Change in all around I see...

Wednesday, 29 January 2014. Looking around locally, even globally, we see change all around us. The worldwide Church is splitting further and is wrestling with homophobia and in the case of the RC Church, of harbouring and secreting away sexually abusive priests, thus avoiding the criminal law and making people afraid of reporting them for fear of ex-communication. Christians are now killing Muslims in some countries, in retaliation for Muslim atrocities towards Christians. In the field of politics, revolutions are occurring in many countries, notably the Middle East and Africa where medieval tribal factions feel threatened by loss of power. The lack of formal and even basic education and healthcare provision fuels the resentment of those who live in countries where education and healthcare are normal practice. Even in the so-called enlightened western countries there is distrust of politicians and governments as corruption is rife. Financial cutbacks see many people on the breadline in the UK whilst the Tories ensure that jobs and industry flourish in their heartlands of SE England. Scotland, a nation in its own right of some 4.5 million people, has the audacity again to punch above its weight and hold a referendum on a break from the UK ( from the stranglehold of the SE of England really )and the 70 odd million people in England pour scorn on the Scots and threaten sanctions against the Scots for even daring to wriggle away from their control. The banks are undergoing massive change as they seek to find basic ethics instead of being, as Etzioni calls it, an institution which services only itself and has no relation at all to the reason for which it was set up initially. Then we have changes in the global weather picture with flooding, heavy snow and drought, all when not expected. Oddly enough, such changes are not new as down through history we have witnessed major changes in society as society and the world adapt to new changes in which to live. Changes in the worldwide Church are to be expected and welcomed, for the Church is simply the means by which we as people worship God and help others. The structure of society is changing and necessarily so in order to accommodate the poor and under-privileged. We try vainly to keep up to date and be 'with it', but as one old friend admitted, he can no longer keep up with massive and frequent change round about him. Does the picture of fine dining at Glasgow Art Club represent being stuck in the old fashioned past, or is it something which we will embrace the more as changes occur all around us?