God is dead

I was quite surprised to learn that the Archbishop of Canterbury will marry Prince Harry and his divorcée fiancé in a house of God. As a divorced Catholic, my priest could do no such thing as there would be too much hell, fire, brimstone and damnation to deal with. Until recently as a divorced woman I was not allowed to take communion and certainly at mass on Sundays, I clearly stick out like a sore thumb when I attend on my own with no cherubic horde of offspring or husband on my arm. Yet the outward appearance is superfluous to me. You see, my relationship with God is extremely personal. There is an understanding evolving between my inner being and God every single day and I live according to the basic tenets of my faith: 'Love one another as I have loved you.'

I admire my faith tremendously and what it stands for. Roman Catholicism does not move with the times and remains intransigent on many issues- abortion is one of them. I rediscovered my faith in later years by then too old to be ridden with guilt over sex outside of marriage. Having been married and divorced, I take a different view to the vows of marriage than would say, an adolescent with stars in her eyes. Finding God is a personal journey within the embrace of a faith. I follow Catholicism out of an instinctive pull towards the church doors. I cannot ignore the need I feel to commune with something greater than myself and frankly, had it not been for the solace of the church I might not be typing this at all. Sunday mass is an important part of my life simply because it is a calming experience- I like listening to the gospel and occasionally I feel inspired. Who does not weep at the parable of the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son? These stories express a goodness that must guide us at all times and to me, the opposite of goodness is an option I choose to reject in how I live my life. And therein lies the rub at why I object to Ms Markle and Prince Harry exerting their influence to bypass all that their aspiration towards God should represent.

I have never been a fan of the present Archbishop of Canterbury who seems to stand for whatever the flavour of the month is. But to give consent for a divorced woman to marry in a church of God shows the finger to many followers who take their faith seriously. No one is saying that a faith should not support those who deviate from the teachings of the Bible and to be fair, I am not a practising Catholic as it would be too hard and constraining for a strong-willed character like me. I do however like the idea of respecting the tenets of a particular faith without wanting to kill anyone- the case with misguided individuals calling themselves Muslims.

Why therefore do these two want to have the fairy tale wedding in a church? Any woman who has clearly been living with a man should ditch the white wedding dress. I married in a silk taupe suit as I felt the white dress would be a tad too hypocritical while repeating sacred vows in a house of God. I also made sure the wedding didn't cost a fortune as I was reminded by my father who whispered in my ear as he walked me down the aisle that I could always get divorced if it didn't work out. His words were indeed prescient.

The hard truth is marriage isn't a fairy tale but hard work which requires a mountain of tolerance and compromise and ultimately neither person ends up living the life they want. The previous Archbishop refused to marry Charles and Camilla in church and by doing so sent out the following message: the church does not condone divorce and adultery and never will. Unfortunately we live in an age where the misguided rabid Left want everything their way. Like strawberries in Winter, if they want it, they must have it. Out of this new extremism of entitlement will be borne an atmosphere of fear not dissimilar to Orwell's 1984. We are already seeing the witch hunt of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey et al where finger pointing and screaming accusations destroys lives. Flirting, assault by innuendo, rape and sexual discrimination are not the same thing. Soon men will be completely emasculated to the point of preferring masturbation over sex with a woman as the consequences will be too terrifying. Cue to the sex robots which some men don't even think of as robots! The disconnect from real relationships with sentient human beings is already in progress. No doubt the Archbishop will encourage the feelings of the robots as he has done recently to assuage the transgender community.

I truly have no interest in the monarchy beyond the Queen for whom I have the greatest respect. I don't begrudge the cost of the Queen who should even be sanctified for carrying out her duties with humility and determination to serve her country. William and Harry are indeed the children of Diana who wanted to be more touchy feely and rock and roll which led to the unravelling of her own life and will be the undoing of the monarchy. There can be no doubt that the values of William and Harry are at odds with the fustiness of an ancient institution. The Left are unwittingly smashing down the relics of tradition to make way for a new world order where they must ultimately have it their way while everyone else will have to take the highway, including God.

My daily walk. Photo copyright SvD.