A Song for Greg Reynolds

Excommunication is one of those dream words in Scrabble that can land you a winning margin. However, outside the scrabble board it can land a recipient on the losing side of their religious community. Christian leaders  have been busily excommunicating since Paul started the trend.

Thanks to Wikipedia we have a comprehensive list of those who fell off the scrabble board from the first Century. The list is inclusive for the first few centuries but the post Constantinians are Roman Catholics. It is worth noting that the 4th and 8th century were pretty quiet with only one name for each.

With the rise of new communication technologies, Television and  the internet the 20th Century became a boom time with 13 listings of excommunication. Some of these were group bookings so the number is quite inflated. The list includes a few who either recanted or had their excommunication lifted.

We are only 13 years into the 21st Century and heading for a Guiness breaking record as there are twelve listings and  87 more years of Temple Policing to go. Despite Catholic demographics  Australia manages to stand out in the listings with Saint Mary MacKillop appearing for a brief excommunication in the 19th century and most recently Fr Greg Reynolds, the newest recipient of the  letter from Rome.

Greg Reynolds expressed his "shock" at the Vatican decision.However as with so many other  middle aged, middle class,middle of the road Catholics he forgot to use the Duck test. Bottom line question: "Is the Pope  Catholic"?  Yes,Greg Popes excommunicate, as do most institutional leaders and groups from time to time.I don't quite know why there is so much angst about the excommunication as the movement Greg has founded makes it quite clear they don't want to be associated with the Church's' forms of governance"

And, yes for those who are wondering I  have been through the MAMCMOTR journey in Catholicism. It\s an interesting but somewhat unworkable acronym like its membership.

Media, blogs and  everyone with an opinion  suddenly know Greg Reynolds,a decent and passionate  bloke  who I remember from my days at Corpus Christi in Melbourne.

No doubt Greg and  those who will follow him will take some inspiration from Pete Seeger's classic rendition of the old rebel song,

Die Gedanken Sind Frei (Our Thoughts Are Free) 


       



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