My little Gnudren,
At Old Gnu’s Church the incumbent is leaving to become Dean of Westminster Abbey. No doubt, there was a scrupulous selection process that led to his appointment. He is a good man. We are very happy for him but sad to lose him.
One of the mysteries of life for Gnu and many of us is how on earth we got to where we did. Some people think they did it all by themselves and that they are ‘self-made’ persons.
Talking of selection processes, think for a moment of poor old Matthias. He was the one on whom the lot fell. Was it very unspiritual of the Apostles to leave it to the luck of the draw? Maybe they made the process more Christian by praying about it. And then they drew the names out of a hat so to speak, and the lot fell on him.
The leaders [Cardinals] of the Roman Catholic Church meet behind closed doors and in absolute secrecy when they pick a new Pope. They are literally locked up with a key, and are not allowed to leave until they have let off white smoke. Black smoke will not do.
This is a not sign that the Cardinals have had enough and that they wish to surrender, but that they have elected a new leader and wish to be let out. Could someone please unlock the door!
When an Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed, the hierarchy of the C of E makes its choice and then has to submit the name of their chosen person and the name of another appointable candidate to the Prime Minister who stands in for the Queen, the head of the Church of England. As a rule he/she doesn’t let off any smoke when a decision has been made.
The Coptic church also has a scrupulously thorough process. But it’s a bit more public. Names are put forward from every diocese of the church. They are then whittled down to three. Then they have a big service in St. Mark’s Cathedral Cairo. The names of the three candidates are put into a sort of covered glass container. (You can watch it on You-Tube). They choose a five-year-old from the gathered congregation to pick out one of the names. The child is blindfolded. This is a precaution against the child being exceptionally bright, literate and having an opinion of her/his own. The process could come a cropper if the 5-year-old is both literate and has bionic vision, and well versed in church politics. The person drawn out of the container becomes their new Patriarch [Pope] of the Coptic Church which has between 12 and 18 million members worldwide. I’m sorry about the vast margin of possibilities in these numbers, but thus spake Mr. Waki Pedia and he knows more than Old Gnu.
This is the present Patriarch, Tawadros II. He was drawn out of the hat on 18th November 2012.
No one is locked up, no smoke, no name submitted to behind closed doors to the prime minister, all transparently clear – ‘bloomin’ woonderful’ as they say oop north.
Old Gnu remembers wondering when he was 5 years old why he was who he was, and why he wasn’t someone else. So maybe a five-year-old seems an appropriate person to determine who the next Patriarch is of the Coptic Church.
This is a conundrum that even now surfaces into Gnu’s consciousness as he reflects on his affluent lifestyle. He finds it a continually source of wonderment that he was appointed to be the organist of the biggest Church in Bristol when he couldn’t play the organ and that he has a big fat pension, and many other things besides. His wonderment is usually brought to an end when Mrs. Gnu tells him to stop sitting around wondering, and to get on with washing up and tidying the kitchen.
And finally, let me remind you one of Frankenstein’s most well-known and often quoted statements, … perhaps it was Einstein … you know, the one who discovered he had relatives … (Gnu had to give up Physics at school when he was 14):
There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.
His statement implies a certain humbility and an acknowledgement of a givenness about life for which we can take no credit.
Nevertheless, if you are devastatingly poor it’s not so easy to sit around in wonderment like Old Gnu. Instead you wonder why life has dealt you such a rotten deal and why your children die for lack of basic food and medicines.
Old Gnu remembers the time when he had a baby Gnu sitting in a high chair and a toddler Gnu at table in front of whom he was able to put food and watch them eat and chat away. He then recalled his childhood days and witnessing the abject poverty of parents who couldn’t feed their children and resorted to begging. The baby Gnu’s wondered why there were tears in Daddy Gnu’s eyes.
Perhaps Old Gnu had just better do the washing up. He’s becoming soppy and emotional in his old age and that really isn’t very becoming for an Anglican.
Vetus Pater Gnu
Academiae Musicorum et Theologia
Turris LA
XXVIII Mense October MMXIX