CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL An Episcopal Community in the Heart of Houston, Texas
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The Spirituality of a Pint with Friends
The Cathedral rood screen:
A gateway to grace Whether you’re touring the Cathedral or sitting in the pews every Sunday, the rood screen that frames the chancel in trefoils, tracery, and religious symbols draws wonder on many levels. “The term 'rood' means 'cross,' and just as the cross of Christ serves as a conduit to God's grace, medieval rood screens served as open gateways to the grace the faithful received at God's altar. Just so at Christ Church,” says the Very Rev. Barkley Thompson. “The
beauty and symbolism of the Cathedral's rood screen is a reminder that God beckons to and through the cross to be in loving relationship with God.”
That’s r-o-o-d, not r-u-d-e The old English word “rood” historically refers to the displayed figure of Christ on the cross, explains church archivist Patty Hurt. Screens beneath a rood were typically
ROOD SCREEN, page 6
An evening of Celtic celebration
EARL GREY IN THE MORNING
On Sunday, May 21, at 6 p.m., immediately following the Cathedral’s Celtic Eucharist service, The Well, the Hines Center for Spirituality and Prayer will open its doors for a festive celebration of gratitude and grace entitled, “A Celtic Evening.” Honoring donor Donald McDonald and celebrating the beauty of Celtic culture, the evening will feature fiddle and guitar music by local band “Earl Grey in the Morning” and light bites and tasty beverages. The Bulletin published an article on the origins and development of the beautiful Celtic cross in the Hines Center in
CELTIC CELEBRATION, page 8
On St. Giles’ Street in Oxford, England, sits the Eagle and Child pub. It is a narrow, nondescript building, but it once served as the location for the regular gathering of some of the most important literary and philosophical figures of the twentieth century, the Inklings, consisting of J.R.R. Tolkien, Hugo Dyson, THE VERY REV. Owen Barfield, and, of BARKLEY THOMPSON course, C.S. Lewis. At the Eagle and Child, Lewis first circulated a draft of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950. But more important to the Inklings than professional conversation was the conviviality of friends. C.S. Lewis hearkened to the atmosphere of the pub as a central image for the love between friends in his book The Four Loves: “Those are the golden sessions; when four or five of us have come to our inn; when our slippers are on, our feet spread out towards the blaze and our drinks at our elbows; when the whole world, and something beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk … Life — natural life — has no better gift to give. Who could have deserved it?” Lewis’ image is one of friends truly attentive to one another while raising a pint of beer. It is a spiritual image. I find it compelling, and it has led me (as an aficionado of beer) to think deeply about what we might call “the spirituality of beer.” In our American context so devastated by addiction, a spirituality of beer may seem contradictory. American culture is saturated with alcohol. Too many Americans misuse alcohol as a crutch to social interaction or as an escape from life’s difficulties, and for those addicted
CHEERS, page 3