Going to the movies with Harry Potter and Noah

The Revd Patrick Comerford is a priest in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe in the Church of Ireland and a former lecturer in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. He is Canon Precentor of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert

Two of the movies nominated for Oscars this year offer interesting opportunities to explore and debate spiritual values. Loving was nominated for ‘Best Actress’ (Ruth Negga), and Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese, was nominated for ‘Best Cinematography.’ Loving tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the plaintiffs in the 1967 US Supreme Court decision Loving v Virginia, which invalidated Virginia’s so-called anti-miscegenation laws.

Many of the people who defended laws against marriages like this in the US, South Africa, and many other places, invoked arguments that found Biblical justification. So Loving is a movie that talks about the values of love and marriage, but also asks who should be married, and asks deep questions about when it is right to disobey the law and how we should disobey unjust laws.

Silence, starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano and Ciarán Hinds, is an historical drama based on the 1966 novel by Shūsaku Endō. It is set in Nagasaki, and tells the story of two 17th century Jesuit missionaries who travel from Portugal to Japan in search of their missing mentor.

Scorsese’s movie examines the conflict between adhering to one’s sacred vows and traditional beliefs and doing the right thing, the prudent thing, the moral thing, on a very pragmatic level, in order to save lives and restore personal dignity. It asks questions about mission and whether we made Christianity captive to European culture, it asks questions about interfaith relations and the values of other faiths, and it invites us to reflect on what risks we would take and what lengths we would go to for our faith.

There are asides too that I find engaging, such as one priest’s fascination with the face of Christ, which he visualises in the form seen in El Greco’s painting, La Verónica, in turn based on a traditional Greek icon now in the Ajuda National Palace, Lisbon, and the only El Greco painting in Portugal.

Writing in Rolling Stone, Peter Travers says Silence offers ‘frustratingly few answers but all the right questions,’ and that it is among Scorsese’s ‘most spiritually moving films to date.’

When I was a student on a fellowship in Japan in 1979, I knew a journalist from Thailand who was a fellow student and who displayed a great familiarity with the Bible. When I asked him about his Biblical awareness, he told me everything he knew he had learned from movies. He then proceeded to list off The Ten Commandments, The Robe, The Greatest Story Ever Told … and Ben Hur and Spartacus.

The former Regal Cinema in Lichfield … are our ideas of cinema and movies outdates or related to today’s expectations of spirituality? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Exodus, the epic movie launched about three years ago has yet to take the place of Cecil B De Mille’s Ten Commandments in our collective, cultural consciousness.

The epic Noah (2014) was supposedly based on the story of Noah and the Ark. One reviewer called the flood scenes ‘a bit too Cecil B Demented for me’ and wondered at the sophistication of antediluvian orthodontists given there are so many white-toothed characters. I found it interesting to note that production was put on hold in 2012 while Hurricane Sandy hit New York with heavy rain and flooding.

Archbishop Justin Welby called Noah ‘interesting and thought-provoking’ and ‘impressive’ after Russell Crowe visited him at Lambeth Palace to discuss ‘faith and spirituality.’ Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a leading Orthodox rabbi, described Noah as ‘a valuable film, especially for our times.’ Indeed, Darren Aronofsky said he worked in ‘the tradition of Jewish Midrash’ to create ‘a story that tries to explicate Noah’s relationship with God and God’s relationship with the world as it has become.’ The name of Noah’s wife, Naamah, does not appear in the Bible, and Aronofsky derives it from the traditions of the Midrash.

This movie makes no specific mention of God. But then, of course, neither does the Book of Esther. Tom Price of the Oxford Centre for Apologetics, says Noah asks perceptive questions: ‘Is there a God? Has God spoken? What is it with human nature – are we good deep down, or is there something broken about us?’

Tom Price made a very valid observation about movies in a comment in the Church Times: ‘Ten years ago, most Christians’ reaction to cinema was generally much more negative and cynical. They were either asking for censorship, or judging the film project for having too much sex. Now I’m seeing audiences all over the UK wanting to engage with the stories, the characters, and the question.’

The movie Calvary (2014) is an Irish-made black comedy in which Brendan Gleeson plays Father James Lavelle. He is a good priest intent on making the world a better place, but he is continually shocked and saddened by the spiteful and confrontational inhabitants of his small town. One day, his life is threatened during confession, and the forces of darkness begin to close in around him.

Gravity (2013), starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is a story about two astronauts involved in the mid-orbit destruction of a space shuttle and their attempt to return to Earth. Some commentators have noted religious themes in this movie, suggesting there is ‘a dimension of reality that lies beyond what technology can master or access, the reality of God.’

The Passion of the Christ (2004) was a box-office success, grossing more than $370 million in the US, and it became the highest-grossing non-English language film ever. As we left the cinema, my then-teenage sons were not so much shocked as stunned. They noticed too how everyone left the cinema in silence.

The success and attention of the movie raises many questions:

● How do we convey and proclaim the message of Christ?
● Are we using means that are out-dated, not speaking to people, who are truly willing to listen and to learn?
● Where did we get the idea that no-one would come to church after confirmation age?
● Where did we get the idea that no-one would come to church and sit in the dark in uncomfortable chairs?
● Where did we get the idea that no-one would hear the Gospel story and still come out wanting to tell others and to share the experience?

The Mission (1986), starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons, was as the No 1 movie on the Church Times list of the Top 50 Religious Films. This movie provides us with:

● Challenging images of the Church,
● Questions about the role of the Church in political issues,
● different models of the Church,
● a variety of models of ministry,
● different models of mission,
● a way of discussing the Church’s engagement with social justice issues,
● an introduction to the relevance of liberation theology today.

