Hymnus Eucharisticus & the Creator's Dawn Chorus

Magdalen College Tower

Canadians are well aware that "April is the cruelest month" (T.S. Eliot), or at least it can be. The Spring solstice officially marks the beginning of Spring but even in Southern Ontario we play "snow tire roulette", suspicious that as soon as we change over the tires there will be a blizzard. Even with the effects of climate change we can get a flop of snow that is dismaying.

Because of Earth Day on April 22 and the corresponding Earth Sunday is some denominations we have found ways to embrace our place in creation and to give thanks to the Creator. We did so throughout April in our Trenton UC congregation. 

In parts of Europe May 1st (yesterday) is May Day, acknowledged as the first day of Summer, which is mind-boggling. Summer? Wildflowers are gathered, dancing around a maypole takes place, and bonfires are lit. The origins of these festivals are ancient and pre-Christian. 

Still, there are also "if ya can't beat em, join em" events in Christian churches. Yesterday the choir of Madgalen College in Oxford, England, sang a hymn from the roof of the tower, surely not recommended for those with vertigo. They do so at the crack of dawn as people below listen.

 I'd never heard of this tradition until yesterday but I found the notion enchanting. How wonderful! I decribed it to Ruth, my partner in life, who agreed. She then commented that we are able to listen to our backyard choir of birds, the "dawn chorus", every day and she is correct, as always...or at least most of the time. 

Here is the Wikipedia description of this choral event. There are recordings and videos of the event if you're up for an internet snoop. 

The Hymnus Eucharisticus is a traditional hymn sung by the choir of boy choristers and academical clerks of Magdalen College, Oxford in England, supported by professional stipendary clerks. The choristers are boys from Magdalen College School and the academical clerks are students from Magdalen College at the University. 

The hymn is best known for its role in the events of May Morning, a 500-year-old tradition where the choir sings the hymn from Magdalen Tower at 6 a.m. each year on 1 May. This initiates the annual May Morning celebrations in Oxford. Large crowds gather in the High Street and on Magdalen Bridge to listen. The sound is very faint, although more recently amplification has been used. The crowds then disperse for other celebratory activities such as Morris Dancing. The hymn is also sung from the gallery of the college's Great Hall (the dining room) during important college occasions.

The Creator & the Hope of Spring

1 The spring has come, let all the church be part of it!

The world has changed, and God is at the heart of it!

New light, new day, new colour after winter grey.

New light, new day,

the spring has come, let all the church be part of it!

Voices United 187

A couple of days ago I saw an enthusiastic "bird nerd" report of the first Rose-breasted Grosbeak at one of the banding centres here in Ontario. I wondered is and when we would see these remarkable birds at our feeders (we usually do) and, lo and behold, not one but two males showed up this morning, a first for us.  

We have been roaming around on foot, on bicycles, and in our canoe of late, steeping ourselves in the emerging sights and sounds and even smells of Spring. This is such a hopeful time of the year in Canada, especially since the climate emergency has taken away Winter and replaced it with the Dreary season. 

We've listened to the great choruses of peepers and other frogs. We have exulted in the sight of trilliums and Dutchman's breeches and trout lilies, all wildflowers that tend to be with us briefly, "ephemerals" as they are termed. 

2 The sun is warm, let all God's children play in it!

The world expands, let's spread the Gospel way in it!

New leaf, new thrust, new greening for the love of Christ.

New leaf, new thrust,

the sun is warm, let all God's children play in it!

On a solo cycle along our Bay of Quinte I caught sight of two snappling turtles canoodling. I hadn't realized that there were two until I posted to our family chat and a family member pointed out that I had inadvertently created turtle porn. 

When I was at a Conservation Area last week I came upon a group of excited school kids who told me, a total stranger, all they creatures they had seen. We had the bond of the astonishing gift of Creation. 

I do hope you're able to stop, look and listen during these precious weeks and give thanks to the Creator. 

3 The spring has come, new people are the flowers of it.

Through wind and rain, new life is in the showers of it.

New bud, new shoot, new hope will bear the Spirit's fruit.

New bud, new shoot,

the spring has come, new people are the flowers of it!

Waiting for Shardlake

 I am looking forward to the release of a new series on Disney+ called Shardlake, a period mystery story based on a novel by C.J. Sansom. There are actually seven novels featuring a solicitor named Matthew Shardlake during the turbulent days of the reign of Henry VIII. They are acclaimed for their plots but also the meticulous research of the era by Sansom, who began his working life as a solicitor. The novels have been popular with 3 million copies sold. 

The first of the novels from 2003 is Dissolution and the title refers to the dismantling of monasteries and convents in Britain after Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church. The television series takes us to a monastery where a murder has taken place and Shardlake has been sent to discover what has happened.

