When famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was in flames in a year ago,the author Ken Follett did interviews through the night speculating about where the fire might have begun and the potential for total destruction. Follett wrote a factual book about Notre Dame having previously created a fictional trology based on the construction of a cathedral in medieval England. That series was set with the backdrop of plague times, curiously enough. Pillars of the Earth was entertaining but I was frustrated by the unrelenting negative portrayal of religion in that era.
I wrote about the service of worship which took place in the battered sanctuary of Notre Dame on Good Friday. The handful of clerics wore white hard hats as a reminder of the restoration work. The April 15th anniversary of the fire last week was marked by the tolling of one of the bells which was in the tower not affected by fire. People flocked to the area around the cathedral to record the bell on their phones.
There has been controversy over the billions of euros committed to the reconstruction of this 800-year-old edifice and the work has been halted by the coronavirus. Despite the ambivalence I feel there is a symbolic power to the image of an enduring place of worship rising from the ashes. I still feel that it would be a tragedy if Notre Dame was not restored.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of church structures, as well as mosques and synagogues and temples, are closed around the world because of COVID-19. While they are physically intact, many of those congregations are uncertain about their future.
We can pray that the day will come that Christ's people will be able to come together once again in gatherings large and small. Perhaps life in community will never be the same again, and we need to be prepared to think the unthinkable. What will abide is the living Christ, resurrected, always with us.
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Read about the Interfaith Earth Day celebration at the National Cathedral in Washington DC yesterday. My Groundling blog
https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2020/04/interfaith-earth-day-celebration.html
I think we will need to transitionto on line faith building efforts .
ReplyDeleteChristianity will only survive if the faith centre is strong - and that will require food for the soul being offered, and intelligent interpretation of scriptures for our times.
And, yes, it is anyone's guess what we will look like after the pandemic is over.
There is something irreplaceable about being physically present to one another for worship and study, and you have faithfully lived that out, Judy. I think you're correct, though, that we're learning about how that "food for the soul" can be provided in other ways. So many of us are connected virtually with loved ones and friends in the midst of physical isolation. And we've been doing so in faith communities as well. Perhaps we're being coaxed into a new blend of opportunities to be the body of Christ.
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