A vicar who cannot forgive.......... (priest, beliefs, mission, preaching)

[michel]

This is so dreadfully sad; I heard this woman interviewed on a Religious programme last year. It was extremely moving to try to empathise and understand her plight.

I wonder any of us, in the same position, could have forgiven



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...260586,00.html

Britain

Times OnlineJuly 07, 2006
'I do not think they should be forgiven'

By Elsa McLaren and agencies
The mother of a 7/7 victim speaks on the anniversary of the attack to say her feelings about the bombers have still not changed



Jenny Nicholson One year on from the 7/7 bombings Julie Nicholson's feelings are the same - she still can not turn the other cheek and forgive her daughter's killers.
Jenny Nicholson's life was cut short on July 7, 2005, when Mohammad Sidique Khan detonated a bomb on board a Tube train at Edgware Road station, killing six people.
NI_MPU('middle');Her mother, a vicar from Bristol, remembers her 24-year-old daughter, a music graduate who had just started a new job in London at a music publishing company, as an extraordinary young woman.
The pain and devastation losing her child prompted her to abandon her priestly duties. She stopped holding holy communion at her church, St Aidan with St George, because she refused to preach what she could not practise.
She became known as the "priest who can't forgive" and prompted a national debate about forgiveness. Today, on the first anniversary of the atrocities her feelings have not softened.
Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, she said she will never find forgiveness because her daughter's killer will never be brought to justice.
She said: "My feelings about the event itself now are very similar to how they were.
"I'm very clear that on that day four young men strapped bombs to their bodies and went into a random group of people and caused destruction, death and havoc. The ripples of death have been felt far and wide.
"Forgiveness is not simple, it's complex and I know I'm in the same position as I was then. I do not forgive them for what they did and I do not think they should be forgiven.
"I don't think that I am the person who should be doing the forgiving. If my daughter was here, even with awful injuries, and she chose to forgive them, I would support her in that.
"Forgiveness comes with justice and there's not going to be any, so I think forgiveness for me is something that I've put to one side."
Despite losing Jenny, Mrs Nicholson has not lost her faith. "I'm still a Christian and I'm still a priest. What I stopped doing was working as a parish priest because that requires so much human resource," she said. "So much centrality of priestly work in parish terms is based around the Eucharist, when, once a week or more, people gather to share in words of peace, reconciliation and forgiveness. I felt that I'm so damaged that it wouldn't be authentic to lead people in those words when I have felt so far from them.
She said: "I will never be reconciled with what happened on July 7. I think we are in dangerous ground if we do become reconciled to that. It's more to me about trying to get to the bottom of this deep, deep, festering wound. We are on dangerous ground if we start to put our religious beliefs in front of our common humanity.
"I worry about fundamentalism in any form. What maybe I want is a miracle that can't be had. I think we've got to start somewhere. I believe in the story of Christianity, but I don't believe in it fundamentally and absolutely.
"I don't know if I want a public inquiry and I don't know what would be achieved by it. Let’s spend some of the resources on having a department that deals just with this event and the security around it.
"We must not get consumed with forgiveness. I think its better that it's put on the side and energies are put into other areas."

[c0da]

This is so dreadfully sad; I heard this woman interviewed on a Religious programme last year. It was extremely moving to try to empathise and understand her plight.

I wonder any of us, in the same position, could have forgiven

I remember hearing about this from my sociology teacher. It's very sad.

To be honest, I doubt I could forgive if I was in her position

[caminante]

her position is very understandable.

I don't know where the idea came that when you are a priest you "stop being a human" with feelings.

Everyone has the right to doubt of their mission, of their beliefs, if they do not doubt, they sin because they blindly believe in something and are uncapable of questioning it because of their ego.

It is important to question yourself, to question your beliefs, to put into prove your capacity to forgive.

so i can just hope for that woman to find peace on her mind, and if i could tell her something, i would just tell her that what she did was not wrong, that if she believes in God, she knows her God will forgive her, because she is just acting as the human she is.

This is what i do not like of preaching, there are some people who preach without the experience in life. If i want somebody to talk to me about life, i want someone who has sinned before, who has done bad things, who has being throut a lot of troubles and can still stand up.

preachers should not forget that they are most important of all, teachers of life.

as for the woman iconcerns, she was not ready to talk about forgiveness, but i understand it, i know i might woulnd't forgive someone who has done such thing.

[Jaymes]

Originally Posted by michel

"Forgiveness comes with justice and there's not going to be any, so I think forgiveness for me is something that I've put to one side."

Strange words, for a theist. It doesn't surprise me, though. Loss can really change people.

[Tigress]

This vicar's position is perfectly understandable. As caminante stated, being a priest does not stop you from being human. Forgiveness is something I, too, struggle with. My heart goes out to her.

[jazzalta]

As hard as it is to forgive, she will find peace eventually if she does. Otherwise she will live with anger and hatred. She is in a very difficult situation, and she has my empathy.