KINDLY offering advice, a friend once expressed to me his view that the role of a priest or any minister in Holy Orders is to ensure the sacraments are celebrated with due solemnity, that sound doctrine is maintained and the scriptures expounded and interpreted correctly. It’s a bit like Noël Coward explaining how to act on stage: simply say your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.
In short, my friend’s advice amounts to: get it right. There are lines to say and don’t fall down the pulpit steps. However, at this time of year, my friend’s words always come back to me because the Easter narrative, as told in the Gospels, is actually a patchwork of mistakes, a story about getting it wrong over and
