He ascended into heaven

Pietro Perugino 1496-98 The Ascension of Christ

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11

Today's top story

I am not a soccer fan, nevertheless I understand why so many fans are wrapped-up in the 'beautiful game' which allows a degree of escapism from the trials of life but I despair that it dominates the news when matters of substance affecting the lives of people should make the headlines. 

Having endured the extended deference to Sir Alex Ferguson's impending retirement at lunch-time I thought that gesticulating George may have offered a more balanced presentation on the BBC's News at Six, but no, it was Sir Alex Ferguson's retiremant again. Soccer is portrayed as the beautiful game despite the disgusting example of over-paid players spreading germs not only by constantly spitting but by evacuating their nasal cavities onto the pitch, a habit that has become the norm along with having to drink excessive amounts of water at every conceivable opportunity. So as far as I am concerned the less exposure the better.

Normalisation was also the process highlighted in today's second story, the State opening of Parliament. Yesterday we absorbed the news that Charles would represent the Queen at the Commonwealth Conference in gesticulating George's home country of Sri Lanka and that Charles would have a more prominent role in future so here he was with Camilla his former mistress  being prepared to act as consort despite all the denials that accompanied their establishment as a couple after the death of Princess Diana, rather like the denials that accompanied the appointment of women priests then bishops - just give it time!

Afterwards came reports of abduction, murder and abuse with the obligatory gut-churning statements before what appeared to be almost an afterthought when some time was given at the end of the bulletin to the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous campaign of WW2 which ensured our survival and enabled us to watch events unfold now as a free country, sadly in decline, not through war but through total indifference.

Thank God for all those who gave their lives so that we are free to endure the trivia that has become all important today.

Two wrongs make a right - eventually!

Bevin Boys - from BBC Wales History

Members of the Irish Defence Forces during the Second World War. (© UTV)

Two images, both of sacrifice unrecognised, until now. 

The 'Bevin Boys' had a long struggle to be recognised for their contribution to the war effort. Their story is told here. Personally I would have preferred to take my chances with the enemy than work underground, a story I recall hearing from others. 

Less familiar - ignorance would be a better description - is the story of the thousands of Irish soldiers who joined the British Army only to be branded as 'deserters' and those who returned home denied their civil rights. For them a long overdue pardon and our grateful thanks for the undeserved misery they endured.

The beauty of Orthodoxy

A very happy and blessed Easter to all my Orthodox readers.

Dialogue of death

Telegraph: "Yes, those are real skulls" (Photo: CNS)

Recent news articles in the aftermath of the Boston bombings suggest, if not a willful blindness, then a worrying degree of myopia in dialogue with Islam. Damian Thompson carries this account, "Martyred for Christ: 800 victims of Islamic violence who will become saints this month" describing the cathedral of Otranto in southern Italy which is decorated with the skulls of 800 Christian townsfolk beheaded by Ottoman soldiers in 1480. The killings go on.

The Religion & Ethics Blog carries a dialogue on Muslim Antiterrorism in which it is claimed that online predators "misinterpret the religion [Islam] to give it a violent ideology". Vatican Radio carries a report here on Islam and Christianity in Europe. Dialogue is fine; it is praiseworthy that a solution is being sought but it does not address the real problem which is a militant ideology which conflicts with Christianity. Read about it HERE in Death to Churches Under Islam: A Study of the Coptic Church.

Where Muslims are in a minority they are happy to talk while they build bigger and grander mosques. At the same time others are busy injecting a Muslim way of life into communities. Meanwhile in countries where they are in the majority churches are being torn down and Christians persecuted and killed for being Christians. Read here and here how the 'Arab spring' has given way to a Christian winter. Muslim Persecution of Christians continues around the world while in Great Britain we surrender the Christian faith at the earliest opportunity validating other faiths to be 'inclusive' as the Rt Rev John Pritchard put it in 2011 with regard to Church of England schools. Close on his heels came the Rt Rev Nick Baines with the view: Church of England schools are established primarily for the communities they are located in. They are inclusive and serve equally those who are of the Christian faith, of other faiths and of no faith. - "Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man"!

Church and State appear to be oblivious to what is going on in the world around us. Here is query from a Muslim asking, 'is it OK to teach in a catholic school' with 'the Ruling on teaching in a Christian school' given by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid whom I take to be the same as the person giving his views here. In any event, in Saudi Arabia the situation is dealt with simply by the state, Christian churches are banned! Meanwhile we yield more and more ground validating an ideology that is contrary to the Christian belief that there is only one way to the Father.

The changing face of Anglican clergy

As another woman is appointed to a senior post in the Church of England the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Christopher Hill, said "Dean Gwilliams stood out from the rest"! 

No gold jewelry in evidence but the hair style must have afforded plenty of opportunity to demonstrate the unfading beauty of the inner self.

How has immigration changed Britain?

 From BBC News Politics 30 April 2013

"The BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson visits Peterborough to find out how immigration has changed Britain.

The former market town in Cambridgeshire, now a city, used to be "very English and very white", he says, but in the last decade 24,000 immigrants have arrived.

He meets a number of locals, including one man who had arrived in Peterborough only the day before.

Second generation immigrant, Karam, said his father - a Sikh who moved to Peterborough from the Punjab years ago - would be "shocked" by the city today and he claimed many new immigrants "don't mix in".

Nick Robinson's film is one of four in The Editors, BBC One at 23:25 BST on Monday 29 April and afterwards on the BBC iPlayer."

Politicians have suddenly woken up to the fact that people have legitimate concerns about immigration, succinctly expressed in this BBC News item. The subject is Peterborough where we are told that one in eight of the population is an immigrant, one fifth were born abroad and ten per cent of households speak no English. It could be any number of towns and cities where integration has failed and, as indicated in the film, indigenous populations feel like foreigners in their own land, especially the elderly who have seen their environment change completely. A 'Google Maps' image of English Street where part of the film was shot highlights a constant problem, that of parking where some appear to be above the law. Perhaps the motorists in this screen shot all have blue badges but that is not my experience as I struggle to find somewhere to park while others simply please themselves. 

Also mentioned in the film was the problem of schools where English is no longer the first language. Recently the Mail reported: "Anglican school where 75% of the pupils are Muslim drops Christian hymns from assemblies". Where is the sense in all this?