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29/11/2019

Symbols – an exploration by Ross Ahlfeld

This week in our blog, Ross Ahlfeld reflects on the symbols that are all around us and, in particular, the recent contraversy over the Pachamama at the Amazon synod.

Have you ever noticed all the ‘pagan idols’ around our oldest Scottish chapels in the Highlands and Islands? Sure, the locals call them ‘Celtic Crosses’ but we all know that they are in actual fact heathen ‘sun-wheel’ symbols, probably once used for some kind of pre-Christian worship.

If the idea of our old Gaelic parishes worshipping a solar deity sounds ridiculous, then that’s because it is.

And it is no more fanciful than the suggestion that a Pachamama fertility deity was being ‘worshiped’ by Catholics during the Amazon Synod in Rome. (Pachamamas are actually associated with the Inca people of the Andes rather than the Amazon region.)

Yet it seems that some were happy to accept this claim as reality, despite the fact that both indigenous Synod participants and Vatican officials stated that the carvings on display inside the Santa Maria were neither fertility goddesses nor objects of worship.

The social media outrage from US conservatives hostile to Pope Francis has forced the Synod organisers to reiterate the fact that the carvings were merely symbolic of a place, a people, a culture and most importantly; a symbol of life. Indeed, some even refer to the images as Our Lady of the Amazon.

We have all seen that during the Synod, the carvings were taken from the Church and thrown in the Tiber by a young man from Vienna called Alexander Tschugguel.
I do not want to attack this gentleman but rather, try and understand what motivated this devout young Austrian to commit an act that has caused so much hurt to his own brothers and sisters in Christ.

The answer can perhaps be found in a recent interview in which Mr Tschugguel stated that he was simply upholding the First Commandment by removing a pagan idol.

Alexander Tschugguel, who wears traditional dress or ‘tracht’, went on to discuss a range of topics from the ‘globalist agenda’ to the Holy Roman Empire, to medieval castles with moats. He also considers Cardinal Brandmuller and Athanasius Schneider to be heroes, especially Archbishop Schneider whom he identifies as a 'Black Sea German'.

I sense that this is a man who deeply loves his German Catholic heritage. Yet, if the indigenous Amazonian carvings that he threw into the Tiber have nothing to do with Jesus, do any of his cultural traditions?

I say this as a fellow Catholic of German ancestry whose own parish was established by a German priest from Gelsenkirchen called Peter Hilgers who came here during Bismarck's Kulturkampf, or ‘culture struggle’ - a row between the Prussian government and the Catholic Church in the 1870s.

We can manage to create discord between ourselves without national symbols to bring even more division among us.

So next month, when you see Wotan’s Yule springing up near the altar in your parish, spare a thought for our much maligned, indigenous faithful and their own cultural traditions. – and don’t dump the Christmas tree in the nearest river!

22/11/2019

The Day the Church of Scotland changed its position on nuclear weapons

The Very Rev Dr Alan D McDonald reflects on the day the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland changed its position on nuclear weapons. Weekly blog.

I understand that you want me to say a little about the  position of the Church of Scotland on Nuclear Weapons.  Well I know, because I was there when our position  changed! Since 1978, as a young Minister, already  passionate about Nuclear Disarmament, I had always tried  to attend the General Assembly, on Church and Nation  Day, whether as a Commissioner or just a person, sitting  up in the public Gallery.

The highlight for me was the annual debate on Nuclear  Weapons. And, in the end, the Debate always seemed to  come down to two people. The famous George MacLeod of  the Iona Community, and a Church Elder from Elie, in
Fife, Mr G N Warnock, who was a retired Army Colonel.

Every year, George McLeod, a wonderful orator, made a  compelling case about the evil of nuclear weapons. And year after year, the General Assembly politely  listened, and then chose to vote for the deterrent  argument, put forward by Colonel Warnock.

