WWDP

‘LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE GOD’

On Friday 5th March over 3 million people world wide will be praying and worshipping together during an annual day of prayer, using a service prepared by Christian women in Cameroon.

Emma Wilcock, president of the National Committee of the Women’s World Day of Prayer Movement, said:

'This is always an exciting day as a great wave of prayer sweeps the world, beginning when the first service is held in the Queen Salote Girls’ School in Tonga and continuing around the world until the final service takes place, some 35 hours later, in neighbouring Western Samoa. By then the day will have been celebrated in over 170 countries and over 5,000 services will have been held in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.’

The Republic of Cameroon is said to be ‘Africa in miniature’. It is a country of great cultural diversity with more than 240 ethnic groups and languages. The constitution promotes equality between men and women but traditional rights and attitudes discriminate against women in many areas of life. However giant steps have been taken towards assuring women’s rights and women are involved in the struggle for peace, justice and integrity.

Cameroon faces many challenges as its people seek to move forward into a modern age without losing their distinctive characteristics. But at all times, in all circumstances, Cameroonians are able to praise God with joy and exuberance and the service reflects this.

Poster advertising Christian prayer day banned from library

A poster advertising a day of international Christian prayer was banned from a library in case it offended people of other religions.

Staff said council policy prevented them from displaying the poster for Women World Day of Prayer in Kayll Road Library, Sunderland.

A congregation member from St Gabriel Church had hoped to put up the poster but was shocked when she was turned away.Sunderland Council says it is reviewing its guidelines in light of the row.

But religious leaders from all denominations across the city criticised the poster ban as extraordinary and unnecessary.

Adbur Rouf, of Sunderland Mosque, Millfield, said it was hard for him to understand how anyone could find the poster offensive.

He said different religions in Sunderland were now living together, side by side, and have respect for each other faiths.

Founder and chairman of Sunderland Sikh Association, Manjit Chema, said: "This is not the way. This sort of thing creates divides and ghettos of different communities. I would not have found that poster offensive. Different religions need to learn from each other more and be open.

It divides people if they are not open. There is no harm in these religious activities."

Bishop of Rochester

The Bishop of Rochester - The Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is the 106th Bishop of Rochester.He is originally from Asia and was the first non-white Diocesan Bishop in the Church of England.He was appointed in 1994. Before that he was the General Secretary of CMS from 1989-1994. He holds both British and Pakistani citizenship and since 1999 has been a member of the House of Lords where he has been active in a number of areas of national and international concern. He has both a Christian and a Muslim family background.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali: Radical Islam is filling void left by collapse of Christianity in UK

The decline of Christian values is destroying Britishness and has created a "moral vacuum" which radical Islam is filling, one of the Church of England's leading bishops has warned.

Dr Nazir-Ali faced death threats earlier this year after he said some parts of Britain had become "no-go areas" for non-Muslims.

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, claimed the "social and sexual" revolution of the 1960s had led to a steep decline in the influence of Christianity over society which church leaders had failed to resist.

He said that in its place, Britain had become gripped by the doctrine of "endless self-indulgence" which had led to the destruction of family life, rising levels of drug abuse and drunkenness and mindless violence on the streets.

The bishop warns that the modern politicians' catchphrases of respect and tolerance will not be strong enough to prevent this collapse of traditional virtues, and said radical Islam is now moving in to fill the void created by the decline of Christianity.

His claims, in an article published in the new political magazine Standpoint, come just days after he accused the Church of England of failing in its duty to convert British Muslims to Christianity.

Dr Nazir-Ali claims in the new article that Britain, previously a "rabble of mutually hostile tribes", would never have become a global empire without the arrival of Christianity.

But he said the Church's influence began to wane during the 1960s, and quotes an academic who blames the loss of "faith and piety among women" for the steep decline in Christian worship.

He says Marxist students encouraged a "social and sexual revolution" to which liberal theologians and Church leaders "all but capitulated".

"It is this situation that has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we now find ourselves. While the Christian consensus was dissolved, nothing else, except perhaps endless self-indulgence, was put in its place."

The bishop, who faced death threats earlier this year when he said some parts of Britain had become "no-go areas" for non-Muslims, said Marxism has been exposed as a nonsense but went on: "We are now confronted by another equally serious ideology, that of radical Islamism, which also claims to be comprehensive in scope."

Asking what weapons are available to fight this new "ideological battle", the bishop said the values trumpeted by modern politicians such as "respect, tolerance and good behaviour" are "hardly adequate for the task before us".

"The consequences of the loss of this discourse are there for all to see: the destruction of the family because of the alleged parity of different forms of life together; the loss of a father figure, especially for boys, because the role of fathers is deemed otiose; the abuse of substances (including alcohol); the loss of respect for the human person leading to horrendous and mindless attacks on people."

The bishop added that Christian hospitality has been replaced by the "newfangled and insecurely founded" doctrine of multiculturalism, which has led to immigrants creating "segregated communities and parallel lives".

He said many values respected by society, such as the dignity of human life, equality and freedom, are based on Christian ones. But he warned that without their Christian backbone they cannot exist for ever, and that new belief systems may be based on different values.

"Radical Islamism, for example, will emphasise the solidarity of the umma (worldwide community of the Muslim faithful) against the freedom of the individual.

"Instead of the Christian virtues of humility, service and sacrifice, there may be honour, piety and the importance of 'saving face'."

