Scotland rugby officials were greatly exercised by the typhoon approaching Japan. The cancellation of their game with World Cup hosts Japan would have meant they could not secure the win they needed to progress. In the event, the game went ahead - and they still didn't secure the win they needed!
Wales are doing better than Scotland in this World Cup. Rugby in Wales has also had its cancellations. On the captains' board at Crynant RFC, founded in the same-named village north of Swansea in 1898 there are some gaps. Some from lost early years of recorded history, some when the club closed in the First World War, and . . .
. . . and five years when the Club closed on account of a Religious Revival. Yes, such was the impact of the Welsh Revival on the men of the valleys that there was no time for practicing or playing rugby. We would not expect a monastery to have too many active sports teams - they should be praying.
But the nature of true revival is that ordinary men and women are consumed by the fervour that institutionally holds monks and nuns - a fervour not from a Rule but from within. It is a distance from where many Christians live their lives. Too often lesser things interrupt the Spirit rather than the reverse. Yet we pray on.
No comments:
Post a Comment