THE contents of Gary Fysch’s letter (CL 2/7/00) about the recent interfaith concert at St Brigid’s Church, Red Hill reflected a common experience of the day and a common hope for the future.
The size of the building and the grandeur of faith it exhibits and demands was met with equal measure by the awe with which I listened to and experienced item after item.
But overwhelmingly I sat there wondering. I wondered if others present had any inkling of the historical events that had preceded them 86 years earlier in this place? I wondered especially for the young people from Brisbane Boys’ College and Stuartholme College and their part in the new page of history being written that day. Was I attending the first major event of interfaith sharing that had occurred in this church since Dr Daniel Mannix had delivered the sermon at its consecration and opening in 1914?
I wondered because Mannix’s sermon was described by Edmund Campion in his book Australian Catholics ( p 80-81) as containing “… corrosive, ironic wit, so unsparing of those perceived as opponents …” The sermon topic related to the union of the Churches. According to Campion’s description of the theology, Mannix unmistakably asserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church. Campion referred to the “blunt uncompromising assertion of Catholic exclusivism” contained in the speech. Though Mannix’s speech on one hand seemed couched in conciliatory rhetoric, Campion described how Mannix’s irony was devastating, the mockery unmistakably funny.
Though it was one of Brisbane’s coldest winter days on June 11, 2000, I sat there and felt a warm sense of the majesty of the occasion. At long last so many of us were able to share our faith openly with one another at an event that was obviously thought to be unimaginable back in August 1914 and in a building where once emotions felt such a fierce disregard for the possibility of unity. In seeking reconciliation the occasion reminded me of the humility with which I 2must seek the future.
VINCE HODGE Paddington, Qld