In an implicit criticism of the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent claim that the adoption of some parts of Islamic law is unavoidable, Dr Nazir-Ali said: "Recognising its jurisdiction in terms of public law is fraught with difficulties precisely because it arises from a different set of assumptions from the tradition of law here."

He said that the Church of England must retain its importance in public life even if it does not remain privileged as the established church.

"It is necessary to understand where we have come from, to guide us to where we are going, and to bring us back when we wander too far from the path of national destiny."

Whose country is it anyway?

A disturbing report from the neighbouring parish to my former parish:

THE CANCELLATION of a St George’s Day procession of 2000 children in Bradford angered community leaders and left schools disappointed this week. The Vicar of Girlington, the Revd Tony Tooby, described the decision by the council and West Yorkshire police as “a sad day for the city”.

The event had been suggested in November 2007 by the Neighbourhood Policing Team. The children would have walked a two-mile route that included two streets in Manningham where rioting took place in 2001.

A week before the event was to take place, it was abruptly cancelled on the grounds of “health and safety”. Mr Tooby, who is chairman of governors at St Philip’s C of E Primary School, said on Tuesday: “They offered us an alternative route, which was just one street to march down, and made a grudging offer of 1 July as an alternative date.”

He said that the children at the school — which has a 99-per-cent Muslim intake — had been making flags and dragons, and had been excited at the prospect of the parade. The communities had embraced the emphasis on being Bradfordians.

Fears about the activities of far-Right parties in the run-up to local elections on 1 May are believed to underpin the decision, but Bradford Council and the police insist that the concern was health and safety. “It’s amazing: the idea of walking for peace on St George’s Day was put forward by the police themselves,” Mr Tooby said.

“It was to have been young people, of all faiths, walking together for unity and learning from past mistakes, which were the riots. Denying they happened, or saying that someone might want to cause trouble again, is not moving us on. The young people are those who will take Bradford further into the future. We don’t want these children to be the next generation picking up the bricks.”

Bradford is used to processions: the Sikh community held a four-hour parade through the city on 14 April in celebration of the annual Vaisakhi festival. The churches’ annual Whit Walks are also a feature of many towns and cities in the north-west.

“People have been very supportive. Everyone’s talking about this on the streets, and it would be very sad if the police and council were not listening,” Mr Tooby said.

WWDP

WOMEN'S WORLD DAY OF PRAYER IN THE BRITISH ISLES

It was in 1928, at an international missionary conference in Jerusalem, that Scotswoman Grace Forgan first learned of the world day of prayer and brought the news to these islands.

The first services were held:
1930 in Scotland. 1932 in England 1933 in Wales 1934 in Ireland.

The Second World War was a time of great growth - drawing women together in prayer and fellowship.

In 1941 the WWDP office in London was bombed and all property and records destroyed. There was no loss of life and minutes recovered from members enabled the bare bones of the first 9 years to be preserved.

Often the planning committee in London met in an air-raid shelter but every year Orders of Service were produced and supplied to the rest of the country.

It was not until the reforms of the second Vatican Council that Roman Catholic women were able to take a full part in the day of prayer and in 1967 the day was celebrated at a special service in Westminster Cathedral, by invitation of Cardinal Heenan.

In 1969 the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations encouraged Roman Catholic women worldwide to participate in WWDP and to make this possible WUCWO moved their own Day of Prayer from March to May.

In 1982 the service was prepared by the women of Ireland, both north and south.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland there are now over 3,000 branches holding 5,000 services every year. Last year 275,000 copies of the Order of Service were printed.

It is from such roots as these that WWDP has taken its present shape- a worldwide ecumenical movement of Informed prayer and Prayerful action.

Join women in prayer

SCARBOROUGH churches are preparing to celebrate the Women's World Day of Prayer with a service from Guyana.

Each year women from a different country prepare the service, which is then translated into other languages by the Women’s World Day of Prayer Organisation, and delivered around the world.

Patricia Mollon, chairman of the Scarborough Women’s World Day of Prayer Committee, said: “With each annual service comes something of the cultural and social problems of the particular country which has prepared the service.”

The service will be held on Friday at St Andrew’s United Reform Church, on South Cliff, from 10.30am. Children from Scarborough College Junior School will be performing at the event.

Christians among Muslims

Gillian Craig was as affected by this programme as much as I was. Tolerance of other faiths should not be a one way process.

Television: Faith amid the trash
by Gillean Craig

“IT IS BETTER to live in a rubbish dump if that’s where Jesus is.” That is just the kind of thing you expect the vicar to say at the start of Lent; an exhortatory metaphor to encourage his flock to turn away from the cosy securities of their everyday lives, and dare them to encounter the Lord in all the rawness and danger of real experience. (Well, it’s the kind of thing people expect me to say).

Yet in last Friday’s Unreported World (Channel 4) this was a statement of literal fact, explaining the life-choice of a well-to-do Egyptian Copt.

The programme started out full of savage indignation, horrified at the appalling conditions in which the Christians in Cairo are living. They survive by bringing home the spoils of the city’s rubbish dumps, sorting them into stinking heaps, and selling on anything that can possibly be recycled.

As it delved deeper, however, the focus turned to the total disjunction between the Egyptian government’s admirable policies about religious tolerance and freedom, and the reality experienced by the Christian community. Vicious attacks, kidnappings, and threats are all, it was alleged, ignored by the police; indeed, those who should promote the law are often the perpetrators.

There was much hidden-camera footage of clandestine interviews, with shots of security minders and plain-clothes police being given the slip so that the story could be gathered. But it ended with a further twist: the Coptic Church is not collapsing. Although he has had to cut it into the side of a mountain, so as not to attract too much attention, the local priest presides over a 12,000-seater church, and, despite the stink, the rubbish-gathering ghetto creates more than a little security in a dangerous land.

