tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post9014893643026361279..comments2023-09-24T03:18:15.557-04:00Comments on Guanaguanare: the laughing gull: If We Could Play, Who Is Priest?Guanaguanarehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-21522629802784058812011-01-10T12:33:21.938-05:002011-01-10T12:33:21.938-05:00Louis,
I have to confess that I had not been payin...Louis,<br />I have to confess that I had not been paying attention to Archbishop Gilbert's thoughts on anything before this so you'd have a much better sense of whether or not there are incongruities. As I said, I never saw it as any departure and I believe that it is actually Church policy all over to world to try to incorporate local culture, as far as it can be accommodated by the Gospel. Seeing our own reflections in the presentation/interpretation of the Good News of The Christ, we are more likely to identify with it and less likely to reject it as an imposition, or a negation of our cultures.<br /><br />Prior to university I attended only Roman Catholic schools so I can testify that they never backed away from our culture. We had calypso and parang competitions, we sang folk songs in the choir, we were taught bhajans at Divali which I can sing to this day. There was a pan player among the instrumentalists in the church choir and at the Primary School the children celebrated Carnival on the school grounds.<br /><br />I am interested in your last point about God and Caesar and the Carnival. I have a feeling that carnival [the bacchanalian variety] longs to be an escape from both, unless of course Dionysus is the God or any other deity with Dionysian proclivities. <br /><br />But Carnival manifests itself in different ways and covers a wide spectrum from donkey rides and cotton candy, to the pulsating <i>leggo beast</i> junction which it has come to represent for many in Trinidad and Tobago.<br /><br />Thanks so much for the discussion, Louis! Please continue if you think of anything else.<br /><br />BlessingsGuanaguanarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16633889363662650322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22112793.post-3415576907802396012011-01-10T02:54:06.978-05:002011-01-10T02:54:06.978-05:00I appreciate your taking your time and putting so ...I appreciate your taking your time and putting so much intellectual energy into responding to my comment, Guanaguanare.<br /><br />My comment was indeed directed more at what I see as a rather curious position of the Archbishop towards secularism. As you correctly point out the church itself is a secular organization, yet the Archbishop seems to admonish his flock to reject the "secular world" and sees no role for "secular" input into the conduct of any aspect of life. That of course is not only impossible but dangerous in that for many that could be interpreted as relieving them of any personal responsibility for their lives.They abdicate their reason and their decisions to the Church's pronouncements. Of course that's not what the Church intends or explicitly promotes but that is what happens, especially among the less well educated, the submissive. The Archbishop must surely be aware of that.<br /><br />I agree entirely with what you say about Carnival, even your provocative point at the end. In fact I had mentally conceived a letter examining the phenomenon of carnival in terms of things that are Caesar's and things that are God's, coming to the conclusion that since carnival seems clearly to belong to Caesar, he, not the Church, has jurisdiction over it:)louishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02724442924909561263noreply@blogger.com