Recently Mr GP and I have really enjoyed following the travels of Anglican vicar Peter Owen-Jones in the BBC's Round the World in 80 Faiths. Educated as we both were back in the dark ages (aka the Swinging Seventies), and in my case, at a Church of England school, comparative religion didn't exactly figure on the curriculum. In the realms of multi-faith knowledge I'm entirely self taught. Never mind, this last has helped fill in a few gaps. And atheist and committed Christian both, its provided us with some good talking points. As Mr GP points out, he may not be 'religious' however, he's definitely a spiritual person.
I spotted a good crit of the programme this afternoon.Over at the moot community you can read Ian Mosby's reflections with his telling conclusion:
So it is not surprising, that all over the world, all
sorts of old and new forms of spirituality have arisen in a time of cultural
plurality, and that with out power and control, religion is finding it hard to
compete in the market place when it doesn't have the privilege to dominate.
So we return to why I believe that New Monasticism,
Christian contemplation, and a rhythm of life are so important for new forms of
church in this new context, because it is how we live that matters. The
greatest sadness for me, in all the programmes, is how 'aggressive' the forms
of Christianity are, or where they are deliberately targeting desperate people.
We really do have power issues in many expressions of the Christian
Church, many of which I could never participate in, let alone if I were
de-or-un-churched. We really need to get back into the inspiration game,
and choosing powerlessness as modelled by Francis, Benedict and other Monastics.
Sad but true. Even allowing for editorial bias and selective filming, there were points when I felt torn between throwing a brick at the screen or crawling off behind the nearest sofa in total embarrassment. Sad indeed. Next week's (final) episode features a whistle-stop tour round Europe, and judging by the BBC's blurb I guess there could be some extremely uncomfortable moments.
Yes! Superb programme for what it is - Peter Owen-Jones is such an engaging presenter. (Though I have to say I preferred his "Extreme Pilgrim"!) Did you see the one on the Indian subcontinent? The best yet, IMHO...
Posted by: MikeF | February 16, 2009 at 02:31 PM