Here we met joyful Christian celebration, attractive enough to encourage those who could afford a far more comfortable life to move in and build their faith. It was a disjointed programme, too short to do justice to its subject, but not at all what we have come to expect from Channel 4 — and all the more welcome for that.

Faith Leaders meet in Naples

Pope to meet with world religious leaders at peace conference in Naples
The Associated Press
Published: October 20, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI meets Sunday with religious leaders from around the world — Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians — who are gathering for an annual peace conference in the southern city of Naples.

Benedict won't be participating in the three-day conference but timed a one-day visit to Naples to coincide with it. He will meet with the religious leaders ahead of its start, organizers said.

Among those expected to attend are the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams; one of Israel's chief rabbis, Yona Metzger; Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians; several Muslim academics and the political adviser to the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani.

Benedict has made reaching out to other faiths — particularly Muslims and Jews — a priority of his pontificate.

The Naples meeting comes more than two decades after Pope John Paul II invited world religious leaders to the hillside town of Assisi, birthplace of peace-loving St. Francis, for the first such World Day of Prayer for Peace.

That Oct. 27, 1986 prayer meeting — attended by the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and a host of interfaith leaders — prompted grumbling from within the Vatican that the event suggested that the Catholic Church considered all religious traditions equally valid.

Benedict — then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the head of the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog — was among those opposed to the meeting and simply didn't show up, Italian news reports have said. He did attend a repeat prayer day hosted by John Paul in Assisi in 2002, the reports said.
Organizers contended there was nothing unusual about Benedict's lack of participation with the other religious leaders at the Naples conference, noting that over two decades John Paul only participated in the two or three peace meetings that he himself sponsored.

"There is nothing to explain," said Mario Marazziti, spokesman of the Sant'Egidio Community, the lay Catholic organization that is organizing the meeting. "What's more, the pope this time will meet with the religious representatives."

Marazziti said the choice of Naples was particularly significant to host this year's conference, whose theme is "For a world without violence: religions and cultures in dialogue."

"Naples is a city that knows well the weight of violence," he said. "Not only the problem of violence and killings, but the violence that is today a dimension of daily life that all big cities of the world must deal with."

During the conference, religious and political leaders — including the presidents of Tanzania and Ecuador — will participate in more than 30 panel discussions on topics as diverse as AIDS, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, faith and science and Islam and peace.

Religion should not be used for hate, says Pope
By Malcolm Moore in Naples
22/10/2007

Pope Benedict XVI and Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, yesterday condemned the use of religion to justify violence.

Not everyone in Naples was pleased to see Pope Benedict XVI
"In a world wounded by conflicts, where violence is committed in God's name, it is important to repeat that religion should not be a vehicle of hatred," said the pope to an audience of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and Zoroastrians.

The 200-strong audience included the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Yona Metzger, Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Mousavi Bojnourdi of Iran, and Bartholemew I, the ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church.

U Uttara, a Burmese monk and Din Syamsuddin, the president of Indonesia's Muslim Council, were also guests at a three-day conference in Naples to promote peace, organised by the Sant' Egidio community. Sant' Egidio, a lay Catholic organisation, has been praised by President George Bush, among others, for its work on conflict resolution.

"Bad religion is a very powerful tool for bad people to use against each other, because it carries with it some of that absolutism that is rooted in a rather insecure kind of faith," said Dr Williams. "It is all the more important that good religion comes to drive it out, you cannot do it just by secularism," he added.

The two men called upon the world's religious leaders to offer their "precious resources to build a peaceful humanity". Earlier in the day, the Pope and the Archbishop embraced before an open-air mass in the main square of the city.

Pope Benedict was making the first papal trip to Naples for almost 30 years. He took the opportunity to denounce the city's "disgraceful" mafia, the Camorra.

"The sad phenomenon of violence does not stop with the lamentable number of crimes committed by the Camorra, but also becomes part of the mentality, insinuating itself into social life, both in the centre of the city and in new and faceless suburbs," said the pope. "The risk is that young people fall into it," he warned.

Naples is one of Italy's most violent cities, and there were calls for the army to be sent in last year to calm a gang war between warring Camorra factions. However, not everyone in Naples was pleased to see Benedict. Slogans proclaiming "Death to the pope" have been daubed on the city's walls in the past few weeks.

Dr Williams added that he hoped to use the conference to start finding a "common Christian response" to a letter sent to the Pope by 138 Muslim scholars on the one-year-anniversary of Benedict's controversial speech at Regensberg University.

The letter, sent on October 13, called for Christianity and Islam to unite in peace and love. "I would like to try to get a response which involved some proper face-to-face discussions," said Dr Williams.

One World Week

We believe that when we understand each other's perspectives, our lives can be transformed and enriched.

One World Week is an annual opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds to come together to learn about global justice, to spread that learning and to use it to take action for justice locally and globally, by:

Working together in caring for the Earth and its resources

Taking action for justice, equality, peace and fullness of life for all

Building relationships of mutual respect that cross boundaries

Running local events that celebrate the diversity of cultures in our communities


We hope that this year's theme, ALL TOGETHER NOW, will inspire you to take action in One World Week 2007 and throughout the year. Now is the time to unite behind the belief that ALL people matter; ALL life matters; the world is abundantly diverse. Now is the time to act; to cut waste and share more equally the world's abundance

ONE WORLD WEEK: 21-28 OCTOBER 2007 — ALL TOGETHER NOW

All people, all life, all matter; the World is abundantly diverse.Together, everyone and everything is included; acting as one we are stronger.Now is the time to act; to cut waste, sustain and share more equally the World’s abundance.

