This is part of the e-Posada chainblog started here www.nouslife.blogspot.com where we each host the same image for one day of advent. Today, I would like us to look at the shared image above, concurrently with the image you can find on this link below!
The image I would like to contemplate is here.
Built into the donkey suit was a range of locks which meant that when the holy family went and sat in the road outside Faslane base it was a while (an hour or more) before the police were able to find a method to safely remove these itinerants and permit traffic to move again.
I believe that there is something about the way the holy family found themselves pushed around by imperialism and yet were never overcome by it, in life and in death, which reasonates with the profoud power which comes from non-violent direct action we witness in this contemporary photograph. (For what it is worth, I know two of the three people in it).
Prayer
God you shepherd us into your kingdom.
Inspire us with the courage we see,
evident in the holy family,
to remain true to themselves and resistant to the state;
even to the point of fleeing their own country.
Teach us to find ways to be
in solidarity with those
who stay and resist, or flee and rebuild.
Help us to discern the season of your spirit,
so we may serve you with boldness and
travel to the place it would be easier not to go to.
Amen.
7 comments:
Thanks Jem, that's brilliant. Glad someone could find some theology in our actions.
Hey Rachel, delighted that you found the posting (how did you!!), and congratulations on the action. [Rachel's the one inside the donkey!]
Thank you :¬) glad to know we are appreciated! We stayed in place for at least an hour, though some of the time the police were able to direct traffic round us. We were released on Sunday morning, a full day earlier than expected.
I do think I should mention that Strathclyde police went out of their way to be nice to us - they let me have dry socks, all my 5 (!) books, & all the cups of tea I could drink - even when arresting us they insisted that they couldn't have 'donkey' lying on the road without making her a foam pillow first. The police are ordinary people doing a job (often a difficult, dangerous & useful one), and those who arrested us did so with compassion & not a little sympathy - i'm sure there can't be many who signed up just to annoy protestors. I had a useful chat when I was left in a van with a WPC while the others were being processed - although she worked full-time on the Faslane base, she hadn't policed many demos & was interested in what we had to say.
So - thanks very much for your post, and I do appreciate & agree with what you have to say. But please don't see the police as inevitably & always 'them' on the opposite side. They need our prayers too.
Thanks,
'Mary'
rachel found it 'cos i googled 'donkey faslane' on news & blogs.
ceri / 'mary' / donkey's bottom.
Yes Rachel, agreed, we are the 'them' too, in that we pay our taxes for Trident, we collectively elected the governments who have implemented and maintained it (even if our individual votes didn't). We also want a police force who will allow our protests to be conducted safely, and this is one example where non-violent direct action is being facilitated by the state. It goes back for me to Calvary too, where a centurion declares 'surely this is the son of God'. The centurion isn't a them, he's speaking for us all. He was an agent of his state, as were all those who even paid taxes to the emperor (wherever they happened to find the coinage to do so).
(sorry, the comment about police not being 'them' was me, Ceri not rachel - though I am in Aberdeen stealing Rachel's computer :¬)
Thanks Jem, I found it helpful to be reminded of the political impacts of the story which I had been in danger of eliding.
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