From the Revd Neil
Fairlamb
Sir, - My former colleague the Revd
Geraint ap Iorwerth did not retire early at 60: he left Pennal and
Corris, aged 62, after 38 continuous years of service in Bangor
diocese, for new challenges of ministry (Real Life, 5
October).
I was not aware that Bangor diocese
had a theological line that the clergy had to toe, as the comments
quoted imply. Mr ap Iorwerth pushed at the boundaries of faith as
he felt called to, and in two radical and well-received books,
Honest to Goddess and The Gospel of the Fallen
Angel, challenged conventional thinking.
Burning the more bloodthirsty passages
of the Old Testament was somewhat theatrical, but how many clergy
could honestly say that Judges and Joshua, for example, were
edifying reading or useful to any Christian's life? A favourite
hymn in Welsh sings of "rhyfel yr Oen", the battle of the
Lamb, and that is one that Mr ap Iorwerth tried to fight.
Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Buddhist
symbols in the church -they can now safely be put in an exhibition
gallery out of harm's way, of course; but Mr ap Iorwerth wanted to
integrate them into Christian experience. He had a set, for
example, of Kenneth Cragg's book of interfaith Christian-Islam
prayers, a work of serious scholarship and credentials - a set to
be used, not part of an exhibition.
And why should not Zen koans be quoted
alongside some of Jesus's more gnomic and puzzling utterances? Is
this truly not "in line" with the "theology of the diocese"?
NEIL FAIRLAMB
The Rectory, Beaumaris
Anglesey LL58 8BN