‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!’ Nobody ever said that about a dog. Odd, isn’t it Almost as odd as the absence of horses from the New Testament. The Old Testament is full of them. From the Pharaoh to Solomon monarchs and others took pride in their animals. Then, suddenly, we are in a world without horses. But there were dogs. But they didn’t count. They were no more than a nuisance.
Here in the 21st century in the UK we love our horses and we love our dogs. The horse is honoured via the feudal system for the grand ceremonies of state. We preserve our Shires and Shetlands. We also care for our dogs, from Great Danes to Chihuahuas. What can account for this great shift in interest?
Not geography. It is true that we live on the brink of great oceans whereas the people at the eastern end of the Mediterranean in Jesus’ time and nowadays have only the Med, the Black Sea, the Caspian and Galilee. Unlike the Vikings the Judeans were not a sea-going people. It has to be said that the Christian faith, though it spread through the Mediterranean, did not become a worldwide faith for 1500 years. It found a home in Europe and stayed there until Columbus and then missionaries like Carey looked further afield.
There are, of course, other notable absentees. We meet shepherds, fishermen and soldiers in the New Testament but we do not encounter miners, smiths and builders. This is like saying we would never know there were Napoleonic wars if we relied on Jane Austen for such information. And Hardy’s Dorset has little interest in the Balkans, just as readers of Trollope are none the wiser about European Churches for having read about the cathedral closes of England.
These absences do no more than remind us that we err if we bring unexamined suppositions to our reading of the New Testament. The NT is a quite short collection of documents. It restricts its interest to the momentous irruption of as new faith on to the world scene. Its more recent readers have the means of finding out a great many things about our world that are important but not on the NT agenda.
CHELL VIDEO
One of the videos produced by Chell parish church (actually two Staffordshire churches) is ‘A Year in the Life of Chell parish.’ The church supports the Scargill Community and has up-to-date details on its website.
HALEWOOD HELPS
In 2012 Halewood Anglicans and Methodists got together to be served by the Halewood and Hunts Cross team ministry. The united churches organise groups for particular purposes – foodbank, coffee shop, listening ear etc. M.J. Hargreaves and Martyn Woodsford have a share in the leadership of the venture, which is between Liverpool and Warrington.
BYKER FILM
An impressive film featuring Byker youngsters, elderly residents and others with aerial shots and plenty of Geordie accents commemorated 100 years after the end of WW1. It was part of the Lighthouse project to deal with repairs to the roof of St Michael’s church, Byker, Tyne and Wear. Helen Gill leads the ministry team.
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