Oh when the (80% male?) saints…

Detail from the John Nava’s tapestry ‘The Communion of the Saints’ Cathedral of Our Lady and the Angels, Los Angeles

Saints inspire and encourage. They are good examples. The ‘great cloud of witnesses,’ saints and holy ones encourage us by their lives, examples and prayers. “O blest communion, fellowship divine!’

The Church of England’s Exciting Holiness gives an authorized modern calendar of saints and holy people. It offers a selection from the great communion of saints. Many and varied people have been chosen for the calendar, some have been honoured for centuries in the church, some are more modern. Of some me know a great deal, of others, such as St Agatha, we know very little, but their legends enrich the corpus of the christian faith.

However, looking carefully at the Calendar of Exciting Holiness gives rise to several questions. The selection which the compilers of the Calendar make from the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ is curiously selective and unfortunately imbalanced.

A quick (but we hope reasonably accurate) count shows that 80% of those named are male, 20% female, and only 5% are married.

What  extraordinary statistics!

Let’s hope that they don’t reflect the make up of the ‘fellowship divine!’

What does this say to the twenty first century about where holiness is to be found? What role models to Christians today are being given?

It is immediately clear that the majority of the ‘saints’ in Exciting Holiness are ordained men, the greatest majority are European, and clergy, and very few are from the last hundred years.

What is true of the Church of England calendar is most likely true of other calendars of saints too. Of course it can be argued that it has ever been thus in the Church, and sadly that is probably true. Although the Roman Catholic General Calendar shows a greater cultural variance than Exciting Holiness it too is dominated by single men. Local churches often rightly have their own local calendars. We do at St Chrysostom’s. This allows for greater variety, and can often lead to a much more inclusive approach.

At a time when words such as ‘reform’ and ‘renewal’ are being used in the Church of England we suggest the Calendar needs reform too! Let’s have more black saints, more women saints, more saints in families or close relationships and please let’s not be so focussed on Europe. .. and why not (more) LGBT saints?

Any suggestions as to who should be included?

Have a look too at:  For all the – LGBT – saints and, for something a little different, Cross dressing saints, and why not celebrate your own name day?

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