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11/04/2015
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Andrew Martlew.
Last on
Sat 11 Apr 2015
05:43
麻豆社 Radio 4
Script
Good morning. 聽Many years ago, when I was a young student, I went to a World Council of Churches Summer School in Switzerland. 聽Brilliant time. 聽Learned a lot. 聽And met fellow trainee Priests and Ministers from all over the world 鈥� including some who had never heard of the Church of England.Which was a shock to my English-centred view of the world. 聽How could anyone know nothing about the C of E? 聽The Anglican Communion is worldwide, and the Church of England is at its centre 鈥� how could anyone studying theology know nothing about it?I can still recall the effects of this Copernican revolution. 聽A genuine paradigm shift that took me and my tradition away from the centre of the Christian Universe. 聽Which was actually more painful than it sounds.Not least because of the realisation of my own insularity, the world-view I鈥檇 shared with my fellow Christians as I grew up. 聽Not only does the Christian world not revolve around the Archbishop of Canterbury, there are great swathes of the Church that I still know precious little about.I鈥檝e seen the rock-cut churches of northern Ethiopia. 聽I鈥檝e drunk slivovic with a Serbian Orthodox Priest at 9 o鈥檆lock in the morning. 聽And I鈥檝e prayed with the Armenians before dawn in Jerusalem. 聽And with each encounter, as my horizon has been lifted, I鈥檝e realised how much there is still to learn from my fellow Christians.So I鈥檇 like to offer a prayer this morning in the knowledge that for the members of the Orthodox Churches across the world, 聽today is Holy Saturday 鈥� the day before Easter Day. 聽As we come to the end of Easter week, they are just moving into the great celebration of our shared faith.Lord God of all humanity,your church is a mosaic of different traditions and insights,languages and cultures.Help us to value our differences, learn from our neighbours,and still rejoice in the faith we ourselves have inherited.聽Amen.
Broadcast
- Sat 11 Apr 2015 05:43麻豆社 Radio 4