DIVERSITY
All people and all living things are unique; together, they build a rich cultural and ecological diversity worth sharing and enjoying. Ecological diversity binds the web of life together. We have depended for too long on one kind of energy. Now we need to diversify to survive.

“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their colour.”Maya Angelou (Contemporary American Poet)

INCLUSION
All people and all living things depend on each other; together, they provide a frame in which life can exist and grow. Together we need to share understanding and responsibility for the future.

“We cannot turn globalisation back. Our challenge is to make globalisation an instrument of opportunity and inclusion -- not fear and insecurity. It is time to realise we live together in one world, not two - this poverty is in our community wherever we live. It is our responsibility.”James Wolfensohn (Former President of the World Bank)

ABUNDANCE
All people and all living things depend on the Earth’s resources; climate change threatens those resources. We all need to act together now to reduce waste and conflict. Together we can learn to share resources more equally and create a world where all life is respected and celebrated.

“The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little.”Franklin D. Roosevelt (US President 1933-45)

OUR RESPONSE
The All Together Now theme for 2007 calls us to do just that: to work together with others. The issues of climate change, economic justice and communities living peacefully together are of concern to us all. We can only address these challenges if we do act all together. We can make a much bigger difference to future outcomes if we begin to act now. One World Week is an opportunity, a space in which we can meet up, share concerns, hear each others' points of view and acknowledge shared values.

OWW challenges us all - together - now to make a positive difference in our communities and across our world by embracing ALL, learning TOGETHER and acting NOW

Alexandria Declaration

Radio 4 has made me aware how five years ago key religious figures representing Christians, Jews and Muslims met secretly argue the religious issues of the Middle East conflict in the belief that religion could cure what religion started. They came up with the following "Alexandria Declaration":

First Declaration of Alexandria of the Religious Leaders of the Holy Land

In the name of God who is Almighty, Merciful and Compassionate, we, who have gathered as religious leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities, pray for true peace in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and declare our commitment to ending the violence and bloodshed that denies the right to life and dignity.

According to our faith traditions, killing innocents in the name of God is a desecration of his Holy Name, and defames religion in the world. The violence in the Holy Land is an evil which must be opposed by all people of good faith. We seek to live together as neighbours, respecting the integrity of each other's historical and religious inheritance. We call upon all to oppose incitement, hatred, and the misrepresentation of the other.

The Holy Land is holy to all three of our faiths. Therefore, followers of the divine religions must respect its sanctity, and bloodshed must not be allowed to pollute it. The sanctity and integrity of the Holy Places must be preserved, and the freedom of religious worship must be ensured for all.

Palestinians and Israelis must respect the divinely ordained purposes of the Creator by whose grace they live in the same land that is called Holy.

We call on the political leaders of both parties to work for a just, secure, and durable solution in the spirit of the words of the Almighty and the Prophets.

As a first step now, we call for a religiously sanctioned cease-fire, respected and observed from all sides, and for the implementation of the Mitchell and Tenet recommendations, including the lifting of restrictions and return to negotiations.

We seek to help create an atmosphere where present and future generations will co-exist with mutual respect and trust in the other. We call on all to refrain from incitement and demonization, and to educate our future generations accordingly.

As religious leaders, we pledge ourselves to continue a joint quest for a just peace that leads to reconciliation in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, for the common good of all our peoples.

We announce the establishment of a permanent joint committee to carry out the recommendations of this declaration, and to engage with our respective political leadership accordingly.

Signatories:
His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey
The Sephardi Chief Rabbi Bakshi-Doron
The Deputy Foreign Minister, Rabbi Michael Melchior
Rabbi David Rosen, President of the WCRP
The Rabbi of Savyon, Rabbi David Brodman
Minister of State for the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Tal El Sider
Representative of the Greek Patriarch, Archbishop Aristichos
The Melkite Archbishop, Archbishop Boutrous Mu'alem
Representative of the Armenian Patriarch, Archbishop Chinchinian
The Bishop of Jerusalem, the Rt. Revd. Riah Abu El Assal

The summit set up a Permanent Committee for the Implementation of the Alexandria Declaration and this has since met in Jerusalem, Rome, Egypt and London. Many see the Alexandria Process as being the religious track of the Middle East Peace Process. It aims to complement though not replace the political peace process, and as such has gained the backing of the Israeli Government, the Palestinian Leadership, the British Prime Minister and the US State Department.

The declaration has now become a Process, taken seriously by the international community, involved in every negotiation.

Premiere Review

Essence of the names of God
Ivan Hewett reviews Tavener premiere at Westminster Cathedral

What kind of composer would want to set a list to music? The very idea is a joke, as Rossini acknowledged when he declared he could set a laundry list to music. Even to try seems perverse, when there are so many interesting texts in the world.

But perversity has always been a trait of John Tavener, whose music ranges from Song for Athene, performed at the funeral of the late Princess of Wales, to the seven-hour Veil of the Temple.

His new piece, The Beautiful Names, is a setting of the 99 names of God, as defined in the Koran, and over 70 minutes it processes through them in strict order. There are no time-saving devices, such as layering names one above another in counterpoint. Instead, each of the names is uttered with maximum gravity.

