Anticipation

Today is Friday, 10 January 2025. Kia ora! Happy New Year!

We are gradually getting back into the swing of things. On Wednesday I met an old friend for coffee at our local café: judging by the number of people there, and the fact it was cold and wet, many others were relieved to get out of the house and meet at the local – café. We had a lovely catchup: it was good to talk about new granddaughters, studying, travelling and so on.

Yesterday JD and I went to see Conclave at the Lighthouse Cinema in Pauatahanui. While there we encountered an older relation, whom we hadn’t seen for years, and her son who was visiting from Ireland. There was another couple there who were distantly related too. They’re all Catholic, and JD was raised Catholic, so while I had many issues with the film I kept them to myself while we were there!

It’s a good film, I guess, and well acted; the costumes (of the men) are amazing. I probably want to read Robert Harris’ book on which it’s based. But the sound was far too loud; the sung music, while attractive, was not well presented (balance? timing? Integration? Sound?); it could have been wonderful, of course.  The Joseph Fiennes character spoke about the great sin of certainty, without putting it in any kind of context. I remember a conversation I had years ago with a Catholic friend who claimed that we don’t really know what happens after death. While that is true on some levels, I am quite certain about my faith and that the afterlife will be a happy, glorious experience, where there will be no more sorrow or weeping.

Another of the things that really frustrated me was the absence of Truth or Grace (Jesus was “full of grace and truth”, John 1: 14), or the Holy Spirit, although there were prayers apparently.  But it seemed to be a very human interaction, with no spiritually other than that shown by the Cardinal from Kabul (he had other secrets, too, of course!).  Spirituality was absent, it seemed. 

Another thing that so annoyed me was the artificiality of the situation. While the cardinals are following arcane rituals (like the English Queen’s death, or the coronation of King Charles III), this ritual (which purported to be in the Sistine Chapel, but was not – I was there recently!), represented elderly celibate men, no women or children. The cardinals wear ornate and colourful robes – the women are dressed all in black, as they serve the men. While this difference and lack of appreciation of what women do is a cause of severe frustration amongst Catholica women, the church seems loth to do anything about it.  The Conclave does not represent human family life at all. And there seemed to be no place given to leadership qualities, humility, or spirituality at all. Rather it seemed to be about what skeletons you may have in your past, and whether you hold liberal values or hark back to the past (which was better, or worse, depending on your point of view. Tommaso loses his temper when trying to open the plastic bag containing toiletries in the bathroom of his accommodation (private hotel? Former monastery?). Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. One wondered just where these guys had learnt these values, and what unnatural lives they live.  They did not look as though they have inner peace. Yet any television appearance by the Pope is held in such reverence. So, a film that was nice to look at, but frustrating on many levels. As to the late Pope’s funeral, there was nothing! But after his death I was surprised that there was not more reverence shown for his body.  It seemed to be rather roughly handled, to the background noise of what sounded like a heartbeat! But the dead Pope’s heart was no longer beating. Very strange.

This morning I went to a Memorial Service for an elderly woman that had been part of my Thursday morning singing group for several years, until Covid and age put an end to her coming. Only two of us from the Choir were there. She had passed away a few days before Christmas, and a private cremation had been held, so this was like a funeral service but with no coffin or body.  It was held in the Lychgate Chapel in Johnsonville.

Although this was a funeral service, there were no texts or hymns or prayers.  Someone quoted some verses from 1 Corinthians 11: 4-7; and there were songs played; it would have been nice if our Choir could have sung “Mull of Kintyre”), but that was not to be.  I enjoyed speaking to Ngaire at our singing sessions in Khandallah. We shared interests in our education, teaching, and our families, as well as sharing school-girl Latin, which has never left us. Ngaire was always cheerful and upbeat. I was more than 20 years younger than her, but we spoke as though there were no age difference, and we shared the same concerns and values. I thought about Tom Holland’s book Dominion, about Jesus’ crucifixion by the Romans, and how many things subsequently are seen in the context of Judaeo-Christian values.

JD and I need to go shopping again – at New World in Thorndon. There are now bike lanes on the streets where we enter and exit.  However I’ve yet to see a single bike using the bike lane. While I have sympathies for bikers, there is enormous frustration at the loss of carparks, and the general lack of safety for pedestrians. I wouldn’t mind so much if we saw these bike lanes in use, but no, it hasn’t happened yet.

In the US the crazy continues, as one wakes up each day to learn the latest online comment from President-elect Trump and Elon Musk. One tries to stay aloof, but really one cannot. Former President Jimmy Carter is being laid to rest – a huge contrast in decency and Christian goodness. But as Ngaire showed, anyone can be skeptical about Christianity, but be a good, cheerful person. You don’t have to be a Christian, but it helps! She was said to be a “sceptic”, but as one of her granddaughters said, she lived by the values of 1 Corinthians 11, and the Ten Commandments.

It’s now Sunday 12 January.

