HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1977-05-25, Page 22BRUSSELS
ONTARIO
THE BRUSSELS POST, JUNE 1, 1977,
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario,
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited,
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Assoeiation
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $8.00 a year. Others
$14,00 a year, Single Copies 20 cents each.
*CNA
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11/72
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There's something that draws me to it --
the Old City of Jerusalem that's- bunched
all up together inside two and a half miles ,
of an 'encircling wall. It 's all crammed
together into one vast network of tiny
alleyways, narrow Streets and stone
buildings.
It's alive with all sorts of people - -
people who buy, sell, trade and haggle.
People who pray, praise and pilgrimage.
People who weep and sing at the Wailing
Wall. People who check y our bags and
purses to make sure you're not a security
risk.
We've stayed in Jerusalem now for a
week. Gone np further. The city's a magnet
that holds us here. Yet I know we must
move on. Break away, I tell myself it would
take three weeks, four weeks, to explore
the Old City. Who knows? Even a life time.
But I still keep walking back to the
walled Old City. Maybe it's because I want
to bring a blessing out of this Holy City.
M's
It: c beerctaaui ns'ereIlf agroutsrYf einegl int; I gthet a ink
I should have -- but it never comes.
Two times I've roamed the Church of the
Holy, Sepulchre inside the walled city. I've
seen inside its shrine 'that marks the place
where Christ lay in the tomb three days.
I've walked part of the Vio Dolorosa —
the path Christ walked on his way to the
cross.
I can't imagine the scene. I can't see
Him. I can't find Him. Instead I see only
the signs -that designate the places. I see
only the souvenirs' about - Him at the
market place. I watch the haggling over the
price of a Mother -of-pearl cross. I notice a
stray goat poke its nose into a bushel
basket of artichokes in the market stall, I
watch a boy lead down a steep stairs his
donkey, with a load of stones on its back.
I don't know how to handle this mixture
of the sacred and the profane. I don't know
what to do with a Christian Coptic priest
whose chapel Stands right behind the holy
tomb -- sprinkles holy water on me and
gives me a little cross. He assures me it
cost nothing, but I know it must. I give it
back to him.
I can't believe myself. Me? Give back
the cross? He Must think me intl. del and
heretic.
I try to find some reasons why I react
this way. brought up to shun ancient
relics. Suspect holy places.
• I smile along with the guide who tells us
in the Dome Of the Rock that here is the
footprint of Mohammed. Prom this very
spot he ascended into heaven. And why did
Mohairrined4eave only one footprint?• And
not two? Well, you See, explained the
guide, Moh'ammed had to push himself
up.' Stand on one foot to give himself a
push.
And by the footprint are three hairs of
his beard. And why only three hairs of
Mohammed? The guide really didn't know,
but he wondered out loud, how the faithful
ever managed to find three hairs, much
less preserve them over all these years.
All those smiles I' managed in the
Moslim Quar ter of the Old. City, I could
easily reserve for the Christian Quarter,
too. I just can't undeistand how the mother
of Constantine -- St. Helena -- devout as
she was --could identify all those religious •
.sites of Christ 300 years after the event.
How do I know if this is the spot where
Christ was crucified? And even if I did,
what difference would it make
For the truth is, my Protestant strip
shows through. It tends to spiritualize. To
de-emphasize the material.. Play clown the
space and place. My faith doesn't need a
specific place, a certain land, a material
space.
Unlike the Jews, my faith doesn't need
the Wailing Wall, Mt. Zion and the
ear thly Jerusalem. And unlike other
Christian groups, it doesn't need holy
shrines and ancient ruins.
Instead, my hymns sing about the New
Jerusalem, the Heavenly Jerusalem, It
praises more a Risen Christ - not a dead
one. I don't want to seek the living among
the dead. I want to go -:not to the church of
the Holy Sepulchre -- but to the Church of
theResurrection. He is not here. He is
risen.
It's true, I have to admit. I really haven't
found Him in jerusalein — inside those city
walls. Yet I'm going back — one more time
today. I want to "check out this time the
eight city gates that ring round the wall
and let the 'people in. I want to walk
around the Golden Gate --the gate through
which the Messiahs are supposed to enter
-- the gate Christ came through on a
donkeyti on what We now celebrate as Palm iiday.
A hyinn tune keeps ringing in my ears.
The one, that starts ' Lift Up Your Head, Ye
Mighty Gates, Behold the King of Glory
Waits. The king of Glory enters nigh."
But I shotild.knOW better. I should know
how this hytntt verse takes a turn. It's not
content to talk about the Messiah --
entering Jerusalem. It goes on to sing
"Fling wide the portals of your heart.
See I There We go again, Shifting from a
Concrete event to a spiritual state, Moving
from the doors of a gate opening to my ell
heart opening both to receive theylia
No wonder 1 can't get all excited About
those holy Shrines , and holy places!
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Back to normal
After a stormy month that no one who is associated
with Brussels council would like to live through
again, Brussels council is back to normal.
It is pretty hard to tell the players without a score
card but basically the action at council in the last
month went something like this. In a private
session, long time clerk. Bill King was asked to
resign. .
At a public meeting a week later, clerk King's
resignation was accepted by council. At the new
public council meeting, a motion to rehire the clerk
and put him on probation for the rest of the year was
adopted by a vote of three to two. Later in that same
meeting, two councillors , one of whom had voted to ,
re-instate the clerk and one who had voted against -
it, resigned.
The two councillors' resignations were accepted by
the remaining members of council. Council
discussed whether to hold an election for the vacant
offices or to appoint the two former councillors 'to
their old seats, at its next meeting. No !decision was
made.
At the latest. council meeting, on Friday, council
voted to re-instate the two councillors, both, of whom
indicated in writing that they were again willing to
serve.
Whew! It's a complicated storV and what's
outlined above is only the bare bones of the situation.
• But the important thing now, the Brussels Post
believes , is to not dwell on all the confusion and
anger of the last month. Brussels council is back to
full strength, and we sincerely hope, back to normal.
All council members have to put the recent past
behind them and get on with the job that they were
elected six months ago to do.
And that job is to run our village in the most
economical and fairest way possible. The council has
many important items of business to attend to a
budget and tax rate for 1977 is the first of those. '
We're sure it's the wish of all the ratepayers of
Brussels that they-begin to work together and get on
with the job that we know they are capable of doing.
Good for the kids
Anyone who says teenagers don't care about their
community hasn't been out and about in Brussels
lately.
Monday ;night a group of hard working Leo Club
'members were out• on Main Street, planting flowers
and generally beautifying the area around the
Village office.
All of us are often too quick to criticize teenagers,
for hanging around downtown on street corners, for
example. But Brussels teenagers, members of the
Leo Club specifically,• have proved to all of us that
they put their time downtown to good use.
The Horticultural Sbciety deserves a pat on the
back for supplying the plants and for cooperating
with the young people•who donated their tabour. The
Leos deserve the thanks of all of u8 too.
Have a look at the brightened up corner outside'
the village office. Let it be a reminder of the good
things that happen When people of all ages in
Brussels work together.
Letter to the editor on page 23