Norrie Woodhall has died, aged 105. When Norrie was born, Thomas Hardy was 65 years of age, She knew him when, in her twenties, she was part of the Hardy Players, and took part in his own stage adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
I feel an era has closed. Old things pass away, 'tis true. But her family have lost a grand old lady, and we have all lost our last direct link to the Great Man. The world's a sadder place.
I do always think it's so sad to hear of people one would have wished to hear about when they were alive only when they have died, and it's all too late, except to pray for their souls (or, in the case of Anglicans, 'remember before God', which is an entirely different thing).
ReplyDeleteInstead of an obituary column, couldn't we have a—well, I don't know what to call it—a 'moribund' column perhaps, or am 'I'm still breathing, you bastards' column.
Just a thought.
Pastor, praying for their souls would be a very important thing nonetheless. And I daresay you could find some Anglicans that would be able to do the same - you can normally find an Anglican somewhere that believes almost anything. We Beaker Folk can light a tea light regardless. It may not be very theological but at least we're consistent.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Archdruid; it's hard to represent tones of voice in print. I wasn't trying to be nasty, but rather expressing (friendly) amusement at the ways one can do something without ever admitting that that is what one is about.
ReplyDeleteThe late Brian Brindley once told me of the ingenious ways that he tried to express the notion of sacrifice in the Eucharist while putting together the ASB; 'bring before you' was I think the phrase he lit upon. For some reason it was much harder to get actual sacrificial language past the Evangelical watchers in Synod than it was for their equivalents in the URC family, whose Eucharist is surprisingly akin to the 1975 novus or do missae.
No nastiness was inferred, Pastor. And you are quite right. When an Anglican remembers someone before God, he or she is not praying for their release from Purgatory, nor (presumably) trying to pray them from Hell to Heaven. It seems more like a kind of expression of solidarity with the Communion of Saints - although death is not "nothing at all", we are still able to care for loved ones who have been given a tea light inextinguishable.
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