much with Guildford (which was, in any case, a pre-war design). At Clifton, in contrast to both Coventry and Liverpool, where competitions were held, the architects announced their intention from the start to work closely with their priestly clients. And so they did, preparing complex diagrams of circulation routes and ceremonies, discussing and carefully noting their meanings. Even the fan-shaped nave was not imposed, but decided by a clergy committee after a range of plan types had been intelligently discussed. The baptistry was located near the entrance so that its symbolic meanings of initiation were clear, and plan drawings of how baptism was carried out were used to decide its form and position. Even the way people queued in chairs for confession was examined (how did they move along when they were at the end of a row?). Organisational bubble-diagrams like those pioneered by RMJM were used alongside sketches of sections and plans. Volume, light and artistic commissions (the Stations of the Cross to William Mitchell, who had worked at Liverpool; the windows to Henry Haig) turned the plan into a dynamic and meaningful building. Clifton Cathedral has recently been accused of ‘relativist’ and people-centred space, but the experience of the building rebuffs such charges as unfounded – its nave is focused on the sanctuary, and subsidiary spaces fixed in liturgically and symbolically appropriate places; ritual movement is woven into its architectural fabric; light and height give glimpses of transcendence and a clear sense of hierarchy. Liverpool Cathedral is something of an architectural precedent for Clifton, especially in the treatment of the podium (Weeks had entered the competition). Inside, the concrete trusses (actually a star beam) over the sanctuary recall the cut-out beams at S. Maria dei Poveri in Milan; and the informal hexagonal geometry is typical of its period. But there is not much point looking for visual precedents with a building so clearly founded on a careful analysis of liturgical function. If the suspicion remains that Clifton Cathedral is not quite as beautiful or exciting as it could have been, it is undeniably intelligent and valuable. Its owners seem to have changed very little in the building in thirty-four years. Only the wooden doors have gone, replaced with glass, so that the original hierarchical contrasts of light and dark are lost.
Dr Robert Proctor is Lecturer in History of Architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. He is currently researching post-war Roman Catholic church architecture.
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