The very opening set the tone. Tenor John Mark Ainsley flung out the name Allah in a tone of heroic radiance, which the BBC Symphony Chorus responded to in kind.

Their rhythm was echoed by the orchestra, as if even dumb things must praise, too. Then the whole gesture was repeated on another chord. And another.

It's the kind of massively simple idea most composers would be embarrassed by. Relying on these gestures is a high-risk strategy, because the gap between inspired simplicity and plodding banality is all too easy to cross.

Tavener did cross it, more than once. But, for me, the remarkable thing about this piece was how well it held its length, and how rarely I found myself counting the names to see how many more I had to sit through.

That Tavener pulled this off is a sign that his language these days seems more disciplined. We didn't get those endless, wailing, "Eastern" vocal lines punctuated by thuds on some exotic-sounding drum.

He showed a knack for capturing a name's expressive essence, such as the dancing brass rhythms for "Al-Muta'âli", "The Most Exalted One".

His real strength, though, is his grasp of form. The names are bunched into groups of 11, each preceded by a shout in praise of Allah, and as the work proceeds subtle symmetries emerge between the groups.

Then, just as you think things are becoming predictable, he breaks the pattern with an awe-inspiring gesture - most notably in the eighth group, when without warning the sound of the organ burst over our heads.

Unusually for Tavener, the music then subsides, ending on an almost diffident note. Could it be the great showman of spiritual music is discovering the value of understatement?

List of Names

The 99 Names of God according to the tradition of Islam are:
1
Ar-Rahman (الرحمن)
The All Beneficent
2
Ar-Rahim (الرحيم)
The Most Merciful
3
Al-Malik (الملك)
The King, The Sovereign
4
Al-Quddoos (القدوس)
The Most Holy
5
As-Salam (السلام)
The Peace and Blessing
6
Al-Mu'min (المؤمن)
The Guarantor
7
Al-Muhaymin (المهيمن)
The Guardian, The Preserver
8
Al-Azeez (العزيز)
The Almighty, The Self Sufficient
9
Al-Jabbar (الجبار)
The Powerful, The Irresistible
10
Al-Mutakabbir (المتكبر)
The Tremendous
11
Al-Khaliq (الخالق)
The Creator
12
Al-Bari' (البارئ)
The Rightfull
13
Al-Musawwir (المصور)
The Fashioner of Forms
14
Al-Ghaffar (الغفار)
The Ever Forgiving
15
Al-Qahhar (القهار)
The All Compelling Subduer
16
Al-Wahhab (الوهاب)
The Bestower
17
Ar-Razzaq (الرزاق)
The Ever Providing
18
Al-Fattah (الفتاح)
The Opener, The Victory Giver
19
Al-`Aleem (العليم)
The All Knowing, The Omniscient
20
Al-Qabid (القابض)
The Restrainer, The Straightener
21
Al-Basit (الباسط)
The Expander, The Munificent
22
Al-Khafid (الخافض)
The Abaser
23
Ar-Rafi'e (الرافع)
The Exalter
24
Al-Mu'ezz (المعز)
The Giver of Honour
25
Al-Mudhell (المذل)
The Giver of Dishonour
26
As-Sami'e (السميع)
The All Hearing
27
Al-Baseer (البصير)
The All Seeing
28
Al-Hakam (الحكم)
The Judge, The Arbitrator
29
Al-`Adl (العدل)
The Utterly Just
30
Al-Lateef (اللطيف)
The Subtly Kind
31
Al-Khabeer (الخبير)
The All Aware
32
Al-Halim (الحليم)
The Forbearing, The Indulgent
33
Al-Azeem (العظيم)
The Magnificent, The Infinite
34
Al-Ghafoor (الغفور)
The All Forgiving
35
Ash-Shakur (الشكور)
The Grateful
36
Al-Aliyy (العلي)
The Sublimely Exalted
37
Al-Kabeer (الكبير)
The Great
38
Al-Hafeez (الحفيظ)
The Preserver
39
Al-Muqeet (المقيت)
The Nourisher
40
Al-Hasib (الحسيب)
The Reckoner
41
Al-Jaleel (الجليل)
The Majestic
42
Al-Kareem (الكريم)
The Bountiful, The Generous
43
Ar-Raqeeb (الرقيب)
The Watchful
44
Al-Mujeeb (المجيب)
The Responsive, The Answerer
45
Al-Wasse'e (الواسع)
The Vast, The All Encompassing
46
Al-Hakeem (الحكيم)
The Wise
47
Al-Wadood (الودود)
The Loving, The Kind One
48
Al-Majeed (المجيد)
The All Glorious
49
Al-Ba'ith (الباعث)
The Raiser of The Dead
50
Ash-Shaheed (الشهيد)
The Witness
51
Al-Haqq (الحق)
The Truth, The Real
52
Al-Wakeel (الوكيل)
The Trustee, The Dependable
53
Al-Qawaie (القوى)
The Strong
54
Al-Mateen (المتين)
The Firm, The Steadfast
55
Al-Walaie (الولى)
The Protecting Friend, Patron and Helper
56
Al-Hameed (الحميد)
The All Praiseworthy
57
Al-Muhsi (المحصى)
The Accounter, The Numberer of All
58
Al-Mubdi' (المبدئ)
The Producer, Originator, and Initiator of All
59
Al-Mu'eed (المعيد)
The Reinstater Who Brings Back All
60
Al-Muhyee (المحيى)
The Giver of Life
61
Al-Mumeet (المميت)
The Bringer of Death, The Destroyer
62
Al-Hei (الحي)
The Ever Living
63
Al-Qeiyoom (القيوم)
The Self Subsisting Sustainer of All
64
Al-Wajid (الواجد)
The Perceiver, The Finder, The Unfailing
65
Al-Majid (الماجد)
The Illustrious, The Magnificent
66
Al-Wahid (الواحد)
The One, The Unique, Manifestation of Unity
67
Al-Ahad (الاحد)
The One, the All Inclusive, The Indivisible
68
As-Samad (الصمد)
The Self Sufficient, The Impregnable, The Eternally Besought of All, The Everlasting
69
Al-Qadir (القادر)
The All Able
70
Al-Muqtadir (المقتدر)
The All Determiner, The Dominant
71
Al-Muqaddim (المقدم)
The Expediter, He Who Brings Forward
72
Al-Mu'akhir (المؤخر)
The Delayer, He Who Puts Far Away
73
Al-Awwal (الأول)
The First
74
Al-Akhir (الأخر)
The Last
75
Az-Zahir (الظاهر)
The Manifest, The All Victorious
76
Al-Batin (الباطن)
The Hidden, The All Encompassing
77
Al-Wali (الوالي)
The Patron
78
Al-Muta'ali (المتعالي)
The Self Exalted
79
Al-Barr (البر)
The Most Kind and Righteous
80
At-Tawwab (التواب)
The Ever Returning, Ever Relenting
81
Al-Muntaqim (المنتقم)
The Avenger
82
Al-'Afuww (العفو)
The Pardoner, The Effacer of Sins
83
Ar-Ra'oof (الرؤوف)
The Compassionate, The All Pitying
84
Malik-al-Mulk (مالك الملك)
The Owner of All Sovereignty
85
Dhu-al-Jalal wa-al-Ikram (ذو الجلال و الإكرام)
The Lord of Majesty and Generosity
86
Al-Muqsit (المقسط)
The Equitable, The Requiter
87
Al-Jami'e (الجامع)
The Gatherer, The Unifier
88
Al-Ghanaie (الغنى)
The All Rich, The Independent
89
Al-Mughni (المغنى)
The Enricher, The Emancipator
90
Al-Mani'e (المانع)
The Withholder, The Shielder, the Defender
91
Ad-Darr (الضار)
The Distressor, The Harmer (This attribute can only be found in hadith)
92
An-Nafi'e (النافع)
The Propitious, The Benefactor
93
An-Noor (النور)
The Light
94
Al-Hadi (الهادي)
The Guide
95
Al-Badi (البديع)
The Incomparable, The Originator
96
Al-Baqi (الباقي)
The Ever Enduring and Immutable
97
Al-Warith (الوارث)
The Heir, The Inheritor of All
98
Ar-Rasheed (الرشيد)
The Guide, Infallible Teacher and Knower
99
As-Saboor (الصبور)
The Patient, The Timeless
Another epithet found in the Qur'an is Dhul Fadl al Azim (ذو الفضل العظيم) "The Lord of Infinite Grace" but it is not part of the traditional list of the 99 names of God.

