St Cecilia

St Cecilia; Guido Reni

Today is St Cecilia's day, now I'm not from a Church Tradition that celebrates Saint's day because we believe in that all believers are saints.   I also believe in the priesthood of all believers so the idea of setting some believers up as being in some way superior to others is anathema to me. Having said all that St Cecilia is the patron Saint of Music, Musicians and vagabonds, so today is a special day.

This afternoon I will be leading the Croydon event for the International Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Croydon Central Library ~ please do join us if you are in the area anytime between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.

After that I will be heading home for a quick change before playing euphonium with the All Saints Concert Band in Thornton Heath.   So this year I will be celebrating St Cecilia's day by playing music.   I do worry that as music is forced lower and lower down the priorities of our education system this is something that fewer people will be able to do in years to come.   It seems to me that rather than encouraging people to study sciences, mathematics and engineering, the arts are being actively discouraged.   It may be science and engineering that drives our economy and and builds our infrastructure, but it is the arts that make us human.

More to the point arts and science are not in conflict, just as faith and science do not need to be conflict, until very recently they were considered to be different aspects of the same thing, we need an understanding of the science we use to make our art, and scientist need to have an understanding of how art expresses our condition.