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Rector's Letter, September 2003 Dear Friends, For many of us the holiday period is over. The children are back to school and adults back to work. At least we can’t complain about the weather this year, unless the sun brings you out in a heat rash or something. I just love to be able to walk outside and not feel ANY chill in the air. What, I ask myself, has stayed with me from this summer, apart from the weather? Strangely enough I would have to say language. The use of words and the development of language have always fascinated me. Holidaying in the Italian Dolomites and in the Austrian Tyrol, I seemed to spend a lot of time contemplating language. On the Italian side people speak both German and Italian – everything is in the two languages. In some parts there is a third, Ladin. I speak no Italian but have a little German so tried to converse in that; Alex, my son, has no German but speaks Italian so used that; David has neither German nor Italian so spoke in English (loudly!). It all resulted in a great deal of confusion for the folk we spoke to and ourselves. We ended up trying to translate for one another. Not that long ago the Dolomite area belonged to Austria – hence the German. Do people become something different because of a boundary change? Does a change in language alter the character of people? Certainly the people of the Dolomites are different to other Italians – more Austrian, but yet not as Austrian as the Austrians – more Italian. Language, however, has more than a possible influence on national characteristics. How we use language matters. It matters in the Church. The liturgies we use shape our thinking and theological understanding in ways of which we are often unaware. Hence it is important that what we say fits the way we think. How often do you hear the cry, ‘If you would only say what you mean, I could understand you’. So much philosophy revolves around semantics – ‘What do you mean by that word?’ ‘Why that word and not another?’ As it has been said, many of the divisions in the church revolve, not just around the ethical questions of the day; but how we see and interpret scripture. What does it mean to call the Bible ‘The Word of God’? Can it be used, as some seem to try to use it, as a law book? God speaks to us through the Bible, of that I have ample experience and no doubt, but when we use it to glean texts to prove our point of view I, for one, become alarmed. What language shapes us as Christians? John describes Jesus as the Word made flesh. The Christian language becomes part of us, moulds us, as we draw closer to the one whose language we are trying to learn. Perhaps we should all be careful of what we say – like it or not, our words reveal the person we are. Janice |