Father Anthony Sutch conducts one of his more "innovative" services.Quoting Father Anthony,Dom Anthony Sutch, the Benedictine monk who resigned as head of Downside School to become a parish priest in Suffolk, will be at the county’s Waveney Greenpeace festival this weekend to hear eco-confessions in what is thought to be the first dedicated confessional booth of its kind.
Vested in a green chasuble-style garment made from recycled curtains, and in a booth constructed of recycled doors, he will hear the sins of of those who have not recycled the things they ought to have done and who have consumed the things they ought not to have done.
It is not, I hope, blasphemous to do this.Blasphemous, perhaps. Dotty, absolutely. It's so refreshing to see a priest, and a Roman Catholic at that, being unconstrained by little details such as dogma, scripture or even personal dignity while prostituting his office in pursuit of go-ahead causes that Our Lord, being the product of unenlightened times, seems to have overlooked, such as making failure to recycle, purchasing non-macrobiotic lentils or voting Conservative a sin.
Not that this is a one off. If you feel uncomfortable about having a Christian (pardon my language) priest intervening with Blessed Mother Gaia on your behalf, there is a secular alternative.
The Waveney Greenpeace confessional concept is based on the Earthly Sins booth which has appeared at the Glastonbury festival and in the lobby of theatre performancs (sic) by the comic Rob Newman. A secular construct, Earthly Sins asks penitents to sign a pledge that they will switch to renewable energy or ethical banking.When donations for next year's wicker man will be solicited has yet to be determined.
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