100th Name of God
Muslims teach that there are 99 names for God and that the 100th name is hidden. The idea has become a kind of mystery with little reference to what it means.
Once again, the Hadith about the names of God says:
"Verily, there are ninety-nine names of God, one hundred minus one. He who enumerates them would get into Paradise."

Sufism
In Sufism, the idea of the 100th name is most prominent. It has become the elusive object of mystic devotion, the symbol of God's transcendent being
Sufis often describe their discipline as the quest to know the one-hundredth name of God and thus to merge their consciousness with the divine reality.

Mahdi
Other such Hadiths, which vary according to different Shi'a sects of Islam, suggest that the 100th Name will be revealed by the Mahdi.

Bahá'í
The Bahá'í Faith has claimed to fulfill the prophecy of the Mahdi, and the 100th name was revealed as "Bahá’" (an Arabic word بهاء meaning "glory, splendor" etc.), and is the root word for Bahá'u'lláh and Bahá'í. The Báb wrote a noted pentagram tablet with 360 derivatives of the word "Bahá'" used in it. While the Bahá'í Faith has roots in Islam, it is an independent religion, and its followers are not considered Muslims.

Arab Christianity
In Arab Christianity, the idea of the 100th name is based on the trinitarian idea. Thus the 100th name of God for some Arab Christians is الثالوث المقدس ath-Thalouth al-Muqaddas, meaning 'Holy Trinity'.

John Tavener's inspiration

'I had a dream vision'

John Tavener tells Charlotte Higgins how his life-changing encounter with an Apache medicine man led him to write a piece praising Allah for the Prince of Wales

Monday June 11, 2007

The Guardian


John Tavener does not fit into his surroundings. This tall, etiolated, sunbaked 63-year-old with lanky shoulder-length blond hair, dressed in white linen trousers and shirt, looks as if he would be more appropriately placed in a setting of either John Pawson-style minimalism or byzantine, gilded splendour. Not in a Dorset farmhouse with chickens in the garden, wellies on the bootstand, squashy sofas in the sitting room and a flatscreen telly. This is, after all, the composer of the night-long meditational piece The Veil of the Temple; and Song for Athene, which was performed at Diana's funeral and confirmed him as a household name. He is the composer, in other words, of deeply spiritual, otherworldly, heartfelt, heartstopping music. Or bland, populist, new-age pap - depending on your point of view.