But the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies also convey spiritual truths to many never reached by the Churches because they tell us:

● The importance of protecting the innocence of children.
● That those who possess power and authority (including parent-figures and religious leaders) are not always right, and don’t always possess a monopoly on truth and wisdom.
● That religious power and authority can be misused.
● That beauty and goodness are not always to be equated.
● That the ugly are not bad because we see them as ugly.
● That simple people can be wise.
● That life is a journey, and a pilgrimage.
● That we must continue to hope and believe that, in the end, good will triumph over evil.

Indeed, they tell us that movies need not have an obviously religious theme to reach and challenge the spiritual core of cinemagoers.

This paper is published in ‘Ruach’ (Trinity 2017 Edition 3, pp 28-31). ‘Ruach’ is an online journal promoting spiritual growth and healing, and is edited by the Revd Dr Jason Phillips the parish priest of Whittington, Weeford and Hints, in the Diocese of Lichfield, and Lynne Mills

A church with a discreet entrance and interesting roots and history

Behind the discreet sign and canopy, Christ Church is a church with an interesting history (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Christ Church on O’Connell Street looks like an ordinary office block in the heart of commercial block. But behind the 1950s façade is a church used by the united Presbyterian and Methodist congregation, bringing together two separate congregations since the early 1970s.

All that indicates that there is more inside is the name above the door. But until the 1950s there was a garden in front of what was a fine Gothic revival Methodist church.

The Methodist story goes back to 1739 and John Wesley’s preaching. Methodism was introduced to Limerick City by Robert Swindells, who preached his first sermon in the Parade in 1748 or 1749. The first conference of the Irish Methodists was held in Limerick in 1752, and it was chaired by John Wesley.

Wesley could be critical of Limerick’s Methodist during his visits, but in 1771, in the week immediately after Pentecost, he recorded in his Journal: ‘I spoke severally to the members of the society in Limerick. I have found no society in Ireland, number for number, so rooted and grounded in love.’

The Methodists in Limerick first rented the old church of Saint Francis’s Abbey near the Sandmall. They then built a new chapel ‘a handsome edifice near the city courthouse’ on Quay Lane (now Bridge Street). This was sold when Christ Church on George’s Street (now O’Connell Street) was built in 1812-1813.

The Communion Table in Christ Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

However, a schism divided Methodism with a rising demand for sacramental life in Methodist chapels. A vocal minority protested that such a move would separate the Methodist societies from the Church of Ireland. In 1816, the Methodist Conference approved the consolidation of the Methodists into a more formal Church and the decision caused division, with one-third seceding and forming the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society to preserve their links with the Anglicans.

The newly built-chapel on George’s Street was retained by the majority group, who were known as the Wesleyan Methodists. It was remodelled by Robert Fogerty in 1879 and reopened on 7 September 1879.

Meanwhile, the smaller minority Primitive Methodists built their own chapel, first known as the Independent Chapel and later as Central Hall, in Bedford Row in 1821. The new church was built of cut stone, in the Gothic style, with an iron balustrade and handsome entrance. David Lee and Debbie Jacobs, in James Pain, architect (2005) suggest that the church was designed by the Limerick-based architect brothers James and George Richard Pain, although there is no compelling stylistic evidence to support this. Beside it was the Independent Chapel on Bedford Row which later later moved to Hartstonge Street, where Ove Arup now has its offices.

Limerick had two Methodist churches until the Central Hall in Bedford Row closed in 1920 and the Methodist community there united with the church in O’Connell Street. The former chapel was re-opened by Paul Barnard as the Grand Central Cinema in November 1922 and was later known as Savoy 2. A three-bay three-storey cinema, façade was built in the Art Deco style in early 1930s to the front the former Methodist chapel.

A shop front was inserted on the ground floor in 1973, and access to the cinema was from one side of the building and up two flights of stairs. Savoy 2 closed in 2004 and the old Art Deco façade was demolished in 2007. I understand part of the original church frontage is encased in a new modern shop on Bedford Row.

Meanwhile, the Methodist Church on O’Connell Street was substantially rebuilt in 1938. The congregation had dwindled in numbers, and an office block was built in the garden in front of the church to create a rental space and to maximise the commercial use of the street frontage.

The building erected in 1938 is a terraced, six-bay three-storey rendered building in the Art Deco style, distinguished by two shopfronts at ground floor level, flanking a centrally-placed door opening, with vertically emphasised window bays to first and second floor and narrow window piers giving a staccato rhythm to the façade. This is a fine, yet restrained example of Art Deco architecture that is relatively rare in Limerick.

Inside Christ Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

A door opening to the side with a canopy gives access to Christ Church. This door opening has splayed bronze handrails and terrazzo steps, and the name above the door is all that identified this as a church for the passesr-by on O’Connell Street. The church is reached through a long corridor lined with memorials brought here from the former Presbyterian Church on Henry Street when the two congregations united in 1978.

As part of the 200th anniversary celebrations at Christ Church, a genealogy and family History day took place in the church in 2013. Limerick Methodist registers date from 1842, and the Presbyterian registers date from 1829. They include the records of the Methodist mission in Kilrush, Co Clare (1847-1901), and the Presbyterian congregation in Killarney, Co Kerry (1879-1907). The Methodist churches in Kilkee and Kilrush, Co Clare, and in Tarbert, Co Kerry, once formed the West Clare Mission.

Two years ago, Christ Church received a facelift with funding from Limerick City of Culture 2014. But it is still possible to walk by this building without noticing that behind the discreet façade there is a church with such an interesting story.

Corrected 8 June 2017, with acknowledgments to Liam Irwin.