However, at what turned out to be one of MacLeod's last  Assembly appearances, when he was ninety one, at the  end of his passionate speech he put forward a motion  which said: "As of now, the General Assembly declare that no Church  can accede to the use of nuclear weapons to defend any  cause whatever."

As Lord McLeod slowly made his way back to his seat, the Assembly could already see the ramrod figure of Colonel G  N Warnock walking up to the podium. However, from the  start of his speech the Commissioners were hearing  something different.

He said that he had risen, not to  oppose, but to support George MacLeod.

You could have  heard a pin drop, as the retired Colonel, said that for him,  everything had changed that year, 1986, and all because  of Chernobyl. And he went on to say, that if he were still a serving soldier, and was ordered to press the nuclear  button, he would not be prepared to do it, and would shoot himself first.
The Colonel returned to his seat as thunderous applause echoed around the old wooden rafters of the Kirk's  Debating Chamber, and that day in 1986, Lord MacLeod's  motion was carried by a huge majority.

And ever since 1986, that has remained the settled  position of the General Assembly, of the Church of  Scotland. That was why, in 2018 I was able to move the  following Motion, which was adopted unanimously by the  Assembly:

"The General Assembly:

• Reafirm the belief that  possession, use, or threat of Nuclear Weapons is  inherently evil;

• Congratulate the International Campaign  to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, on being awarded the  Nobel Peace Prize 2018;

• Welcome the establishment of an  International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear  Weapons,

• And urge the UK Government to engage with  the Treaty process, as a way for the UK to disarm its  nuclear weapons."

15/11/2019

Encouraging the Language of Nonviolence

Marian Pallister, Pax Christi Scotland chair and Justice & Peace commissioner reflects on the why we need to cut aggressive language out of our day to day lives. Weekly blog.

When a car hurtles past me and three other vehicles just as a timber lorry comes round the blind corner towards us, I sometimes surprise myself with the interesting language that emerges from a folder deep in my brain that I am normally blissfully unaware of.

Where’s it all come from - that level of aggressive language that we encounter and even practise daily? Mainstream and social media are hate-filled. Children use words I never heard till I was an adult and react belligerently in the home, the street and the school – teachers tell me that when children have anger management issues, it’s not unusual to go home bruised and battered.

It’s a sad day when the report of an accident on social media, on a page that aims to help folk negotiate a sometimes hazardous rural route, is greeted with posts that decry the drivers involved, moan about the inconvenience, and suggest the driver must have been a woman or that the person to blame would be riding a motorbike.

All of this when the original post clearly suggests that someone may at best be on their way to hospital in a helicopter and at worst, at least one family could be grieving the loss of a loved one.

We can’t blame it all on aggressive on-line games.

I really don’t think that our senior politicians are playing Fortnite – the online video game in which every character bar the one carrying the first aid kit seems equipped with a deadly weapon. I don’t believe that today’s newspaper subeditors take their inspiration from their Xboxes to write headlines that incite violence against migrants and refugees, or encourage sectarianism and racism.

Violent and aggressive language breeds violence and aggression. When people feel marginalised, patronised, and downright afraid because of the uncertainties in their lives, it is all too easy to play a blame game, encouraged by the words and actions we hear and read.

Pax Christi Scotland became a member of Pax Christi International this year, and our main role (while obviously campaigning against the very existence of nuclear weapons and the proliferation of the arms trade) will be to take the concept of nonviolence into the family, the school, the parish and the wider community. We are already developing resources and planning courses that support Pope Francis and Pax Christi International in mainstreaming nonviolence, in the words of PCI’s co-president Marie Dennis, “…as a spirituality, lifestyle, programme of societal action and a universal ethic”.

In other words, nonviolence isn’t just about seeking peace in a global sense, but seeking to promote dignity and respect in our daily lives. As teacher Roisin King told us at our weekend gathering, when she lets a child know he is loved, respected and cared for, that he is rated with his peers, then he thrives.

And I know my day is better served when I pray for that risk-taking driver than when I let rip with language I shouldn’t know in the first place.

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