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A priest's ministry in the Church in Wales

by
19 October 2012

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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

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