To the Editor —
The uproar at Byzantara over a few foolish souvenir matches should teach us a modest lesson in prudence and preparation. Pilgrims travel with hearts full of devotion and pockets full of curios; sometimes they bring ignorance with their good intentions. The High Temple’s language was blunt, but perhaps a little forethought on our part would have spared both sermon and scandal.
If our Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to prevent future incidents it need not dispatch diplomates with stern faces and stiffer proclamations. A small pocket pamphlet in the pilgrims’ tongue, politely phrased, explaining the sacred boundaries and simple do’s-and-don’ts at the shrine would have done wonders. A short sentence — “Do not carry flame from the altar” — set beside a kindly sketch of where to obtain a sanctioned taper, would educate without humiliating.
Customs are not mere ceremonies; they are the sugar that helps civilisation swallow strange new practices. Let us teach one another patiently. A little courtesy, a little instruction, and fewer headlines: surely that is a way to show our civility as well as our piety.
— Fr. Ambrose Cline, St. Margaret’s Chapel, Inverness