Ash Wednesday and Festival of Religious Liberty

We spent a lovely Sunday night-Monday at www.casacares.it with great food, company and the traditional falò (bonfire) as a slightly in advance celebration of the granting of religious liberty to the Jews and the Waldensians (17 February 1848). It is a festival that seems to go unmarked by the majority of the country, but is significant as the religious freedom granted then opened the doors to the further freedom that is part of the country's consitution.

However, there continues to be widespread ignorance about the Protestant churches and faith. I think that Protestants are no longer seen as potential enemies of the state, but a sense of being separate clearly persists. On Saturday the Methodist Church hosts a conference on the theme of the expereince of religious minorities. I am wary in the UK when the Church starts to see itself as a religious minority, after all we exert an influence way beyond our membership, however here perhaps the term is correct.

It is also Ash Wednesday, althoug there is no service here. It has not been requested and I suspect that the practice of ashing would be seen as far too Catholic! One reaction to the experience of being a religious minority is to withdraw from practices that look too much like being quasi-catholic. Perhaps this combination of festival and fasting invites us to get back a sense of balance in our relationships with other churches, with the earth, with God.