ON THE Evening Edition with Kait Borsay (Times Radio, Thursday), the presenter previewed a “conundrum involving communion” at the General Synod with the paper’s live news editor, Tara Fair.
While Borsay felt that the Church was “moving in the right direction” to make fully gluten-free and non-alcoholic communion available, it still “hasn’t eradicated either of those toxins”. Ms Fair blamed the “church rules” that state that actual bread and wine needed to be used in holy communion.
Ms Fair did, in fact, seem well briefed on the issues at stake, but it struck me as odd that two presenters with no discernible sign of Christian practice had such strong views on valid matter at the eucharist. It might be impolitic to note that the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral demands that eucharistic elements be those ordained by Christ.
The latest series of Moral Maze (Radio 4, Wednesday) went out with a bang, using a Bank of England consultation about replacing depictions of historical figures on banknotes with abstract designs to have a debate on heroes.
Ash Sarkar argued that “heroes” were not people, but the stories that we wrapped around them, and that this had an important moral function, encouraging the rest of us to be braver and more committed. It was interesting to hear a secular Muslim unknowingly defend the concept of honouring the saints.
Paul Lay, of the magazine History Today, saw the exercise as a “cop-out by an Establishment who always want to hand over responsibility to anyone but themselves”. He noted that the ancient world’s heroes, such as Achilles and Aeneas, were no less flawed than Churchill. Simon Goldhill, a Cambridge classics don, went further, wanting to reject the Christian “fantasy” of sanctity for classical concepts of greatness.
Maddy Fry, however, coming from a “particular” Christian perspective, thought that depicting heroic figures in any context bordered on idolatry. Her fellow Christian Tim Stanley also worried that hero worship celebrated success and excess rather than moral character.
Perhaps the most interesting point was Matthew Taylor’s. Not a fan of the “great man” theory of history, he worried that the myth of charismatic heroes fuelled a grotesque celebrity culture.
The irony is that banknotes might soon disappear, anyway.
Prayer for the Day spent the week celebrating 55 years on Radio 4 (Monday-Friday, Radio 4 Extra and Long Wave). In December 1970, its first edition paused for a full 40 seconds of silent prayer — unimaginable today.
The week’s list of presenters was fairly star-studded: they included the comedian Paul Kerensa (Interview, 1 December 2017), and Swarzy Macaly, whose Tuesday programme with the gospel singer Sharyn had an interestingly different vibe — more Radio 2 than Radio 4. Indeed, the week showcased the very different registers that the programme can inhabit.
We are lucky to have a daily service on the national broadcasting network. As Long Wave switch-off is imminent, I wonder how many know that it is easily accessible on Radio 4 Extra, on DAB?