16.11.2015
‘What Happened In Paris Was Evil and Needs to be Named as Such’
“We must not allow the brutality and inhumanity of others to diminish out own Christian understanding of humanity and justice… if we do that then the extremists have won,” the Revd Kevin Brew said in his sermon at a special service of Choral Evensong in St Mary’s Church, Howth, on the Sunday after the Paris attacks (November 15). The special evensong took place as the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral visited the church as part of the cathedral’s Diocesan Music Outreach Project.
Howth is the fourth parish to be visited by the choir. Previously the choir has sung evensong in Kilbride Church near Bray, St Maelruain’s Church in Tallaght and the Church of St John the Baptist in Drumcondra. The project is seeking to build strong and positive relationships with the parish churches of the dioceses.
The Music Department aspires to meet the needs of parish church musicians and is also running a series of training workshops. There is also a choral mentoring scheme for Irish musicians to enable them develop the sightreading skills necessary to pass an audition for the Cathedral Choir.
In his sermon during the service the Rector said the fundamental question people could ask following the Paris attacks was: Where is God in all this?’ “What can faith say in the face of bodies piled up in a Paris theatre? What can faith say to a parent or partner or child of someone lying in a morgue or fighting for their life in an intensive care unit in Paris this morning? There can be no room for platitudes, it must be all part of his plan, all these things happen for a purpose. What happened in Paris was evil and needs to be named as such. To say that God allows these things, to say that God wills these things is nothing short of blasphemy. So where is God, where is faith in all of this?” he asked.
He said he built his thoughts out of the apparent contradiction raised by Dr Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, in his essay ‘On God and Auschwitz’ when he said: “That he was present seemed a blasphemy; that he was absent, even more so.” He said God was not the instrument of evil but present with those who were facing evil. “We are not alone – God travels the road with us, strengthening us, comforting us, encouraging us, listening to our pain, our anger, our distress – this is the God who encounters us in the Psalms, listening to the hurt and pain of his people,” Mr Brew said.
He said that faith had been distorted to justify awful deeds. He spoke of President Michael D Higgins’ poem, ‘The Prophets are Weeping’, penned at the end of last year and inspired by the events in Iraq and Syria and the rise of fundamentalism: “Rumour has it that, The Prophets are weeping, At their texts distorted, The death and destruction, Imposed in their name.”
Expressing concern that people would now be tempted to say that no more refugees should be allowed into Europe, he asked if they should just be abandoned to their fate and suggested that this would mean that the extremists had won.
“One of the key issues that must be addressed in this whole process is how do we engage with and support moderate voices within Islam as they seek to stand up to extremists within their own community. Let us not forget that many of those fleeing the Middle East are members of the Islamic community who have fallen foul of ISIS, whose relatives and community members have been murdered and who have fled for their lives,” he said.
Photo captions:
Top – The Rector of St Mary’s, Howth, the Revd Kevin Brew, and the Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Ian Keatley.
Bottom – The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral outside St Mary’s Church, Howth.
[More photos are available on the Diocesan Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DublinandGlendalough]