The next big moment for Tavener is the premiere of a large-scale piece for chorus and orchestra. It has been commissioned by the Prince of Wales, with whom he became friends more than a decade ago "because we share views on the importance of all religious traditions". Again, what you will make of this one depends on your point of view. It's called The Beautiful Names, and it's a setting of the 99 names for Allah from the Qur'an. It's going to be performed in the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral next week, then a few days later in Istanbul. Tavener is Greek Orthodox, to which he converted years ago after a Presbyterian upbringing.
You could see The Beautiful Names as a moving congruence of disparate religions in difficult times. Or then again, you could you assign it to roughly the same category as talking to your plants or having a manservant charge your toothbrush. I should be upfront here: my inclination is to go with the latter view.

Tavener, though, is fantastically disarming. When he starts talking about his music being written through divine agency and having visions brought on by chatting to Apache medicine men and what a bad idea the Enlightenment was, part of you wants to snort with derision. The other part realises that, however batty it all sounds, he means it, and it's real for him. If a sense of conviction is a defence these days (and according to Tony Blair, it is), then at least you can say of Tavener: it's not phoney.

In recent years he has begun to broaden his spiritual horizons, he tells me over tea in the garden. "The path I follow is still an Orthodox path," he says. "You have to follow a path, otherwise it becomes a little bit new-age, a bit of this, a bit of that ... But I suppose I had a dream vision after a visit from an Apache Indian medicine man. Many people when they've met American Indians have very strong dreams afterwards. I had a kind of vision from the Sufi Frithjof Schuon, who was a believer in the inner transcendent unity of all religions. And he seemed to be giving me permission, in a way, to work musically within other traditions. It wasn't that the Christian thing was failing me in any way, but rather that it enriched it by going into other things, particularly Hinduism and Sufism."

He is planning a choral piece called The Flood of Beauty, a setting of a 9th-century Sanskrit poem that "shows God in the feminine aspect, as beauty". There's also the premiere in Zurich this year of a Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In his note on the piece, he writes: "I have used Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, Aramaic, Greek, American Indian, German and Italian to express something of the divine effulgence of the feminine that the Mother of God has revealed to my soul."

One of the dedicatees of the work is Pope Benedict. Tavener is an admirer, then? "Sort of, because he's a traditionalist, and I think that's very important. Part of the senility of religion, I seriously believe, is Vatican Two [an Ecumenical Council of the Vatican which held sessions between 1962-65]. It was the third betrayal of Christ. Where they started throwing out Latin and all the best music ... I think it was a downward path for the Catholic church. It was trying to modernise religion. They are eternal truths and if you try to modernise it, it just becomes ridiculous."

The Enlightenment, and the art associated with it, is just as bad: "In his late quartets, Beethoven introduces an element that shouldn't be there, that should be left for meditation, though I love them. I can see that through them came Wagner and Mahler and Schoenberg and Berg. And then came Tracey Emin. And I can see it all as one downward path."

According to Hindu metaphysics, says Tavener, we are reaching the end of a long cosmic cycle. This accounts for the amount of religious fundamentalism now, which he likens to the senility of old age. In art, does Emin represent the bottom of the cycle, I wonder. "No, it will go much further than that!" he exclaims delightedly. "She's a funny little thing, isn't she?"

The idea of the eternal feminine is important to Tavener. He tells me about a visionary to whom the Virgin Mary would appear, always naked. I am not sure Pope Benedict would approve. He says Mary "feels closer to me than Christ. I can't explain that - she's much more mysterious because there's so little known about her, yet she seems very active in the world in an extraordinary way." He doesn't say how. "I think our society at the moment - because I am a great critic of modernism - is very masculine-oriented, and the art I see and hear around me has gone beyond masculinity, it doesn't even possess the dignity of being masculine any longer. It is very aggressive and violent. And the feminine dimension is what everyone could do with having a good dose of." The feminine represents mercy and love, he says.

It's not just the essence of the feminine, it's women, "though a lot of rubbish has been written about me and women," he says. His first marriage, to a Greek dancer, was annulled. He never moved in with her, preferring to remain in the maternal home in Wembley Park in London ("I think my brother thinks she spoiled me terribly"). He was in his early 30s. "Even the prophet Mohammed said that the things that were most pleasing to him in this world were women and perfumes. I think women actually have that effect on me. Every woman I have known has actually deepened my spiritual awareness. Even if I have been a selfish man and treated them badly ... There were two women, I won't name them, who had a powerful religious effect on me. The ancient idea of a muse is there. It wasn't so much an erotic thing, though you can't leave the erotic out of it."

Tavener is now married again, to Maryanna, "who has bullied me into having children and continues to bully me, which is good. If I had any ego left, she is very good at demolishing it." They have three children: girls of 14 and 13 and a baby boy. I find it hard to imagine Tavener the family man, even faced with its reality. Maryanna tells me later that he accompanies the girls at the piano on their musical instruments, but he always leads, and also that he does all the cooking, mostly south Indian curries. He never thought he'd have children "in a million years" but "I can't be grateful enough that Maryanna pushed me into it, and even into a third". When he works here, as opposed to in Evia, in Greece, where there's a house to which he retreats several times a year, he occupies a room "exactly in the centre of the house. I quite like being in the centre, among all the noises that the children make."

The inspiration behind the work, behind the music, comes straight from God, Tavener believes; and it is the beauty of nature, and the world, that engenders his belief in the divine. "When something extraordinary happens to me - or it doesn't have to be extraordinary, I mean if you see a wonderful sunset or plunge into the sea and swim - my immediate reaction has always been, and is even more so now, thank God for this. The music is something outside myself, that's also inside myself ... Music and a sense of another presence always went hand in hand. Even when I was three, I would improvise music, and my maternal grandfather would act as an audience and used to applaud. I would imitate things like thunder and rain."

