Post by guillaume on Feb 23, 2010 11:36:13 GMT
This is an old post from the interesting blog of Mr Thomson that I just discovered (the post not the blog !) :
Archbishop Nichols, what were you thinking? Your own press office has reported that you offered flowers at the altar of Hindu deities during a visit to a temple. (UPDATE: since this post went up, the relevant sentence has been removed from the Westminster diocesan website.)
The visit took place on Saturday 21 November 2009 during Interfaith Week and on the birth anniversary of the worldwide spiritual leader of the Hindus who pray at the Mandir (Hindu Temple) at Neasden, His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj.
Archbishop Nichols was greeted by the Mandir’s spiritual leader, Yogvivek Swami, ( Head Sadhu, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha – UK & Europe) and the Trustees of the Mandir. He was welcomed in traditional Hindu style – with a red vermillion mark applied to the forehead and the tying of a sacred thread on the wrist, symbolising friendship and goodwill.
Yogvivek Swami guided the Archbishop around the Mandir complex, including the sanctum sanctorum where the Archbishop offered flowers at the altar to the deities. He then moved to the deity of Shri Nilkanth Varni (Bhagwan Swaminarayan) where he joined Yogvivek Swami in praying for world peace and harmony.
After a private meeting with Yogvivek Swami, Archbishop Nichols spoke to an audience of around 2,000 Hindus about a number of common concerns. These included the vital role religion contributes to the common good, the importance of supporting family life, the education of children and young people and the understanding and valuing of different cultures and traditions.
Before departing, Archbishop Nichols presented Yogvivek Swami with a special candle, ‘a sign of the lovely light of God in our lives and a sign of the prayer which, in return, we offer to God’. Yogvivek Swami also presented Archbishop Nichols with a memento of his visit to the Mandir.
This is a blunder, however well-intentioned. Inter-faith dialogue is a minefield for Christian leaders, as Pope John Paul II discovered when he prayed alongside non-Christians at Assisi in 1986. This visit sounds ill-conceived from start to finish. The offer of the candle and the words accompanying it imply that Hindus worship the same God as Christians, which I would have thought even a primary-school textbook would make clear is not the case. And there’s the clue, right in Westminster diocese’s own press release – offering flowers at the altar of “the deities”. Yes, there’s a distinction between offering flowers at an altar and offering them to the gods themselves, but I think the general public and the average Catholic can be forgiven if they fail to appreciate it at once.
Of course Archbishop Vincent Nichols doesn’t believe in these pagan gods (which is what they are, from a Christian perspective). But, as we saw when he allowed a chapel in Birmingham to be used for a celebration of Mohammed’s birthday, his famous common sense deserts him when he is in the hands of his “inter-faith” advisers.
Traditional Catholics are baffled and angry, as discussion on the internet reveals. One blogger writes:
After wagging an admonishing finger to the incoming Traditionalist Anglicans that they may not “pick and choose”, Archbishop Nichols chooses to go to Europe’s first Hindu temple to receive a pagan blessing.
You can understand this anger. The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales doesn’t mind taking part in Hindu ceremonies, but try asking him to say Mass in the Extraordinary Form and you won’t get very far.
Archbishop Nichols, what were you thinking? Your own press office has reported that you offered flowers at the altar of Hindu deities during a visit to a temple. (UPDATE: since this post went up, the relevant sentence has been removed from the Westminster diocesan website.)
The visit took place on Saturday 21 November 2009 during Interfaith Week and on the birth anniversary of the worldwide spiritual leader of the Hindus who pray at the Mandir (Hindu Temple) at Neasden, His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj.
Archbishop Nichols was greeted by the Mandir’s spiritual leader, Yogvivek Swami, ( Head Sadhu, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha – UK & Europe) and the Trustees of the Mandir. He was welcomed in traditional Hindu style – with a red vermillion mark applied to the forehead and the tying of a sacred thread on the wrist, symbolising friendship and goodwill.
Yogvivek Swami guided the Archbishop around the Mandir complex, including the sanctum sanctorum where the Archbishop offered flowers at the altar to the deities. He then moved to the deity of Shri Nilkanth Varni (Bhagwan Swaminarayan) where he joined Yogvivek Swami in praying for world peace and harmony.
After a private meeting with Yogvivek Swami, Archbishop Nichols spoke to an audience of around 2,000 Hindus about a number of common concerns. These included the vital role religion contributes to the common good, the importance of supporting family life, the education of children and young people and the understanding and valuing of different cultures and traditions.
Before departing, Archbishop Nichols presented Yogvivek Swami with a special candle, ‘a sign of the lovely light of God in our lives and a sign of the prayer which, in return, we offer to God’. Yogvivek Swami also presented Archbishop Nichols with a memento of his visit to the Mandir.
This is a blunder, however well-intentioned. Inter-faith dialogue is a minefield for Christian leaders, as Pope John Paul II discovered when he prayed alongside non-Christians at Assisi in 1986. This visit sounds ill-conceived from start to finish. The offer of the candle and the words accompanying it imply that Hindus worship the same God as Christians, which I would have thought even a primary-school textbook would make clear is not the case. And there’s the clue, right in Westminster diocese’s own press release – offering flowers at the altar of “the deities”. Yes, there’s a distinction between offering flowers at an altar and offering them to the gods themselves, but I think the general public and the average Catholic can be forgiven if they fail to appreciate it at once.
Of course Archbishop Vincent Nichols doesn’t believe in these pagan gods (which is what they are, from a Christian perspective). But, as we saw when he allowed a chapel in Birmingham to be used for a celebration of Mohammed’s birthday, his famous common sense deserts him when he is in the hands of his “inter-faith” advisers.
Traditional Catholics are baffled and angry, as discussion on the internet reveals. One blogger writes:
After wagging an admonishing finger to the incoming Traditionalist Anglicans that they may not “pick and choose”, Archbishop Nichols chooses to go to Europe’s first Hindu temple to receive a pagan blessing.
You can understand this anger. The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales doesn’t mind taking part in Hindu ceremonies, but try asking him to say Mass in the Extraordinary Form and you won’t get very far.