Sister Wendy on Marriage Equality

I read the blog posting referenced below mostly because it mentioned Sister Wendy in the title, and we here at Björnslottet are big fans of Sister Wendy Beckett. For those of you who don't know her, Sister Wendy is a nun who has made some wonderful documentaries about art and written some nice books about art. The first, and probably best, was "Sister Wendy's Odyssey" from 1992. She's informative, very knowledgeable, quite entertaining, and just adorable, as we reminded ourselves recently with our own Sister Wendy retrospective, reviewing all of her documentaries over the course of a few months.

Anyway, I found this one exchange of some interest.

[Ms. von Pfetten:] You've spoken out about gay marriage. How do you balance what you believe with what you have sworn to uphold?

[Sister Wendy:] I believe in loyalty. We should respect our church, but never believe that the church has the last word. The church is saying "this", but I believe that sooner or later "this" will change. "This" is not the mind of our Lord. God is all love. It's a delicate balancing thing. The Church has changed its position over the years, and because the spirit is with the Church, in the end the Church will always get it right. But in the end. The spirit of the Church is the meaning of love, which hasn't yet, perhaps, been fully understood.

[from Verena von Pfetten, "Sister Wendy, My Semi-Spiritual Guide", Huffington Post, 5 December 2007.]

Posted on December 12, 2007 at 18.22 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Common-Place Book

4 Responses

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Wednesday, 12 December 2007 at 23.19
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    That's remarkable all right. I just hope Sister Wendy doesn't end up being posted to a tiny mission out toward the end of the Aleutians.

  2. Written by jns
    on Thursday, 13 December 2007 at 00.06
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    It's unlikely, SW, although she might not notice the difference since she's taken a vow of solitude, to live in silence, and resides in a caravan on the grounds of a monastery as it is! She is occasionally outspoken, but not in a threatening way, and she does have her considerable celebrity on her side, not to mention her abiding modesty.

  3. Written by chris
    on Thursday, 13 December 2007 at 00.38
    Permalink

    sister WENDY! you go girl!

    (and yes, I have said the same thing to a nun I know in person).

    I was charmed by Sister Wendy the first time I saw her on the gogglebox, and she's never disappointed me since. I remember her being very sensible and down to earth about Michaelangelo being gay, and quite un-flapped about it; and yet at the same time dealing with it. Sex and sexuality (eg when she's talking about the sexiness of one of the characters in a painting) is just part of life – not to be avoided, not to be covered up with some fig-leaf, either literal or conversational, not to be sensationalised by prurience – that's Sister Wendy's approach. Would that more people had the same viewpoint.

  4. Written by Spunkdaddy
    on Sunday, 16 December 2007 at 08.48
    Permalink

    Love Sistah Wendy. Amazing person. Let's nominate her for a GLAAD award.

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