An idea for Herald 2000: a two thousand-year long race

, here are two
thousand years thousand years of history to let go, and a whole new future to welcome." So said the front-page article in the first number of the newsletter Millennium News, which the Millennium Office of Churches Together in England began publishing 15 months ago. The article was about the suggestion that everybody in Britain should be asked to keep silence for one minute as the 20th century dies, to light a candle and (if they feel they can) say a prayer. We were reminded how moved we had been by pictures of Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell pictures of public squares and streets full of people holding their candle as an act of faith in a better future. We were asked: "Why should the British not do something similar?"
Why not, indeed? We cannot, though, altogether let go of 2,000 years of history, as Millennium News suggests.
Christians have done some dreadful things to each other and to others during those 2,000 years. There are many wounds still to be healed, All the same, Christians more than anybody should realise that our history has made us, and we cannot shake it off and forget it just as if it were a pair of worn-out carpet slippers. Our religion is focussed on something that happened in history: "On the night he was betrayed, he took bread..."
Of course we would dearly like to be able to wipe out of history all sorts of things that disgrace Christianity. We know we cannot. But there are good things, too, that cannot be wiped out of history: for example, the fact that Christianity is the biggest ingredient that has gone into the making of the Western cultural cake. About 5 per cent of the readers who have responded to Herald 2000's appeal for ideas have said that the public should be made more aware of just how much good has been done by Christianity in the past 2,000 years.
They have incredibly varied ideas about how this should be done, some of them modest (like holding cultural events in ancient churches), others extremely ambitious.
Some think it will be done best by going into print. George Fereday of West Sussex wants "a little revisionist Catholic History of England" to counteract the distorted ideas about religion and religious people now all over the place. Another suggestion is that big spaces be bought in two or three national newspapers to say something about what 2,000 years of Christianity have given to the world.
Many, though, of these readers are thinking on rather different lines. A number are suggesting "a Christian exhibition". But what sort of Christian exhibition? Some mean by this an exhibition of Christian art, while Ruth Kamalagharan of south London thinks the exhibition should focus explicitly on Christianity's history. John Cunningham of north-west London has yet another approach he is thinking of "an Olympia/Earls Court type of exhibition Jesus Christ Saviour 2000 AD" which would have for one of its major features something on what sort of person Jesus was and "re-creations of Bible scenes for example, the cripple being lowered through the roof of the house to Jesus."
We are delighted to have your suggestions for projects, but would you please get down a bit more to the nittygritty?
For example, how long do you think it would take to get your project out and running? Remember, to lay on a big art exhibition means years of negotiating with hundreds of galleries, museums and individuals owning what you want to exhibit.
And have you any idea how much the project will cost? A big popular exhibition could cost millions.
And what sort of people do you think are going to pay to visit it, and roughly how many? There would be little point in putting on an exhibition which would attract only church-going people.
But in this case should we give space to the unpleasant things in Christianity's history as well as the wonderful things?
These, dear readers, are some of the essential facts possible sponsors must be given to coax them into thinking for more than three seconds about a project. And it is not only exhibitions we are talking about. One of the most interesting proposals we have received is for a computer or Nintendo type of game for children, suggested by Gillian Robbins of Oxford.
It would be in the form of a race, like the one St Paul speaks about in Philippians 3:12. It would start off in ancient Rome. Roman soldiers could be part of the crowd watching, although the runner would be modern. Gradually, with the passing of the years, the scenery and the people watching the race would change, until the runner arrives at the goal, in the Millennium.
Before beginning the marathon we have to sign up. Then we have to strive to reach the finish. The competitiveness would not be so important as reaching the finish in fact other runners could be an encouragement.
The runner would start off fat, out of condition, with the wrong clothes for a marathon, and too big a backpack yes, there would have to be all sorts of changes by the runner on the way.
There would also be obstacles on the way, but good things too. Historical events would be built into the game. And what would be at the end of the run? In St Paul's words, "the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus".
Admittedly the visual representation of that could easily be "tacky and in bad taste" as the inventor of the game, Gillian Robbins, is the first to say!
Fr John Orme Mills • To write to Fr jbhn, al no cost to „yourself; please address your envelope: Millennium Ideas, Catholic Herald, FREEPOST 22527, London EC1B lEY