It’s the first time I’ve sung in a choir since school days. And I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Felicity and I joined the choir linked with our church just over a year ago; our most recent concert was in a beautiful yet troubled setting. Ewenni Priory is a hidden gem of a place just outside Bridgend. The concert took place in what would have been the small nave of the priory church. With its enormous Norman pillars and its arched Norman doors, and its beautiful white-washed walls, it is a wonderfully atmospheric place.
And yet.
As you approach the priory church you first see the fortifications that offered it protection when first it was built. It is effectively Bridgend’s sixth Norman castle. The ruins of each are impressive. But they are a reminder of troubled times. There was a lot of resistance in Wales to the onward march of the Normans. But as the castles demonstrate, the Normans were here to stay. And in this fortified priory it feels as if they were weaponizing religion. ‘You’re going to follow our ways, our laws, our language and our religion,’ seems to be the message.
And so I had mixed feelings. In the event, I found the concert most moving, not least as it came to an end. A beautiful setting of the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:22-27) by our conductor, Matthew Nash, was followed by John Rutter’s Gaelic Blessing and then we finished with a haunting Welsh piece. To wonderful music composed by Eric Jones, we sang words by one of Wales’s finest twentieth century poets, Waldo Wiilliams, Y Tangnefyddwyr, The Peacemakers. The recurring refrain takes up the words of the beatitude, Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. A Quaker, Waldo’s poem was a response to the devastating bombing of Swansea. (Waldo Williams, the peacemakers, parallel translations by Tony Conran, y Lolfa, 2023)
That very evening, news had come through yet again of the bombing of Gaza. The horror of war in much of my life has been devastating. But this is the first time, I have ever witnessed such devastating bombing of a population of 2,000,000 where everyone has been fenced in for years and years and none of the women, children, elderly people is allowed to flee. As Christmas approaches and our minds turn to Bethlehem, I will once again be standing alongside our Christian brothers and sisters in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon through Embrace the Middle East (www.embraceme.org) and through Bethlehem Bible College (www.bethbc.edu).
I couldn’t help but find Waldo’s words so moving. There is no such thing as ‘nation bad’ or ‘nation good’ – that’s simply fantasy. Freedom is to be had in Christ’s light. But with what seems like a world ablaze where can that light be seen? What a question I found myself singing. There was an inspiration in those words too. It is to be found where we stand by the community of all peoples in the world of God’s creation and take seriously not only that beatitude, but, as our Christian brothers and sisters in Bethlehem have been telling us, another one too.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice for they will be filled.
Richard Cleaves
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