Friday, 19 September 2014

See this picture? Get used to it!



Where does the time go? There was a time not so long ago when I was able easily to book two ‘blog slots’ in my diary each week. These days I need to try and sneak them in where and when I can. I don’t want to let this slide because a) I love, love, love writing these entries (especially now that the blog is live and people can actually read them!) and b) my new colleague in the Scottish Office (a warm welcome to Michael Robinson!) is busy blogging his head off up in Motherwell so now the pressure is really on! You can read Scottish Michael’s blog at http://acnscotland.blogspot.co.uk/ (what I won’t do for the Scottish Office!); it is witty, entertaining and very informative, so really you should head right there each week  (but only after you've read the entries from the NW Office…obviously.)

Right, back to the matter at hand. The image featured in this entry will, I hope, soon appear in Catholic churches and ACN literature all over North West England and North Wales; you will see it on all of the publicity for the upcoming NW Prayer Vigils for Religious Freedom. Please embrace this image and learn to love it! This picture—which I took last May at the ACN Conference in Malta—depicts the central dome at St Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina and, NO, I did not lie on my back to take it. I chose it because I have always associated domes with freedom and heaven; there is something about a good dome that is slightly miraculous, yet entirely attainable—a big heavy structure that seems to float high above us and but can be created by human hands out of the humblest of materials. (This, by the way, is not easy for an historian of Gothic art and architecture to admit; we are rather fond of our pointed vaults and soaring spires, you know!). Domes such as this one make me feel that out there somewhere there is peace and light and universal harmony. Just because we must all view a dome from our place far below on the ground doesn't mean that we can’t lift our eyes and set our sights on the bright blue oculus in the dome’s centre. (An oculus, for those of you who aren't up on your Roman architectural terms—shame on you!—means ‘eye’ in Latin and refers to the hole in the very centre of a classical dome—the oculus was generally uncovered, so you can usually find it just above the bucket to catch the rain on the floor of a Roman temple!)

This particular dome has an extra significance for me. It is in Malta and it was there last May where I met so many inspiring people who work hard and pray every day to nurture religious freedom in some of the most troubled areas of the world. It reminds me of Sister Hanan in Lebanon and her work with Iraqi and Syrian refugees and Bishop Cyrillos of Assiut in Egypt and H.B. Patriarch Gregorius of Damascus. Malta is also where I met Archbishop Kaigama from Jos in Nigeria; I am really looking forward to seeing him again when he comes to the NW early in November to kick off all of our Religious Freedom events here.

So there you have it, the complicated, slightly wacky thinking behind my choice for the publicity image for the Religious Freedom Events throughout the North West region. Maybe by now you are glad that you get only the occasional glimpse inside the inner workings of the NW Office—full-time it is pretty exhausting, let me tell you! Still, now you will never look at a dome the same way again. My job here is done.

Thanks for reading!  Caroline


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