The Daily Telegraph and Catholic Action UK both report on planned protests next Tuesday 19 June outside Westminster Cathedral on the occasion of the performance of Tavener's work setting the 99 names of Allah to music. (See Cathedral in the Eye)
Does anyone have any details - time to meet, what is proposed (Rosary, Litany of the Holy Name...?) I'll be there - any other priests coming?
26 comments:
The Brothers of the Little Oratory wanted to buy tickets and disrupt the concert by shouting the Rosary but I reckon we might end up with a criminal record.
The performance starts at 7.30, and I assume the protesters would want to be there when people go in, and when they come out. More than that I don't(yet) know.
Andrew, I admire your zeal but I think it would be right for me to advise prudence :-)
I'll be there from 7pm. Can I suggest we gather (peacefully) outside the front of the Cathedral, away from the entrance so that we are not "causing an obstruction" and begin the Rosary at 7.30pm, say the Litany of the Holy Name, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Perhaps some other devotions particularly related to the Holy Name of Jesus.
Remember that any silliness will be picked on and reported widely.
Which reminds me - bring cameras, camcorders & cameraphones. If this is reported, we want to be able to tell our side of the story on YouTube.
You didn't think we were actually going to do that, Father?!
;-)
I hear the Latin Mass society maybe there, along with Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.
Fr. Tim,
I know that Catholic protesters don't want to be there all night, but it might be a good idea to repeat the Creed a few times, to remind the people inside the cathedral that God is three persons in one, that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father, and that Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, and on the third day rose again from the dead - Christian beliefs that Islam denies amd which need to be explicitly reaffirmed on this occasion.
Fr Tim,
Sadly not all of us can make it down to London to pray outside this abomination of desolation in the Holy Place. However, I will be, and I urge others to, praying at the time this will be going on. I would recommend the Litany of the Holy Name, the Prayer of Reparation to the Sacred Heart, and the Litany of Saints.
Given that the composer, John Taverner, is Orthodox, has anyone considered approaching the Orthodox hierarchy in the UK regarding this event?
i can't believe they're going to do this concert!i will pray at the same time as those protesting...
Please don't stand too close. I expect some sort of cataclysmic response from Islamic fundamentalists. We don't want you injured by falling masonry.
The Moslems are warming up for their takeover of the Cathedral as a mosque. I just don't understand why Christians so eagerly press the keys into their hands.
I'm so incredibly saddened that the Cathedral is going through with this. I love Westminster Cathedral. It's there that I am nourished with the sacraments. It's there that I first came to appreciate the beauty of holiness. The first time I spent Holy Week there when I first came to London, I was so overcome when the choir started singing Byrd's setting of Civitas Sancti during Palm Sunday communion, it's a moment that I will not forget. I have had the privillege of serving at her altar. The cathedral offers to God, what I consider to be a most worthy and fitting liturgy, a true sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Obvious by the long lines at her confessionals, her priests daily reconcile man with God. Her choir is the finest in the land, and the finest in the Catholic world. No other choir can quite pull off the mystical fervor with the same panache as the celebrated Westminster Cathedral Choir.
That they have decided to go through with this saddens me - a Catholic who was calls an Islamic country his home - immensely. It seems almost a slap in the face for what us Christians who come from countries where Islam is the state religion go through everyday, where even at schools originally set up as mission schools under British colonial rule, are now forced to instruct their children in the Muslim religion with religious teachers provided for these schools by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. I know - I learnt Islamic Religious Knowledge in a school named after the patron saint of England. When there are people I know, my own friends and family, struggle to practice their faith and are discriminated because of it under the banner of those who chant the very same 99 Names of Allah, I can't quite express what I feel about the Cathedral which I love, which brings me closer to Christ every week, chanting the very same thing.
Tuesday, 19th June is the day I receive my results as to whether or not I will have qualified for as a doctor. It is results day for my medical school. It will be, I pray, a day of much rejoicing on my part. But it will be tinged with sadness as well no doubt. I will do my best to be there that evening in support of my Christ, the Son of God, in support of the religion founded by him, the Catholic religion, and in solidarity with all Christians living under the rule of Islam. I hope others will do the same.