Tavener owns an old Bentley, the same as Prince Charles'. When the photographer comes, he is driving a 1968 Bristol, and Tavener gets excited. After taking some portraits, the photographer lets him sit in the driver's seat. As I get into Maryanna's car and she eases out down the drive to take me to the station, I can still see him. He's smiling in pure wonderment; not moving.

The Beautiful Names

The Beautiful Names of God
By Christopher Howse

Sacred mysteries
God will be invoked in Arabic in Westminster Cathedral on June 19, with the first performance of Sir John Tavener's The Beautiful Names. Sir John's work, commissioned by the Prince of Wales, lasts for 70 minutes and will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the choir of the cathedral.
Some will think it odd to call God by the name Allah in a Christian church. But Allah is simply the Arabic for God, just as God is Deus in Latin, Bog in Russian.
The word Allah refers to the same God that Jews and Christians worship. There is no doubt of that. He is the God of Abraham and Isaac; the one living God. He is the God that Jesus worshipped and whom he invoked, in Aramaic, as he died on the cross, calling on him by the name Eloi.
In a way, the word used to refer to God is arbitrary. It functions as a common noun, in the same way as tree or mountain. The difference is that there may be many trees or mountains, but, by his nature, there can only be one God.
At the same time, God is not just another item in the universe. He existed before he made the universe and he is not identified with any created thing or by the totality of created things. Indeed, it is impossible for us creatures to conceive of his nature. But we attribute perfections to him in an attempt to say something about him. Believers use these attributes to praise him in adoration.
Christians call God the Almighty. So do Muslims; they call him al-Jabbar. This has connotations of being irresistible. Christians call God the Holy One. So do Muslims: al-Quddus (which perhaps has connotations of purity and separateness; but then so does holy in the Bible). They call him al-Khaliq, the Creator, as Christians do.
All the 99 traditional names, or attributes, of God used by Muslims are concepts familiar to Christians when they contemplate God. The Islamic names of God are to be found in the Koran and, for that reason, their connotations are different from those from the Bible and Christian tradition.
In commenting on how different names seem to signify contrary aspects in God, the 13th-century Sufi writer Jalal al-Din Rumi explained: "Just as a person is, in relation to you, a father and, in relation to someone else, either a son or a brother, so the names of God have their relations.
He is, from the viewpoint of the infidel, the Conqueror; from our viewpoint, the Merciful."
It is a pious practice in Islam to recite the names of God. A hadith, or saying handed down from the time of Mohammed, says: "He who enumerates them would get into Paradise."
The names are recited in turn, or, in another practice, one name is recited 33 times or 99 times, as a way of concentrating on this attribute. People use strings of beads to keep count of the names they recite. Foolish Westerners often think they are "worry beads".
For a Christian, the alien aspect of the devotion to the Beautiful Names is the natural lack of any reference to Jesus, through whom Christian prayer is normally made. Yet Christians do contemplate the perfections of God in their prayer, when they want to.
I do not expect John Tavener's work to please many Muslims. Muslims drop in to Westminster Cathedral, but rarely for services. It would be surprising if they did.
The other thing is that Sir John Tavener has, in recent years, taken up the ideas of René Guéon and Frithjof Schuon. Both thinkers argued that there is a perennial philosophy behind the major religions in the esoteric understanding of their teachings. Guéon, as far as I understand it, made esoteric traditions more compatible with the truthfulness of Christian doctrine.
But such esoteric universalism can be deeply suspect to many Muslims, not to mention quite a few Christians.

A Christian Response
Respectfully, the God of Islam and the God of the Christian Bible are not the same person. Islam teaches a strict monotheism. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem placards the sign 'God has no son.' Christians however believe in a Trinitarian God - that the One God is revealed in Three Persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That the eternal God has an eternal Son is central to the Christian Faith. Two thousand years or so ago, the eternal Son became Man in Jesus Christ ' for us and for our salvation', and in doing so divided time into BC and AD, and procured the eternal salvation of all who put their faith in Him and His death in the place of sinners at Calvary's cross.

Prince of Wales
I see we have skated past the role of the self-proclaimed "Defender of Faiths" in all this. Prince Charles may like to do things which are multi-Faith in intent but I was under the impression that we had identified that multi-culturalisem in Britain has turned out to be a failed concept - not leats because it actually turns out that it perpetuates plural mono-cultures with no cross-over. It is Christianity that is in decline in Britain. The Queen holds very firmly on to the (albeit Catholic) title of "Defender of The Faith" - her heir would do a lot better if he found ways to revive interest in Christian worship as a regular thing in more households. As our Churches close and are deconsecrated for other uses or redeveloped - there has never been a bigger rash of Mosque building - all of which will be packed. Islam needs no help - Christianity most certainly does. I think a Faith where we are turning away from a God with one (or three if you look at the Holy Trinity) identity is in worse shape than another where it is common practice to use the 99 names they have for Allah as a prayer mantra. Our decline and decadence as seen in non-Western eyes has direct correlation with the decline of active celebration of our nominal mainstream Faith - Christianity - in Britain (and other western countries for that matter). Islam is watching and can claim with some conviction to be more devout and respected. Has it occurred to anyone that, though actually a small minority in Britain, the number of actively worshipping Muslims each week may already exceed the numbers entering Christian churches?