Dom Bede at Worth

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES   Dear Mr. President, If you ever get to read this letter, I expect you will consider me a Non-Entity from a foreign country whom you can afford to ignore. And you are right !   Nevertheless, what this Non-Entity has to say is shared by a great many people he knows. When we hear of your plans to build a wall to seal off the “back door” to your country, to use more barbed wire and to send in the Army, all in the cause of repelling the poor who come knocking on your door for relief, we feel it dramatically portrays the shattered nature of western culture and its Christian values, without the provision of anything to replace it. To repel the poor in this way is to reject belief in the brotherhood of humankind which itself depends on the universal fatherhood of God. It makes of you an atheist: no matter how often you may ask God to bless America, or however many “prayer breakfasts” you attend, your actions belie such w

THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD   The Irish abortion referendum result was predictable, but nonetheless   I was surprised   that Ireland showed such a strong cultural shift away from the Catholic Church’s long-standing and unflinching teaching. So where should a Christian stand in this matter ?   Yes, there are complex moral issues involved, such as: ·          Just when does a foetus become a human person ? ·          Is it right that we only give a new human being legal rights from the moment of birth ? ·          Does a woman have an absolute right over the life of the foetus she carries ? ·          Is she answerable for conceiving when she knew she did not want a child ? ·          Does the father have any rights in the matter? ·          And what about duties in respect of parents and the community ? The matter is complex to say the least, and few seem to be aware of the taproot that has fed, and still feeds the divergence between the Catholic Church’s teaching and the pop

“ TWO BODIES” A SERMON PREACHED AT A MEMORIAL MASS    -     21.03.18 We’re all aware of the how the astonishing rush of discoveries and applications in the field of technology is affecting every part of our lives: smart phones, the web, robotics and driverless cars etc. But I wonder if you would agree with me that it has impacted even on our subconscious   lives too, and in a way that makes belief in the non-physical, non-observable, more challenging. And because it is a matter of the subconscious,   we may be largely unaware of what is happening to   us. So today, as we think and pray about Margaret’s life and death, the question arises, “What does the Apostles’ Creed mean when it asks us to believe in the “resurrection of the body ?”   Is this really credible ?   After all it does sound like the fanciful reflections of a primitive people seeking to explain the meaning of their lives. Well, there are two things (among various others) significant for me personally, which

22 nd March 2018 Dear Bloggers, No, I didn’t drop dead ! But you haven’t had anything from me for a few months, because I have been unwell.   However,   I’m now back on an even keel and about to resume my postings which I do hope you will find interesting. Don’t hesitate to respond if you should wish to make a comment !     “Bede at Worth”

THE BBC AND THE COMMON GOOD The BBC’s publication of salaries paid to television and radio performers is an admirable step towards greater transparency, and predictably has produced and will continue to produce much discussion. Surely the injustice of the pay differential between the sexes will at last be dealt with. Then there is the obvious question about the scale of remuneration for people who have become celebrities through their work at the BBC. What does it feel like to wake up in the morning aware that your £1 or £2m package is being paid for by the man in the street through his taxes and the licence fee ? On the other hand if these levels are not paid, will the BBC lose these talented folk ?  And would that outcome be desirable or not ?  It is not my wish to pronounce publicly on these questions, though I have my opinions like everyone else. But I am interested here in how a Christian mind approaches them.  I want to be among the first to salute the BBC for its im

CHEAP GRACE AND DISCIPLESHIP “. . . No one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. . . . “  (Mtt 11, 27-28). So the only means of having contact with God our Father is through Jesus Christ his Son: and that is why Jesus calls us to follow him, to be his Disciples. In the 1930s the German Lutheran Pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced anguish about the survival of Discipleship in his Church. The Nazi’s strategy to emasculate the Church worried him and he foresaw the direction in which Hitler was taking the German people.  His anxiety was intensified by some of his fellow Pastors such as Pastor  Gruner, who declared: “Hitler is the way of the Spirit and the will of God for the German people”. Bonhoeffer reacted robustly: “ We Lutherans have gathered like eagles round the carcass of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison which has killed the life of followin