If HRH is attending, there will be a lot of security around and possibly press. Crucial therefore for the protest to be quiet and dignified. Also, some of the people attending the concert may never before have set foot in a Catholic church, and they shouldn't feel intimidated. It's not their fault. And who knows how the prayerful atmosphere of the place may affect them?
Yes, a quiet, prayerful witness is what we need. Nobody should feel "intimidated" by that although doubtless some people will try to claim that they are. That is why we also need cameras and camcorders so that the truth can be clearly seen.
So - all down to Westminsteristan this week, then? I cannot fathom WHY this venue was chosen for Tavener's new work ....
How about a sign saying the 100th name of Allah is Jesus Christ!
Dear Fr Tim and others planning a vigil,
I recognise that this concert is controversial, but do you not think that complaining throught the proper channels in private would be more prudent than a public (albeit peaceful and prayerful) protest? A vigil would be scandalous in itself, regardless of whether the concert is.
God bless.
David Howell
David - I am sorry but we get nowhere by complaining through the proper channels. The result is polite and non-committal letters.
A peaceful and prayerful vigil will not, in my view, give scandal but will give hope to many Catholics who are scandalised by the singing of the names of Allah in a major Catholic Cathedral.
I'm sorry but this is a musical performance NOT an attempt to convert our beloved cathedral into a mosque.
I do hope to be at the Cathedral. All catholics who are able should be there, peacefully to show Our Lord that we love and reverence His name. There must be so many places more appropriate for this new work to have been heard. A mosque should hae been the first choice, surely.
If we fail to do what sadly those in charge of the Cathedral should have recognised as their duty, then
we are wrong. I resent most strongly the media and those within the Church who insist that such defence of the faith is only shown by 'traditionalist' catholics. We are just catholics who have the witness of those marvellous men and women who kept the faith for us in this country through torture and death. It should be our duty to quietly show that this 'concert' in God's house is mistaken.
This sacrilege needs to be stopped immediately and at all costs.
As St Paul says;" Bear not the yoke together with unbelievers, for what participation has justice with unjustice? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?"
Soldiers of Christ, our God and our Saviour, shake yourselves and rise up for battle. The ennemy is too close.
According to Abdal Hakim Murad, the Cambridge academic Tim Winter, the recitation of the 99 most beautiful names of Allah is a liturgical office, albeit one not often encountered in the usual mosque cycle of prayers-Salaat. Given the prayerful nature of this work by the heterodox, not Orthodox, composer John Tavener and its connexion with the Gnostic/Sufic tradition as exemplified in the writings of Fritjof Shuon the decision to allow the performance of this work in a Catholic church constitutes not simply a scandal but an act of general/tacit apostasy by the administration and clergy of Westminster Cathedral. May God have mercy on their souls.
I have e mailed Benedict 16 and also Cardinal . Mgr Langham replied to latter, claiming that since we all worshipped the Abrahamic god and Jp2 hade set a precedent here, it was kosher. I pointed out in reply that there are referecnes to a number of gods in the Quran,but that "ilah" is the word for "god" throughout the Quran. After the stone Buddha on the Assisi altar, I added, it was not exactly de fide to follow the late Pontiff's indifferentism.
Thanks Fr. Tim. I guess my underlying point is that if you take approriate action and that fails, then you should not take unappropriate action. Mother Teresa said something like "God wants us to be faithful, not to necessarily succeed."
David Howell
I disagree that the Prayer Vigil was inappropriate. I consider that it was an entirely appropriate response to the singing of the names of Allah in the Cathedral of the Precious Blood.
Blessed Teresa's comment applies - we did not succeed in stopping the concert or in convincing any of those who were responsible for it that it was a misguided act. However people gathered to pray and sing and witness to our faith in the Triune God.
hhm i agree with some people but then i disagree
the allah protest?
fell i was just doing reserch for homework and srumbled across this sight anyway the allah protest can anyone tell me more about what st benedict pinned to the church it was somewhere between 1657 or 1669
Anon - the 95 (not 99) theses were said to have been pinned to the Castle Church at Wittemburg by Martin Luther in 1517. He was protesting against what he saw as abuses in the Catholic Church. This was a symbolic action at the start of the Reformation which split the Christian Church in the West
Here is a link to the Wikipedia article on Martin Luther.
(St Benedict was the founder of Western monasticism and lived a thousand years earlier.)
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