My visit to a palace
This morning, at the request of my boss, I attended the AGM of a national Christian-Muslim dialogue forum. I've been to a couple of their events in the past, and in general, despite their top down approach, I like what they do. Today though was another story.
You know how you can know something objectionable about someone, say...oh I don't know, I guess we all have different standards of what's objectionable. Anyway...you can know about someone's objectionable stance or practice, but as long as it doesn't come up in your normal interaction, you can kind of turn a blind eye? That's how it was for me with this forum. I know that they are part of the historical hierarchal British system, but normally I can ignore their structure, as the bits I've seen in action seem as good as what anyone else is doing.
Today though, today...I'm still sighing and shaking my head. To begin with, the AGM was held in Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. And the word Palace here isn't metaphorical. It is easily the largest private building it has ever been my displeasure to visit. So that started me off on the wrong foot. I really struggle with my own privilege, and it absolutely drives me crazy to witness people who (merrily?) still benefit from historical social inequalities. Most especially when they do so in the name of my religion.
The Archbishop was our keynote speaker, which was fine. He said some good things, encouraged people to focus on areas like the environment where we have less potential for competing truth claims. Very diplomatic. But to hear him talk about our common conerns around poverty, while sitting there in Lambeth Palace, just blew my mind. I wish I could have had the opportunity to talk to him about how he reconciles these things. He seems like an intelligent man, I'm sure the irony of his situation hasn't escaped his attention.
The third thing that really hit me was our reception by the doorman before even getting in. He was what one of my British collegues described as a dying "type" of British customer service. He made me feel like I was doing him an incredible diservice by forcing him to do his job. And I couldn't help thinking, surely this attitude is rooted in his own lack of respect for his own position? And I couldn't help contrasting his (and his "superior's") attitude and role with our own little centre. Yes, in our centre like at Lambeth Palace different people have different roles, but each role, and more importantly, each person, is recognized as equally valuable. I really get disgruntled by over the top hierarchy.
Oh, and my feminism, which has been quietly sleeping lately, as I generally move in enlightened circles, was rudely awakened by the sad fact that apparently this forum doesn't even believe in tokenism. None of the five panelists were women.
All in all, I felt that they play a different game with different rules at Lambeth Palace, even though supposedly we are in the same Christian camp. And I have to say, I prefer the game I play and the rules I play by.
But most significantly, this reminded me that dialogue within any given religion are as important as dialogue between religions. If I'm any example, ecumenical understanding is far from being a done deal.
You know how you can know something objectionable about someone, say...oh I don't know, I guess we all have different standards of what's objectionable. Anyway...you can know about someone's objectionable stance or practice, but as long as it doesn't come up in your normal interaction, you can kind of turn a blind eye? That's how it was for me with this forum. I know that they are part of the historical hierarchal British system, but normally I can ignore their structure, as the bits I've seen in action seem as good as what anyone else is doing.
Today though, today...I'm still sighing and shaking my head. To begin with, the AGM was held in Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. And the word Palace here isn't metaphorical. It is easily the largest private building it has ever been my displeasure to visit. So that started me off on the wrong foot. I really struggle with my own privilege, and it absolutely drives me crazy to witness people who (merrily?) still benefit from historical social inequalities. Most especially when they do so in the name of my religion.
The Archbishop was our keynote speaker, which was fine. He said some good things, encouraged people to focus on areas like the environment where we have less potential for competing truth claims. Very diplomatic. But to hear him talk about our common conerns around poverty, while sitting there in Lambeth Palace, just blew my mind. I wish I could have had the opportunity to talk to him about how he reconciles these things. He seems like an intelligent man, I'm sure the irony of his situation hasn't escaped his attention.
The third thing that really hit me was our reception by the doorman before even getting in. He was what one of my British collegues described as a dying "type" of British customer service. He made me feel like I was doing him an incredible diservice by forcing him to do his job. And I couldn't help thinking, surely this attitude is rooted in his own lack of respect for his own position? And I couldn't help contrasting his (and his "superior's") attitude and role with our own little centre. Yes, in our centre like at Lambeth Palace different people have different roles, but each role, and more importantly, each person, is recognized as equally valuable. I really get disgruntled by over the top hierarchy.
Oh, and my feminism, which has been quietly sleeping lately, as I generally move in enlightened circles, was rudely awakened by the sad fact that apparently this forum doesn't even believe in tokenism. None of the five panelists were women.
All in all, I felt that they play a different game with different rules at Lambeth Palace, even though supposedly we are in the same Christian camp. And I have to say, I prefer the game I play and the rules I play by.
But most significantly, this reminded me that dialogue within any given religion are as important as dialogue between religions. If I'm any example, ecumenical understanding is far from being a done deal.
posted by dm at 5:12 PM
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