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  THE CONVERSION OF ST PAUL The Third Sunday after The Epiphany WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME? It seems rather prescient that Paul Munton should choose to lead a discussion on civil disobedience this coming Tuesday. Civil disobedience is often the consequence of persecution, of subjugation, of the abrogation of human rights, of injustice. There are numerous examples of persecution: Spartacus, The Kett Rebellion, Anti-Slavery movement, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, CND, climate change protests, and the recent violent, deadly suppression of popular protests in Iran. Growing up and living in South Africa, I observed the persecution of black South Africans - the Soweto Riots, poor education opportunities, lack of political rights, poverty, segregation, diminution. Human beings being diminished, ostracised, scapegoated, often with Biblical and theological attempts to justify actions. Persecution persists. How do Greenlanders feel about Trumpian threats? Henry David Thoreau in an 1849 pa...
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A poster on a wall in Ely invoking Civic disobedience.    Our religious mandate to civic disobedience and what that might mean in practical terms. Why do human beings have such big brains? Look at those starlings swooping and wheeling in their murmuration; these birds have tiny brains which are mostly eye, yet they can do everything necessary to find food, choose a mate, build a nest and rear young so perpetuating their species. Our large brains comprise some 86 billion neurons which form 100 trillion connections to each other. It seems probable that we need them to understand and negotiate the complexities of our human social life, including developing language skills more complex than any other species. It takes about 20 years for an individual human to learn about and manage their social life. Our social lives have an objective of maximising the utility of mutual help to be found in communities of human beings whilst avoiding the negative effect of antagonisms, by ma...
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  Foreword to The Manifold Letters . Resolving Ambiguity; King Solomon and Dr Faust. When I was seven years old I was much impressed by a school teacher's story about King Solomon. Here was a man that chose wisdom over all other gifts from God. Perhaps I was drawn to him because Solomon says “..I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad...” God is so pleased by this that he grants him his wish, plus riches and honour and long life. (I Kings 3: 3-15). At the start of Solomon's rule he behaved like a gang leader who ruthlessly eliminates his enemies. His hit man was Benaiah son of Jehoiada who was always “falling upon” people at Solomon's command and it was no good entering the tabernacle, taking hold of “the horns of the altar” to claim sanctuary as Joab had done, Benaiah still “fell upon him and slew him.” Solomon even used a dispute with his elde...
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  An Introduction to T he Manifold Letters. These letters were produced as part of a brilliant project managed by the Rev. Robert and Sarah Van de Weyer. During the Covid-19 pandemic. Letters were written every day for two and a half years by both ordained and lay members of the congregation of St Clement's Church in Cambridge and distributed to others both in the congregation and people outwith St Clement's as Dearly Beloved letters. (DB letters). They dealt with manifold issues including psychological survival during the pandemic, personal stories and experiences of life, philosophy and theology, music, the beauty of creation, wildlife and secular and church politics, the mysteries of the Christian faith and the exigencies of the pursuit of a Christian life. Each letter was accompanied by a photograph all of which can be enlarged by clicking on them. The Rt Rev. Rowan Williams was a contributor for six months whilst he worshiped and officiated at the St Clement's during...
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  Rosa Celeste :  Gustave Doré 's illustration for  Paradiso  Canto 31, where Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven, The Empyrean Introductory Notes for the Discussion Group for St Clement's at Andrew Day's residence on 23 rd February 2024 on the subject of AJ Ayer's statement that: “ If a mystic admits that the object of his vision is something which cannot be described, then he must also admit that he is bound to talk nonsense when he describes it. “ Contemplative Experience. I will use “contemplative” rather than “mystic” in honour of “Mystic Meg” a News of the World sub editor and later astrologer associated with predicting things about National Lottery winners (which I am told, were rarely accurate!) I am going to start with describing some tiny portions of the experiences of contemplatives and will then go on to deal with AJ Ayer's objections. I shall leave a few seconds before I identify each quotation to allow people to think a...
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