Cathcing up on the News
Here in my room at the Program House in Uganda. Looks like rain today, save the Palm trees outside my window one would hardly know I left Seattle. Smoke smell in the air a lot though, not sure of the origin. Every once in a awhile I'll hear an odd bird call - perhaps one of those big ugly storks.
Anyway, check this out: Patriarch Sending Bells to Harvard
Story details may be found here.
One thing that intrigues me is why the Patriarch consecrates bells that presumably will not be used for Church services? Perhpas the ringing of ANY bell may be a sacred thing? Cause us to look heavenward? To perhaps contemplate something sacred? Or maybe it was part of the deal to replace the old bells with EXACT replicas?
Which leads me to this next point. A pragmatist would say that this whole venture is a waste of time and money. Why switch the bells? Why not take the new ones out to the Danilovsky Monastery and call it good?
Well, pragmatists don't make very good romantics either, do they? Girls, stay away from them, you can hear them saying, "Why waste money on flowers that will soon be dead?"
There is something beautiful in the returning of these bells, perhaps something too beautiful for those of us who have not suffered under a spiteful secularist regime to fully appreciate. But I love history and in my mind there is nothing more fantastic, more intense than touching it - literally. A replica doesn't quite do it...I want the real deal. It's almost as if the people who moved and breathed around the object somehow left imprints of themselves in the object and that in someway when we touch them - when we are around them - we have a bit of community with our ancestors. The drama these bells have seen, the joy, the sadness...yes bring them home. A most blessed homecoming for certain.
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Comments
Consecrating a bell is like blessing an icon. In a sense, it makes it complete. Whether they're hung in a church or at Harvard, they're a small piece of creature restored to its Creator.
In Christ,
FrC
If we were pragmatists, why would we do much of what we do? Beauty is always a revelation of God, however, it's never pragmatic.
In Christ,
FrC
While your average Harvard student or professor would pay little attention to or may even laugh at the fact that their new bells have been blessed, I suppose the same may be said of those who watch us and wonder as we stand on that cold dock in Liberty Bay.
Much of Protestantism has fallen victim to pragmatism. And I also think we "moderners" often have trouble seeing past it. I've often blogged in defense of "wasting money" for the cause of beauty. Was it not Judas who scolded the woman for wasting the expensive perfume on Jesus when it could have been sold to help the poor? Something to think about.