As Advent approaches, I have hope on my mind, and a few programmes last week gave grounds for some hope that good programmes and insightful discussions can make their way into the media.
Shetland (BBC One, Wednesday) recently returned for another series, and last week’s episode saw the reappearance of the local Minister, a brother of the lead detective. He’s young and presented positively, with the best interests of his parishioners at heart. I love the spiky banter between the two of them. He’d like her to go back to church, but she’s resistant, partly it seems because their father was previously a minister there and relationships were not good. In a chat with the son of a murder victim, both express a somewhat dismissive view of religion – he says he was religious when young, but not now – a sadly familiar story. It might be relevant that his relationship with his mother had deteriorated. How often other people get in the way of our journey to God!
A special Mass of the Bells (RTÉ One, Sunday) came from St Peter’s Church, Drogheda, and featured a new composition by Michael Holohan, marking the 400th anniversary of the birth of St Oliver Plunkett. The music was impressive, though an orchestra and choir between congregation and priest while might be enhancing for some but distracting for others! Fr Eugene Sweeney, the Parish Priest, gave an interesting homily for the Feast of Christ the King, teasing out the notion of kingship – showing how the kingship of Christ was so different from the autocratic political kingships of the past.
BBC has been running a prayer series for many religions, and last week Prayer and Reflection (BBC One, Sunday) came from St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral in Armagh and will be repeated on BBC Two, at 6.25 am this Sunday. It was quite dignified and moving as cathedral Administrator Fr Barry Matthews gave some background information about Catholicism and introduced the service of Vespers. This included a most beautiful musical version of The Lord’s Prayer and an inspiring homily by Archbishop Eamon Martin, for the 50th anniversary of the canonisation of St Oliver Plunkett. He quoted Pope Paul VI from that 1975 ceremony, declaring the saint a “model of reconciliation”. The archbishop said we needed him to inspire us at a time of increasingly polarised opinion, where many prefer to build barriers rather than bridges. We mustn’t be robbed of hope, he said, an apt sentiment leading into Advent.
Speaking of the polarisation of opinions, the thorny and mine-laden debate on gender tends to get a much better airing on UK channels than at home, where it’s a topic that the main media outlets seem reluctant to touch – presumably in case they get burnt by hot potato activists. I came across two UK examples last week. The Gender Debate (Times Radio, Thursday) featured Dr Helen Webberley and feminist Helen Joyce, giving two very different perspectives for an hour, with host Jo Coburn – check it out on YouTube. Then on Times Radio Breakfast (Saturday), there was an item about a trial of puberty blockers on children, which apparently some ethics committee had signed off on, though I agreed with one texter that this was using children as guinea pigs. Journalist Deborah Cohen gave a balanced overview, while psychotherapist Sue Evans, described as a whistleblower in relation to the controversial Tavistock Clinic, said she didn’t trust that ethics committee and favoured a more holistic approach to gender dysphoria rather than a purely medical one. She said most children who availed of the holistic approach grew out of the dysphoria as they went through adolescence, while those medicalised tended to go down a path to medical transition.
The minefield was evident when the topic got a 10-minute airing on Brendan O’Connor (RTÉ Radio 1, Sunday). Towards the end, the host seemed to be getting uncomfortable with the direction of the debate, and said he didn’t think he should continue with it without having a trans person in the studio, when the discussion had “existential” implications for them. I could see the point, but I don’t remember the same approach applied to other controversial issues – e.g. having to have a nun present when nuns are being demonised or having a pro-life person present when abortion is debated, or having a Christian present when their faith, central to their identity, is being mocked.
Sauce for the Christmas goose.
