Beauty: a response to crisis
CONSIDER these two scenarios: An elderly widow in Northern Ireland, who is in her 90s, is nearing the end of her life and is visited by her daughter and son-in-law. The widow expresses the desire to die peacefully in her sleep at home with her only daughter beside her. The problem is that the daughter lives in Germany. What does she do?
CONSIDER these two scenarios:
An elderly widow in Northern Ireland, who is in her 90s, is nearing the end of her life and is visited by her daughter and son-in-law. The widow expresses the desire to die peacefully in her sleep at home with her only daughter beside her. The problem is that the daughter lives in Germany. What does she do?
The Church of Ireland experiences a significant loss of membership over the course of a couple of decades. That loss is compounded by a global pandemic which forces churches to close for months at a time. How does the church respond?
What is the connection between these two stories? Apparently nothing at all. Both scenarios describe a crisis of some kind, each requiring important decisions to be made. A crisis can produce knee- jerk reactions or it can offer an opportunity to take stock and re- examine priorities and the ways in which decisions can be made. In what follows I am going to argue that one way of responding - rather than reacting - to crisis is to consider beauty. This may sound absurd when there are potentially huge implications at stake, but maybe the theatre of the absurd is an apt way of describing God’s action in our world.
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Robin Stockitt
a noted theological writer, until recently lectured at the C of I Theological Institute and was rector of Donagheady, diocese of Derry.