This series of novels is well-written and suspenseful at times. They also explore the often arcane and violent realities of religion in 16th century England. Loyalty to one's particular expression of Christianity could result in expulsion from society, exile, even death. I've written about William Tyndale, the Oxford scholar whose translation of the bible into English makes up more than 75% of the King James Bible. Yet Tyndale was forced to flee for his life to Europe because of his efforts and was eventually found by Henry's henchman, strangled to death and his body burned. We think Christianity has been politicized and weaponized today! Shardlake navigates his sleuthing in the midst of these troubling currents. 

I was saddened to read that C.J. Sansom died a few days ago at the age of 71. The debilitation from his cancer made for slow-going in writing his eighth, ultimately unfinished novel. He had plans for subsequent stories set during the reign of Elizabeth I. 

I hope he got to see the series before his death. Bring on Shardlake tomorrow!

Good News about Haida Sovereignty

 

According to my Air Canada app we will be leaving in 50 days for Haida Gwaii, the archipelago of islands about 100 kilometres off the coast of British Columbia. We are both excited and a bit apprehensive about our trip given that we had booked to go in 2020, then again in 2021, both trips kiboshed by COVID. We actually thought this trip wouldn't happen either because of a lack of rental vehicles (a reality on many islands) but we will be there for the Summer Solstice and we do have a junket booked to Hai Gwanaas, the national park only acessible by water or air.

We are very interested in the culture of the Haida Indigenous people whose numbers were greatly reduced by diseases brought by settlers and whose language dwindled dangerously. We have seen and heard of how Haida culture and spirituality have been revived from the embers to illuminate the Nation once again. 

As a retired minister in a denomination that was part of the colonial assault on Indigenous spiritual identity and connection to the land and sea across the country I want to find my way humbly into a greater understanding and respect for this proud culture. I'm not sure if there is a United Church presence on Haida Gwaii and honestly it isn't of particular interest to me. 

You may be aware that the Haida Nation has been involved in a decades-long fight to stop the plundering of the rich forest resources of the islands by companies given cutting rights by the government of British Columbia. This led to confrontations involving police and activists but in the end the Haida prevailed, to a degree, in ways that are now serving as models for Indigenous groups around the world. 

Recently the government of British Columbia entered into an agreement with the Haida Nation regarding sovereignty. This agreement builds on those already formulated and enacted during the past 50 years. Here are excerpts from the release issued by the BC government: 

The Province of B.C. and the Council of the Haida Nation (CHN) stood in HlGaagilda and signed the historic Gaayhllxid • Gíhlagalgang “Rising Tide” Haida Title Lands Agreement, a first-of-its-kind negotiated agreement recognizing Haida Aboriginal title in Haida Gwaii.

Title recognition shifts the ownership and jurisdiction of land from the Crown to the Haida Nation in Crown law. The agreement provides for a staged implementation of the title, creating stability and certainty for all residents of Haida Gwaii, now and for generations to come.

CHN and the Government of B.C. have been working actively since 2021 to formally recognize Haida Aboriginal title in Haida Gwaii. The staged approach reflected in this agreement means that CHN and B.C. can determine in a planned and orderly way how the title will be implemented.

The agreement explicitly protects and maintains private property rights and existing government services and infrastructure in Haida Gwaii, including:

• Private property interests are confirmed and are not affected by this agreement.
• Local governments, public infrastructure, programs and services will continue under current B.C. laws.
• Highways, airports, ferry terminals, health care and schools are not affected.
• Haida Gwaii residents will continue to receive municipal services and pay property taxes in the same way they do today.
• Provincially issued leases, permits and other approvals to use Crown lands and recreational access remain in effect over a several-year transition period, with future management to be negotiated with input from communities, businesses and residents.

Haida citizens voted 95% in favour of the agreement at a special assembly on April 6, 2024. Later this month, B.C. will introduce supporting legislation to formally recognize Haida Aboriginal title in provincial law.

Quick Facts:

• The Council of the Haida Nation has been the governing body for the Haida Nation for 50 years.
• Haida Gwaii is located approximately 100 kilometres west of the northern coast of British Columbia and is a group of more than 200 islands totalling approximately one million hectares (3,750 square miles).
• The Haida have been on Haida Gwaii for millenia.
• The Council of the Haida Nation was formed in 1974 and the Constitution of the Haida Nation was formally adopted in 2003.
• The constitution mandates the CHN to conduct the external affairs of the Haida Nation and to steward the lands and waters of Haida Gwaii on behalf of the Haida Nation, ensuring that the Haida relationship with Haida Gwaii continues in perpetuity.
• The CHN has negotiated and signed agreements with other coastal First Nations, non-governmental organizations and local communities, and continues to work on agreements with both the federal and provincial governments.

Freedom Seders in 2024

 

More than 30 years ago I was in Israel with a group and I had lots of interesting chats with our guide, a woman my age. At one point we discussed the diversity of outlooks on a range of subjects within Israel and in the Jewish diaspora. She shrugged and with a chuckle offered "there is a saying, ten Jews, twelve opinions." 

