Condensation on a Windowpane by Dannie Abse

Found in Dannie Abse's 2010 collection Two for Joy

1

I want to write something simple,

something simple, few adjectives,

ambiguities disallowed.

Something old-fashioned:

a story of Time perhaps

or, more daringly of love.

I want to write something simple

that everyone can understand,

something simple as pure water.

But pure water

is H₂O

and that’s complicated

like steam, like ice, like clouds.

2

My finder squeaks on glass.

I write JOAN

I write DANNIE

Imagine! I’m a love-struck

youth again.

I want to say something

without ambiguity.

Imagine! Me, old-age pensioner

wants to say something

to do with love and Time,

love that’s simple as water.

But long ago we learnt

water is complicated,

as H₂O, is ice, is steam, is cloud.

Our names on the window

begin to fade.

Slowly, slowly.

They weep as they vanish.

The Moment by Dannie Abse

Found in Dannie Abse's 2010 collection Two for Joy

You raise your eyes from the level book

as if deeply listening.  You are further than I call.

Like Eurydice you wear a hurt and absent look,

but I’m gentle for the silence into which you fall so sadly.

What are you thinking? Do you love me?

Suddenly you are not you at all but a ghost

dreaming of a castle to haunt or a heavy garden;

some place eerie, and far from me.  But now a door

is banging outside, so you turn your head surprised.

You speak my name and someone else has died.

Anglican Marriage Rites Edited by Kenneth W. Stevenson

Anglican Marriage Rites: Pt. 71: A Symposium (Joint Liturgical Studies)

As an Alcuin Club member I get these Joint Liturgical Studies as a matter of default and this one has been sat on the shelf for the best part of a year - but I think the timing of reading it now rather than months ago has been something of a bonus as the current focus on marriage created by the Government plans to extend the state definition to include same-sex couples makes fertile ground.

This study does not address the issue of same-sex marriage directly but it highlights a number of aspects in the development of marriage that make redefinition easier.

First and of greatest importance is the clear fact that for most of Christian history "the Church" never claimed to itself the position of sole arbiter of who was and who was not married.  It was only late in the day that the Church began to claim that solemnizing of a marriage was essential (there had been a host of reasons why it had long advocated that it was desirable but these were based on the validity of the un-solemizied marriage).  The bottom line is that you do not become married through the incantation of a set of magic words but through the desire and will of your heart.

State involvement in marriage comes even latter still, and the abolition of common-law marriages and complusory civic registration while allowing the more effective discharge of legal functions and giving a greater protection to parties at the time of divorce are in fact a limitation of the real expression of marriage. (When the discussion gets on to the extension of property rights to cohabiting couples we have gone full circle...)

Those campaigning for same-sex marriage should change the terms of the debate, and rather than campaign 'for' same-sex marriage they should be campaigning for the state recognition of their preexisting married status.

The essays also focuses on the evolution of the marriage service itself, and it shows that during the liturgical revision of the last 40 years the Anglican Communion has muddied the waters of its theology of marriage with changes, some good some bad, being made without a clear over arching message about the nature of marriage to coordinate the changes.

This again strengthens the arm of those in favour of same-sex marriage against those who claim the understanding of marriage is clear, universal, and timeless - all evidence points to none of this triune withstanding scrutiny.

Those making a noise in favour of same-sex marriage sadly do not really get much sympathy from me, their arguments seem weak and self indigent, and those claiming to speak as Christians seem far to ready to enlist secular powers to bully and belittle the Churches when, were they but to educate themselves they would find, their Christian heritage provided them with all the tools they needed. This is not to say that I think those campaigning against a change are any better, perhaps this could be compulsory prior reading for anyone decided to voice an opinion in public.

Biggles Fails to Return by Captain W. E. Johns

Biggles Fails to Return

Biggles makes good company while traveling, this time on the flight (and more importantly perhaps the delay) home from some days in Glasgow.
This time the setting is World War II and the book was first published in 1943 and therefore it was aimed at an audience for whom the war was not yet won.  Some of the background events, like the occupation of the whole of France by German forces must have been happening while Johns was working on the manuscript, and there is almost a pathos about it being in the moment.
Also there is a subtly about the enemy, the action takes place on the ground in enemy territory and yet it seems there are plenty of people falling over themselves to help Biggles and co so that we have to draw the conclusion that the people are distinct from their fascist leaders - this hardly needs saying today but we are travelling back in time to 1943 as both reader and writer and so the strength with which this point is made is encouraging. 


 

Stations of the Cross by Sara Maitland and Chris Gollon

Stations of the Cross

Chris Gollon's painted Stations are troubling and ugly in a way that fits completely with the scenes of the Crucifixion - too many traditional Stations have been come sanitised.

These are sat against Sara Maitland's stories in which one of the witnesses to the Crucifixion reflects on what they saw and what they did, these are amazingly powerful and at times I found myself holding back tears.
They work from biblical starting points and create fully rounded lives, at times they include responses that "the Church" might not like, but real people respond in ways that the Church doesn't like and so this adds to the authenticity.

This is a collection that I will keep close at hand and turn to over the years to come for personal reflection and for use in Church, in fact extracts have already found their way into liturgies for Northern Leg this Holy Week.  

Uncharted by Jon Gower

Uncharted

I read this on flight back from Lisbon, and to be honest it was only confinement that resulted in my finishing it.
To me this is the kind of book that gives "literary" fiction a bad name, it picks up grand themes, of religion, relationship, love, a world dominated by mass media - but fails to say anything about them, I found myself completely unmoved. 

Holy Bones, Holy Dust by Charles Freeman

Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe

Charles Freeman is a sceptic and I am not, therefore there are plenty of times during this book when if the dialogue between reader and author had been transposed from the page to the pub voices would have been raised and pints slammed down on the table.

Having said that I should also be clear that I completely agree with the vast majority of the picture of hypocrisy and self-interested money grabbing that became the trade in relics. But was ever relic a sham? Was ever shrine director lining their own pocket?

We went of an exhibitionat the British Museum, the Treasures of Heaven, in September, and as I reflected then the prayers of the faithful create a spiritual reality which goes beyond the provable (or disprovable) history of the relic.  Just because you can prove a fragment of the True Cross is only 200 years old does not necessary deny its power or its holiness.

As with pilgrimage, yes God is everywhere but to go somewhere else, to travel, is a statement of intent that can often allow an experience of greater depth from the one found in your own front room.  It is not that there are certain places in the world where God is paying more attention to us, but that we have come and framed our minds and bodies to pay more attention to Him.  

Five Go to Mystery Moor by Enid Blyton

Five Go to Mystery Moor (Famous Five)

When rearranging the bookcases a few months ago I found that book 13 of my Famous Five collection had gone missing, a big disaster as I loved the Famous Five as a teenager, and so I kept an eye out and was able to pick up this copy cheap at the Oxfam shop, it is in a much better state than the rest of collection which came from Church Sales.

It is ideal reading for the train, light and engaging, and I still find the Famous Five delightful even through my more mature eyes, even if I am more aware of great escapism they represent, the irony of having have spent a childhood sat at home reading about and wishing I was the sort of person who went of adventures.

 Enid Blyton is often a target for the "liberal" Mafia who attack her for the idolising of a narrow strip of middle class existence, and here the presence of "cardboard cut out" travellers as the villains make this an exhibit for the prosecution - and when the traveller boy that the Five befriend is asked what has greatest wish would be, that his reply is to live in a house does just make you winch.
But here Blyton was only holding a mirror to her contemporary world, and the recent "battle of Dale Farm", or "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" shows that outside a tiny strip of middle class existence forces far more influential than Blyton are keeping the mirror true.