I’ve read two rave reviews of the film Conclave, in Saturday’s The Post and in the latest Listener.  Neither of them mentions any of my reservations!  But I’ve been listening to the audiobook on my phone, and it does tell a more human Christian story, I think. Perhaps I need to see the film again.

Discussions over the recent presidential election in the US continue. Most former Republicans, including most at the Bulwark, argue about what the Democrats did wrong. Of course, if Harris had won, they’d be crowing about their successful platform. The Dems are just too nice, they claim. Well, that’s the point, isn’t it?  On a Deadline Whitehouse report I watched on YouTube, after Trump’s sentencing on his 34 felony counts, Mark Elias claimed that the majority of Americans had voted against the rule of law.  While there are many flaws in the American legal system, it is a pretty useful rule of thumb that the law matters, that there are laws and procedures, the “mores” of any society, which, funnily enough, are based around the Ten Commandments. And yet Trump’s proposed heads of the law, Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, already are known to have “enemies lists” of people they intend to prosecute – people who have not broken the law.

Having said that, in his podcast yesterday Tim Miller quoted Ephesians 6:4-7 when talking to Amanda Carpenter, saying how Catholics tend not to quote the Bibel, but he did, in relation to Trump’s recent (non) sentencing. This text is about putting on the panoply of God to resist evil.  I’m reminded that this New York court case, there Trump was convicted of 34 felonies, was the trial least likely to succeed, or make any difference, to Trump’s lack of accountability. In Biden’s term as president, this was the only trial of Trump that went ahead. And in my mind it was very significant.  It’s unlikely that there will be future trials, since he’s already 78 years old, and the Supreme Court has granted him immunity for anything he does as president.  This morning I hear that Special Counsel Jack Smith has resigned from the Justice Department.

In the meantime, fires continue to rage in Los Angeles. Although this large city is widely spread out, the devastation of suburban areas as well (Sunset Boulevard) is just mind-blowing. Now a few days on the devastation is more apparent, while new fires have started and a new evacuation order went out yesterday.  It must be heartbreaking to lose your home, no matter how much money you have.  Electric cars won’t solve the problem of wildfires out of control.

It’s now Sunday 19 January. Yesterday and Friday were quite fine and hot here; but today it’s a little cooler. This morning we were supposed to go to a service at St Ninian’s Uniting Parish church in Newcombe Crescent, Karori. Since it was fine I went, although I agonised over what to wear that would be warm enough. In the event there was a very good turnout, of mainly older people, and no children. St Ninian’s was joined by worshippers from St Anselm (Makara Road, Karori), Ngaio Union Church, Khandallah Presbyterian Church and Johnsonville Uniting. 

It was a very strange service. While I appreciate that every (Presbyterian/Uniting) church does things a bit differently, I was quite unprepared for this morning’s service. We watched a video clip about the Holocaust, and then about Jane Haining, who was a Scottish missionary who worked and stayed in Hungary, and was arrested with Hungarian Jews and died at Auschwitz right at the end of the war. After these we were encouraged to get into groups, turning our chairs around, and discuss the choices this person had made, and what we would have done. Then there was a text from the beginning of Exodus, about two Hebrew midwives being ordered by Pharaoh to kill the baby boys. We spoke about that too. I remembered that when Jesus was born, Herod ordered that the baby boys be killed. The there was a text from Mark’s Gospel about not hurting children, and about it being better to enter Heaven maimed than enduring the unending fire of Hell as a complete person. We were encouraged to discuss this, too. Then there was a short Reflection by the minister. 

The minister did not talk about the desperate situation in Gaza, although two people in my group did mention it. He spoke about Trump’s election and inauguration.  I felt a bit let down by all this: I hope to be uplifted when I go to church, and get relief from the dreadful things that have happened, and are happening, and probably going to happen, in the world.  It strikes me too that this was all rather backward looking (apart from Trump’s second term as US President); surely we should be forward looking, while acknowledging the past. I guess we would hope to choose to do good things, and help the least and the lost.

And that wasn’t all. The minister showed another clip – the trailer for the movie “One Life” starring Antony Hopkins. This movie is a true story about Nicholas Hinton’s (the character played by Hopkins as an old man) rescue of several hundred Jewish children from Czechoslovakia in 1938, before the Second World war broke out. I have seen this movie, and I found it very moving.

In America, liberals are nervously awaiting Trump’s inauguration on Monday (that will be Tuesday here).  It’s the Apocalypse, said Ben Wittes, one not usually given to exaggeration.

In Israel a ceasefire has been agreed, and ratified by the Israeli Parliament. Between Hamas and Israel, expected to include the release of the remaining hostages.  Will it hold?  Will the hostages still be alive?  What will happen next?

In Ukraine two North Koreans have been captured wearing Russian uniforms and pretending to be Russian. The brutality continues.

In the US, senate hearings have been underway for the last week for some of Trump’s picks to hold cabinet positions.  In the Pete Hegseth hearing, he was heard to say that he wanted to bring a warrior mentality to the troops. Amongst other things he said, that is so very alarming. NZ troops have been effectively employed as peace-keepers, in the Pacific Ocean.

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.