Warden’s Address from Stig Graham,
Warden of the Society
Society of Ordained Scientists, Gathering, Launde Abbey, UK, 2024
Ezra 9.1-4; 1 Corinthians 13; John 10.14

I have said this before I know, so apologies, but there are times when I do enjoy, even prefer, the King James Version. The words and cadence resonate easily on the tongue, and on the heart. Some of my other recent reading has resulted in the phrase, ‘through a glass, darkly’, coming to mind frequently. But, in true self-referential mode, in the world of Hebrew translation, even that phrase seems to yield its own confusion and debate, with particular heat about the presence or absence of a comma following glass and preceding darkly. But then, perhaps punctuation is the putative dark matter to be found, or not, in ancient Hebrew texts. Certainly, papers are written on its non-existence.
There are times when I am quite happy with the Ptolemaic system. There are times when even that is too complicated. It’s not necessary to worry where the sun goes, and whether it’s the same one coming up each morning. On a sunny day, and any time of the year, one swift glance at the sky – and the time, and the direction to base camp, can be deduced, which satisfies all I need to know, not to mention my Vitamin D requirements.
And as we progress through the year, one can go Copernican, and reflect on the earth tilted on its axis relative to its orbital plane around the sun. And don’t tell anyone, as my children’s astronomy books did, that the earth wobbles. What makes it wobble? And no one could tell me. Until the penny dropped that it didn’t wobble, it’s just tilted.
What cause the ‘darkly’: the glass itself or the eyes trying to see through it.
And further again, with a spacetime continuum, and three dimensional gravity wells, not just the two they always draw in text books, and time slowing down and speeding up, and, yes, it’s not as dark as it could be, I can just about see through it, and then someone says, but you realise that this is a three dimensional projection within a four dimensional bubble, and my brain begins to shut down, and someone else says, but it’s all a digital simulation anyway, and can I have some NASA funding to test the hypothesis, and now my brain is modelling a black hole, and not only is the glass dark, even the glass, or the event horizon, seems to have vanished.
And then I read Nick Spencer’s book, Magisteria. To be clear, Nick’s book is clear sighted, illuminating so much of the entwined history of science and Christian faith and, for me at least, making sense of it. And without using the word wobble at all. Though my heart did wobble as Nick’s laid bare of the role of science in the eugenics movement, which provided clear evidence, objective, empirical, and statistically demonstrated, that all men are not equals. It must have been gratifying for them to find the most elite humans of all, physically, mentally, morally, were men just like themselves, white, well educated, middle class or higher, financially sound, respected by men just like themselves. Self reference is a dangerous tool.
In so many areas of life we are still trying to recover from that perspective, that arrogance. It still pervades our modern society. For once, however, it was the Church who challenged the scientists, saying, no, in God’s eyes, we are all God ‘s children and we are all equal in God’s eyes. Or to use an alternative more modern translation, translation, in a ‘we see a reflection in a mirror’, does the mirror distort my image, or do my eyes, or my interpretation.
And then I read Ed Yong’s book, An Immense World, in which he explores the many and diverse ways that animals of all kinds sense, are aware of, the environment around them, their umwelt. History repeats itself as human scientists, with a literal and metaphorical limited vision, peer darkly at the living creatures around them. For so many years animal senses have been dismissed and diminished.
So, contrary to previous writings, dogs are not colour blind, can see well in the red, blue and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. They may not have a colour palette as nuanced as humans, having only two kinds of colour sensitive cells whereas we, mostly, have three. But before the males among us applaud ourselves, it has been found some women have four. But even that is no great feat, as many animals have several more and the mantis shrimp has twelve, sixteen counting the ones that see polarised light, and can swivel its eyes in any direction, and independently too.
Darkly, it is so easy to turn the wonder of senses into a simplistic competition, when what really matters is what helps as species to survive and prosper. And as for vision, here is a quote from Yong, “The real glory of colours isn’t that some can see more of them, but that there’s such a range of possible rainbows”
The Books of Ezra and Nehemia pose an interesting challenge for us. Who belongs in the kingdom of God they are building. A very limited gene pool. It certainly did not include the Samaritans and other local tribes, those who had been left behind. Divided off and then discarded. But are they right? A purity of vision and purpose? Clear sharp dividing lines. A purity of people who are themselves pure and purposeful. In their context, they achieved a lot. But did it include enough rainbows. Was it just a monochromatic rainbow? Oh, for a prism, a very special glass, when you need one.
We have had our own ongoing challenges since our inception as ordained scientists. What constitutes ordination? What defines scientist? Where do we draw our lines?
As scientists and disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, we continue to be surprised and sometimes disturbed at how inclusive and interdependent God’s creation keeps turning out to be. People often ask whether they will be with their pets once again in heaven. I recently asked a spirituality group whether the assorted bacteria, mites, and assorted invertebrates we carry within and about us would enter the gates of heaven, especially the ones that contribute to our wellbeing, even survival. Soteriologically speaking, do we share an umwelt?
Jesus just by his existence would have turned Ezra and Nehemia’s world upside down. Pentecost would have pulled it inside out. The outsiders are now inside. What happened to the gates? Who is this gatekeeper? Other flocks, other pens, other I’s.
God said let there be light. And light filled the universe. Is my ‘darkly’ my lack of ability or am I just squinting, half closing my eyes, trying not to be overwhelmed by the abundance and plurality of God’s rainbows.