This has certainly come to the fore since the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel and the subsequent military response by the IDF in Gaza. There are Israeli citizens and lots of Jews who feel that the devastating retribution is justified and some within the radical right would accept the obliteration of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. 

As I noted at the beginning of Passover 2024 a week ago, Jews are gathering around the Seder table and in public places with a variety of outlooks. There are events involving Jews and others for what are being called a Freedom Seders, harking back to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the United States. There were Jews, including the great  rabbi and thinker, Abraham Joshua Heschel, who not only supported civil rights but marched in solidarity with Dr. King. In April 1969, on the first anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jewish and African-American activists came together in Washington, D.C. to share a meal that came to be known as the Freedom Seder.

The Freedom Seders of this past week included a public one that took place in the past 24 hours in Berlin,  Germany. These Jewish protestors reject what they are convinced is the oppression of the Palestinian people who must be liberated, not subjugated. They call on the German government to cease supplying arms to Israel, also a the focus of another such seder in Brooklyn, New York. 

I saw a news clip from London in which an elderly Jewish Holocaust survivor took part in a pro-Palestinian rally and made the connection between persecution of Jews and what is happening in Gaza today. 

We have to realize the complexity of this situation which doesn't lend itself to simplistic "us and them" statements. We can appreciate the willingness of Jews to ask the hard questions about what is unfolding in a deeply troubled part of the world. 

Trouble-makers or Prophets & Visionaries?

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams.

                    Acts 2: 17 NRSVue

“Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble...

John Lewis, civil rights leader 

During the past two weeks we;ve been watching the spread and growth of protests on college and university campuses in the United States. They are responses to the war in Gaza which began after the Hamas terrorist launched brutal attacks on Israili citizens killing 1200 and taking hundreds prisoner. The response by Israel during the past seven months has reduced Gaza to rubble, resulted in 34,000 deaths and bringing hundreds of thousands to the edge of starvation. The protests are about this retributive war and the provision of billions of dollars in aid to the Israeli military by the United States government. While the Biden administration has cautioned the Netanyahu government of Israel about its aggression it has not stopped the misery and death.. 

What has unfolded is fascinating because efforts to end or suppress the protests have only served to deepen the resolve of ther students who are participating. If I read correctly, the first was at the venerable Columbia University but they have spread across the country. In some circumstances police, including riot squads, have been instructed to break up encampments and arrest the young people involved. This hasn't worked, as it rarely does. 

So many thoughts arise as I hear about what is happening. I'm old enough to remember the anti-Vietnam War campus protests in the US. I was a teen and I had cousins old enough for the draft. I saw the news footage of the National Guard shooting and killing protestors at Kent State University. 

I was too young to be aware of the courageous young people who were Freedom Riders in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement, some of whom were murdered. 

Protesting the conventions and the status quo of the establishment is often risky business. Think of Arab Spring and the more recent Iranian protests.  Even when there isn't the threat of violence there can be censure and the possiblity of humiliation. The MeToo movement and Black Lives Matters and even Fridays for Future come to mind. In most instances young people are at the forefront in movements for meaningful societal change. 

I'm also thinking about those who gathered around Jesus, who was no spring chicken when he began his ministry at thirty, but attracted disciples who were likely in their twenties. The energy and passion of youth is key to overcoming to challenging the entropy of the established order, including in religion. 

Will the current protests make a difference? Perhaps not, although these students have decided to stand up and be counted. Are they prophetic or misguided? God only knows. 

Thank God for prophets and visionaries in every age.

Time for a Canadian Arbo(u)r Day?

 

It's not often that I envy the United States of America, especially in the current chaotic climate, although the Grand Canyon is very cool, not to mention the sequoias. And I'm sure that I've never said a positive word about the late, not-so-great President Richard Nixon. Yet today I wish Canada had an Arbor Day, a day to be mindful of trees and to plant them. It was proposed  by a journalist in Nebraska in 1872 as a project to plant trees in that state. Fast forward nearly a century to 1970, the first year of Earth Day, when Nixon established the last Friday of April as Arbor Day. Well done Tricky Dick. 

You'll know by now that I have something of a trees, trees, trees outlook. We have planted ten or so on our suburban lot where there were already a fair number and we don't really have room for more. Watching them grow during the past eleven years in this spot has been satisfying.

At the beginning of this April Earth Month I led worship at Trenton United and during the tree-themed service I noted the hundreds of references to trees in the bible. Something of my enthusiasm must have rubbed off because there are now plans afoot to plant shrubs and trees around the church, including a burning bush (how  biblical!) and a lilac.  TUC folk are doers, God/Creator bless them. 

Here's the question: would we need to add the "u" and  call it Arbour Day if we established one in Canada? It would be a worthwhile way to conclude Earth Month each year.