imagine

Today, Liverpool Cathedral set their veteran bell ringers a special challenge, one for the pros, if you will. They were asked to play the tune of John Lennon's Imagine. As the singer was born in the city, it seems very appropriate, until you remember the lyrics. "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try." Is this is a message to ring from the bell tower of one of England's greatest houses of god, the fifth largest cathedral in the world and the home of the Bishop of Liverpool?

Apparently so. It was the church, after all, that allowed the music to be played, and they advertise it on their homepage. Three times this afternoon, it was heard throughout the center of town. All is fine then.

All might be fine for the church, but the rest of us are still wondering. I heard about the performance on the BBC this morning when a morning host reported it with a hint of doubt in his words. For the record, he had a representative of the Church of England on the phone, who proceeded to explain, softly and in plain words, why this was nothing out of the ordinary and certainly far from any controversy.

I'll get back to his reasons later, but let me spend a paragraph or two on that curious organization that is the Church of England or CoE, as it is known to its friends and followers. CoE owes its existence to the sexual voraciousness of King Henry VIII who was married to Catherine of Aragon but had his eyes on Anne Boleyn and wanted to lay his hands on her. He needed a divorce (I don't quite follow the logic here.) that the Pope wouldn't grant him. In a quick move of historic proportion, Henry refused the theological authority of the Pope and declared himself the head of the church in England, severing spiritual ties with Rome in an act not unlike mutiny. Later, he had Anne Boleyn beheaded and went through another four wives, but that's a different story.

CoE is unlike any other Christian Church. For example, it manages to be Catholic and Reformed at the same time. How this works is unclear to me even after a lengthy study of the relevant Wikipedia entry. I grew up with the understanding that, after revealing all the failings of centuries past, Reformation had categorically assigned Catholicism to the pyre of apostacy. This is also a different story.

The real story here is that over the centuries, CoE has coevolved with the English to display much the same characteristics that the people are famous for, mildly amused aloofness, for example, and disarming self-effacingness. Like the English, the Church is never shaken by reality or moved to hotheaded responses by whatever turmoil besets the country. If someone disagrees with its views, that's no reason to put the tea down and get angry. If everyone is cool, everyone can be happy.

It is this spirit that the suggestion of the nonexistence of heaven is trumpeted from a church tower. Or, as a spokesperson says about the song: "We recognize its power to make us think. As a cathedral we do not shrink from debate. We recognize the existence of other world views." This is also what the Church representative said on the BBC this morning.

As an infidel and ready castigator of religion, I find this attitude refreshing and eminently uplifting. If all faiths followed a similarly relaxed path, the world would undoubtedly be a much better place. If you believed like many English that say "I like to have some religious guidance and a framework of moral reference, but I don't really believe in god. I find the idea of god somewhat arcane, but it gives me, inexplicably, a warm feeling." you would be getting the benefits of religion without the baggage. Just imagine.