Northern Lights MCC
  • Home
  • Pride
    • LGBT+ Affirming Church Groups
    • Pride Merch
  • Who We Are
    • Mission Values
    • Who's Who
    • History
    • 5 Year Plan
  • What We Believe
    • Bedrock Beliefs
    • LGBT People and the Bible
    • Our Denomination
  • What We Do
    • Sunday Worship >
      • Service Slides
    • House Group
    • Personal and Spiritual Development
    • Pastoral Care >
      • Suicide Prevention
    • Social Action >
      • Rainbow Home
    • Social Events
  • Catch Up
    • Ordinary Corner
    • Audio Recordings >
      • Catch Up Archive
    • Video Recordings
  • Support Us
  • Find Us

On Fawkes & Forgiveness

5/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder, treason, and plot!
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.

On this day in 1605, a young Catholic man who felt persecuted under the successive Protestant governments of Elizabeth I and James VI/I entered a chamber under the House of Lords where earlier a group of his co-conspirators had hidden barrels of gunpowder. His intention was to blow up the Palaces of Westminster whilst King James was in the House of Lords opening Parliament. He was tortured and executed for treason, and in his name we still burn ‘Guys’ on bonfires along with the ironic fireworks to celebrate an explosion that never happened.

This conspiracy had far-reaching consequences. After eighty years of religious turmoil, the Catholic conspiracy added fuel to sectarian rhetoric and fear of Catholics amongst English and Scottish Protestants. When James’ father (Charles I) took the throne and married a French, Catholic princess, it would be one of the major factors that caused the Civil War that was to follow, and the rise of the radical Protestant (or ‘Puritan’), Oliver Cromwell.
​We see the echoes of religious persecution and the Gunpowder Plot resonate through the history of the British Isles. Lack of forgiveness fosters resentment that creates conflicts such as that in N. Ireland. Why do we still respond so unforgivingly to threats that appear to come from other cultures and religions?
We have not learned that persecution leads to threat in a vicious cycle, so we see regular articles that accuse young children fleeing Syria of being grown men seeking to infiltrate our country for Daesh. We have not understood that our actions have consequences, so men still shout at women wearing headscarves and veils in the street, and are then shocked when their sons and daughters are able to be coerced into believing that they would be safer in the war zones of Syria, or Iraq.
We have withstood hate crime and persecution in the LGBT+ communities for centuries. (Indeed, one reason James VI/I was so unpopular was his reported bisexuality.) We see our friends forced to return to nations where they are at great risk, and we must be a part of the solution. God will forgive those who persecute us. So must we – seventy times seven times.
Blessings,
Kate

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Hope & Light Blog

    Follow the church on Twitter

    Archives

    December 2019
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.