In Retrospect

from the Cathedral Chronicle

Mr Samuel Arthur Seare

It is with great regret that we have to record the accidental death of Mr Samuel Arthur Seare, aged 72 years. Throughout every Tuesday night for the last 15 years, Mr Seare had tuned the Cathedral organ, and it was whilst he was engaged on this duty he had come to love that he sustained a fatal fall on the night of Tuesday/Wednesday, 18/19th August. With his passing we have lost a rare talent which will be sorely missed. R.I.P. A Diplomatic Visit The First Lady of the Philippines, Madame Ferdinand Marcos, wife of His Excellency the President, attended the Capitular High Mass in the Cathedral on Sunday, 13th September. She was accompanied by her son, Ferdinand, who is to begin school at Worth Abbey, and members of the Philippines Diplomatic Corps. It was a happy coincidence that this visit was also the occasion of the return of the boys of the Cathedral Choir School for the new scholastic year, and Her Excellency was able to enjoy, with us all, the restoration of the full Cathedral Liturgy in all its beauty. The Church in Zambia

To an outsider the Church in Zambia is thriving. The country has just over four million people, of whom one-third are Catholic, one-third Protestant and the remainder still adhere to the traditional religion. In fact, the number of Catholics is increasing so fast that within the next decade the ratio of people-to-priest will greatly increase, thanks to the number of new converts and the natural increase in population. This, however, is only one side of the coin and gives little indication either of the difficulties that the Church faces in Zambia or of the aspirations of this young nation. It is a terrible indictment, but it must be said, that after half a century of intensive evangelisation, the Church in Zambia is still wondering whether she will be accepted or rejected. The large number of mission schools and hospitals are ample evidence of the heroic zeal of so many missionaries, both men and women. Eight dioceses have already been set up, each complete with its network of parishes and outstations. Yet despite all this, the Church is still a long way from being a Zambian Church. Only one-quarter of its bishops are Zambian, while of its 350 priests only oneseventh are African.

Time is running out. Before the last World War, the missionaries looked forward to several generations of solid work before the Church would be sufficiently strong to stand on its own two feet. However, times have changed. Within the last decade the country has become politically independent and at present it is making enormous efforts to achieve cultural and economic freedom … In face of this rising national feeling, the Church is still considered foreign. If she is not capable in the future of identifying herself with the aspirations of the people, she will be condemned as alien and as such she will be rejected … We have only to think of the Churches at Corinth or Ephesus set up by St Paul and which, within a few years, not only were able to manage their own affairs, but undertook missionary activity elsewhere. Again, St Patrick saw the Celtic Church grow and mature into full adulthood in the Church of Christ, within his own lifetime. We in Zambia, after 50 years of strenuous work, have reached the point where a local Church is still only a possibility and where the time left to establish one is rapidly running out. Only if the Church is capable of guiding the rising generation in their search for a new Christian way of life, will she give rise to a truly Zambian Church.

The author of this piece, Fr Edward Murphy SJ, spent his summer as a Supply Priest at the Cathedral before returning to his missionary post in Zambia from the October 1970 Westminster Cathedral News Sheet

Applauding the Preacher The ancient sermon differed from the modern in one somewhat startling feature. The hearers were permitted and encouraged to applaud and even to ask questions and explanations of the preacher. St Chrysostom had to complain that the applause and interruptions while he was preaching were too frequent and often broke the thread of his discourse. It must, we may be sure, have also happened that dull preachers were listened to in significant silence or even with positive signs of dissatisfaction. Our present church discipline is preferable. Fake News

Reporters of the daily Press seem to be quite beyond learning how to speak correctly of the most rudimental matters of Catholic practices. The Daily News recently informed its readers that, on the occasion of a recent outrage in Mexico, while the mortal remains of some girls who met with violent death were being laid to rest, the entire population said masses ! When are we going to have a Catholic Press Agency ? from the October 1920 Westminster Cathedral Chronicle