16 August 1999

Hi again Rita

This is kind of a PS - aka thoughts from my bath on Christianity following my last email.

While I'm not at all keen on organised Christianity - or indeed on any organised religion - I do respect and know a good many Christians, including some close friends. I'm also on the management committee of the night shelter here, which is run by a coalition of local churches, and I have an idea that I'm the only non-Christian member. I think that both of those facts relate to the fact that I grew up in the Christian church, and have incorporated a lot of Christian philosophy into my personal philosophy of life.

I had a really interesting conversation about Christianity a few weeks ago, with an African guy whom I'd asked to give up the "priority" seat on the tube for me. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that people have relinquished this seat without being asked - and on more than that number of occasions people have refused me outright - but he actually apologised for my having to ask, and so we started talking. It quickly became obvious that he was a committed Christian, and he asked me if I prayed. Rather hesitatingly, I replied that I did, but not to the Christian God.

However, it soon became apparent that he'd already picked up from my jewellery and my stick that my spiritual interests lay elsewhere, and he made the following points. He said that in his village in Africa, the old beliefs and Gods still existed, but they had been incorporated within the practice of Christianity. He believed that this was positive, because he saw organised Christianity as a means of uniting people across nationalities and continents, within a belief system where everyone was equal. He also felt that Christianity had played a major role in the abolition of slavery.

I thought that this was a very interesting perspective, and one which was quite new to me - I think that it's difficult, when you've grown up in a world where the sectarian divides in Ireland are very real and the Holocaust is still a very present memory, to see Christianity as uniting rather than dividing people.

Anyway, I really welcome the opportunity this residency is providing to look at my spiritual beliefs and my relationship with Christianity; it's certainly an unexpected bonus because I hadn't considered this aspect of the work when I applied.

All best wishes.

ju90

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