Skip to main content

A Contemporary Annunciation

Could there be a more appropriate story for advent?
The wife of the second in line to the British throne is going to have a child, and, because of agreement over changes in the law of succession whether the child is a boy or a girl they will, all things being equal, inherit their father's throne...
The news media on this side of the Atlantic has gone potty over the news, and to judge by the magazine cover on the left, I suspect it will get a fair amount of coverage in our former New World colony... And whilst I am happy for the royal couple and hope that Kate feels better soon, I doubt that I will read much of what the media has to say about the progress of her pregnancy in the months to come (just as I gave their nuptials a by-ball)... 
But the great joy around the world that has greeted the announcement of Kate's pregnancy made me think of the contrasts with an announcement made to a frightened young girl in Nazareth 2000 years ago...

Could there be a more appropriate story for advent?
  • How about the story of a young Muslim girl killed because her father thought she was pregnant?
  • How about the story of a woman whose planned pregnancy turned out to be ectopic, threatening her life and preventing her from having future children naturally?
  • How about the story of the Northern Irish woman, who like the Duchess of Cambridge suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, which so seriously affected her relationship with her child and husband, that when she had a recurrence of it in her second pregnancy and didn't get the psychological help she needed, she felt she had no option but to board a plane to the UK and have an abortion?
  • How about the stories behind the near 200,000 abortions carried out in England and Wales last year?
  • How about the story of Savita Halappanavar who died through complications in her pregnancy and was reputedly denied a possibly life-saving abortion because "Ireland is a catholic country"?
  • How about the stories of the third of a million women who died in childbirth around the world last year?
  • How about the story of why the maternal mortality statistics for women in Britain are worse than those in Hungary, Poland and Albania, and why the statistics in the USA (with its wonderful healthcare system) are twice as bad again?

Some of these stories made public headlines... some only made for private heartache...
They may seem out of tune with our traditional reading of the annunciation... but which of them has more echoes of the original. 
The announcement of a child to be born in the most privileged of surroundings, or into a world full of death and fear?

ps. After the original post a friend put this on my facebook timeline...


Selah
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the ...
2 comments
Read more

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that ...
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more