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Editorial:
Doing what it says on the tin Comment:
Stat crux dum volvitur orbis p.s. Seeing red and feeling blue The
elusiveness of trust on the ethnic frontier Beliefs,
values and spirituality Citizenship Creating
Community Interview
with Jose & Marizete Lara: Laboratory for mission Transforming
Culture That's
not fair! Review:
A Heart to Listen Review:
How to Detox your Spiritual Life in 40 Days Review:
Praying in Exile |
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COMMENT: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis ‘For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.’ Colossians 1:19-20 THERE WAS an excellent programme on television on Good Friday morning, entitled ‘Nailing the Cross’. In it, writer Rhidian Brook, went in search of the meaning of the cross in the 21st century. He began at a place very familiar to me – Peterborough Cathedral. For him, it was where, 14 years ago, he was particularly moved by a vision of the cross. For me, it was the high house of lofty worship that summoned us for the beginning and end of school terms. Until recently, a striking crucifix — a red cross holding the gaunt, gilt image of Christ — hung from the ceiling of the cathedral. At its foot were some words in Latin which I often read and yet never took in. On Good Friday morning I discovered what they were and what they meant: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis. ‘The cross stands while the world revolves.’ A little research (after all, it is my job) has shown me that this, in fact, was the motto of the Carthusian monks back in the 11th century and that it might also be rendered: The cross stands in a changing world. It amused me to think that, in a world which has changed so much, some hermits a millennium past used pretty much the same strap-line as we have adopted at the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland. But I was also encouraged and challenged that we stood in a great tradition, indeed the greatest. For whether it be the time of Paul, writing 2000 years ago, the Carthusians, living 1000 years ago, or us, alive now, the cross and its powerful message of the reconciliation of all things to God through Christ has stood unchanged in a changing world. And it has always been the job of Christ’s followers, from whichever section or cycle of this revolving orb, to point to the eternal message of the cross, the heart of our biblical faith. The cross in Peterborough Cathedral was taken down in 1999 in order for the roof to be repaired. To date, it is still not back up. Instead of rising above all-comers, it currently lies in a side aisle, awaiting a decision on its future. Rhidian Brook pertinently suggested how symbolic this was for our society. Where many once looked up to the cross, however much or little they understood its message, it now finds itself sidelined, with no one quite sure what to do with it. We have work to do. As ever, we need to hold high the message of the cross, demonstrating how it stands in and for our time and place, as it ever has. This is the task of the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland – Biblical faith for a changing world. BEN WALKER is Research Co-ordinator at the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland. |
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