wordsout by godfrey rust
The sailing of the ark  < 6 of 45



6

Some of our friends who came so earnestly
to those lectures and courses, they live now

with what we thought untenable—divorced,
or practising homosexuality, or they just gave it up,

finding that model of the Christian life
came to pieces in their hands, that hard-earned
     knowledge

icing failure with guilt. Was it sin?
Or faithlessness? Or was there also

a lack of power in that theology,
tried and exhausted by experience, its careful

applications weak appeasement to the deep
imperatives of our disordered minds and bodies,

waved like Chamberlain's fluttering paper—"Peace in
     our time"—
against the darker annexations of the human will?


Reflections on courses of study run by Andrew Cornes at All Souls, Langham Place.

Peace in our time Neville Chamberlain’s words on returning from his attempt to appease Hitler at Munich in 1938, as he waved “a piece of paper bearing the signature of Herr Hitler” which was supposed to guarantee peace.