“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“Already a Whiff of Lent: An excerpt from ‘For the Time Being’ tells us why the kitchen table seems to have shrunk during the holidays” – W. H. Auden in Plough:
“Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes—
Some have got broken—and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week—
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted—quite unsuccessfully—
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers.”
“Iraqi Christians terrified of new regional war in Middle East, says archbishop” – The Catholic Herald: “Christians in Iraq are terrified that the war in the Holy Land will engulf the region, according to a leading archbishop, who is calling on governments around the world to work to bring peace. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda said he fears an escalation of the conflict could trigger another wave of migration, with devastating consequences for the Christian community which has already been decimated by war and extreme poverty. Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Catholic charity for persecuted Christians, the Archbishop of Erbil, in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, said: ‘People are really afraid that the violence will spread beyond Gaza.’ He said: ‘Speaking on behalf of all the people – especially the minorities, who tend to suffer more than others, especially in conflict situations – please God, no more war.’ The archbishop added: ‘We are asking all the leaders and all those who have influence to calm the situation.’ He said: ‘God forbid that this war goes beyond what we have been seeing of late. The settling of old scores would endanger the social cohesion in the whole region. The situation in Syria is not settled, nor has it settled in Iraq.'”
“As more pastors age and retire, churches appear to be facing a succession crisis, a study says” – Shari Finnell in Faith & Leadership: “Recent research released by Barna Group reveals a demographic trend that may not bode well for the stability of congregations. As a significant percentage of pastors near retirement, the pipeline of younger successors appears insufficient to take over their leadership responsibilities. According to the 2022 Barna Resilient Pastor research, one-quarter of pastors said they hoped to retire within the next seven years. In addition, the age of pastors in America has been trending upward for decades. According to the 2020 Faith Communities Today (FACT) study, the average age of religious leaders has increased from 50 in 2000 to 57 in 2020. A 2017 Barna study found that the median age of a Protestant pastor was 54 at that time — up from 44 in 1992. ‘As a generation of clergy ages and prepares to step down, it is not clear that churches are prepared for the transition,’ Barna reported. ‘If this trend goes unaddressed, the Church in the U.S. will face a real succession crisis.'”
“Martin Scorsese’s Working on a God Fella Movie” – Alejandra Gularte in Vulture: “Killers of the Flower Moon is deep into awards season, but Martin Scorsese is already thinking about his next move. He tells the Los Angeles Times that Pope Francis inspired him to write his next film about Jesus Christ after visiting him at the Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination conference in Italy. ‘I have responded to the pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a film about Jesus,’ he explained about his newest project based on Shūsaku Endō’s book A Life of Jesus. Scorsese confirmed he co-wrote the completed script with Kent Jones and will focus on Jesus’s core teachings. It’ll be about 80 minutes long and set in the present day, as he hopes to make it “more accessible” and separate the film from organized religion. Scorsese is planning to film sometime this year, so 33-year-old actors, you better get your monologues ready.”
“Lebanon’s Christians feel the heat of climate change in its sacred forest and valley” – Kareem Chehayeb in AP News: “Majestic cedar trees towered over dozens of Lebanese Christians gathered outside a small mid-19th century chapel hidden in a mountain forest to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, the miracle where Jesus Christ, on a mountaintop, shined with light before his disciples. The sunset’s yellow light coming through the cedar branches bathed the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Church, Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, as he stood at a wooden podium and delivered a sermon. Then the gathering sang hymns in Arabic and the Aramaic language. For Lebanon’s Christians, the cedars are sacred, these tough evergreen trees that survive the mountain’s harsh snowy winters. They point out with pride that Lebanon’s cedars are mentioned 103 times in the Bible. The trees are a symbol of Lebanon, pictured at the center of the national flag.”
“The passages that got John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ banned by a Florida county” – Karen Swallow Prior at Religion News Service: “In its effort to comply with a new state rule in Florida that bans sexual content in books in public schools, one Florida county last month decided to err on the side of caution and require teachers to rid their classrooms of all books that might violate the rule. The school officials in Orange County provided a list of 673 books that they thought invited trouble from state minders. News reports said the list is currently being reviewed by Orange County school staff, and one school board member voiced concern that the list represents “over censorship” spurred not by prudery but by fear of inviting trouble from the state. The list included some traditional high-school English class go-tos such as Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and East of Eden by John Steinbeck, as well as The World According to Garp, by John Irving, and John Grisham’s legal thriller The Firm. But the surest sign that panic had broken out in Orange County was that the list also flagged ‘Paradise Lost,’ the epic Christian poem about Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, written by 17th-century English Puritan John Milton.”
Music: Anaïs Mitchell, “Song of the Maji,” from The Brightness
Discover more from Matthew Erickson
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Matthew Erickson 
Lent is good.