Alan writes – There are many aspects of the Roman Catholic Church that I have learnt to admire and draw from; so being near Sydney at the time of the ‘World Youth Day’ events was too good an opportunity to miss.
We waited two hours with hundreds of thousands of others to see the Pope stream past in a whirr of speed and security. Seeing all the security at work – dogs, diplomatic squads, helicopters, police on motor bikes, police on horses, police on push bikes and police in boats etc made the two hours nearly as quickly as the Pope. We wandered the closed of streets with tens of thousands of young Catholics. We toured the harbour to get a feel for the extent of the crowds – 200,000 people is a huge crowd. We watched the Stations of the Cross (see here) from a park in Circular Quay with the noise of trains, rail announcements, helicopters, ferries and cars all around. It was a very moving portrayal in the midst of the market place. And somehow the story of the crucifixion made more sense in the midst of the realities of a large city.
This was the first time I have ever seen western-secular-capitalist-society dwarfed by the Christian story, Christian values and young people openly and unashamedly living their faith. There were no evangelistic hard sells! No one peddling tracts! (oh; us protestants have so much to learn. Why are protestant gatherings like conventions of commission salesmen?) There were just tens of thousands of young Christians waving flags, singing and laughing all over the city. And they ruled the city.
The streets were closed to traffic but awash with people. Sydney, it seemed, didn’t know what to make of it – yet everywhere there was delight in what was happening and open conversations about faith, spirituality and belief. They were happening on the streets, in the cafes and the pubs. The shop keepers, proprietors of flash hotels and restaurant owners seemed more perplexed than annoyed that theses crowds weren’t buying. And all the talk of protests and concern about apologies might have been part of the media view but it wasn’t what it was like on the ground.
As we wandered the streets and listened and watched it slowly dawned on me this was the first time I had ever seen secular capitalist society step back, move beyond perceptions and prejudices of Christianity and enjoy watching, listening to and being with Christians. So for one weekend, in my life time, I can now say I have seen a major western city become the backdrop to the greatest story ever told. And to be honest, from my perspective; most Sydney-ites seemed to enjoy it, be moved by it and value it just as much as we did.
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