Chosen

Michele Guinness

Description

Michele Guinness was brought up to observe all the traditions and ritual of her Jewish culture. But in her teens she found something lacking. When she encountered a Christian it raised questions in her own mind, and she turned to the Bible for answers. In this lively account she tells how she came face to face with the Messiah and had to make sense of being both Jewish and Christian. In due course she would marry Peter Guinness, of the brewing family - who would become a minister in the Church of England. This highly diverting autobiography, studded with vivid anecdotes, describes her spiritual journey from one faith to another and the social and cultural pitfalls involved.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 19 octobre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780857219213
• Langue: English

Extrait

Text copyright 2018 Michele Guinness
This edition copyright 2018 Lion Hudson IP Limited
The right of Michele Guinness to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by
Lion Hudson Limited
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Business Park
Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England
www.lionhudson.com
ISBN: 978-0-8572-1920-6
e-ISBN: 978-0-8572-1921-3
First edition 2008
Second edition 2018
Acknowledgments
Cover images: Tower of David Elena Dijour/ Shutterstock; Star of David Damian Palus/ Shutterstock; Cross Nicholas 852/ Shutterstock
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder Stoughton Ltd. All rights reserved.
p. 342: Quote from Death of Flowers from Selected Poems by Edith Joy Scovell. Used by permission of Carcanet Press Limited. p. 350: (World excluding USA) Excerpt from Little Gidding from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot. Used by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. (USA) Excerpt from Little Gidding from FOUR QUARTETS by T.S. Eliot. Copyright 1942 by T.S. Eliot. Copyright renewed 1970 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
In Memory of Herald Gilbert
And Paul and Jean Guinness
Contents

Acknowledgments

Glossary of Hebrew terms

Introduction

1 Of Pedigrees, Peers and Poverty

2 The Docta s Bairns

3 Lessons in the Jewish Way of Life

4 A Very Anglican Education

5 The Forbidden Books

6 Unwelcome Revelations

7 So Who Am I, Really?

8 On the Streets

9 Of Romance and Its Consequences

10 In the Vicar Factory

11 Mining, Striking and Finding Gold

12 Sent to Coventry

13 Of Work, Womanhood, Sex and Sensuality

14 Auntie Beeb, the Blitz and Being in the Money

15 In Red Rose County

16 Let Children Be the Barometer

17 The Years Roll By

Some Favourite Traditional Recipes
Acknowledgments
Over the years many wonderful friends have fed and enriched me with the wealth of their wisdom, and may, or may not, be pleased to see it regurgitated here - if they recognize it in this disguise.
A particular thanks to the churches who have had the dubious pleasure of our ministry, and have given us a great deal more than we could ever have given them. I hope I have done your love and encouragement justice.
Thanks to Tony Collins at Monarch for encouraging me to rewrite my autobiography - and taking the risk of publishing it.
Thanks (what else?) to my long-suffering relatives, my mother, late stepfather, brother and sister-in-law for being such wonderful fall guys, and for nourishing me with all that s best in Jewish warmth, wisdom and laughter. I wish my father had been alive to read the book. How he would have enjoyed himself.
Thanks to my children, whose financial needs and hearty appetites made writing necessary - and still do, and who interrupted the muse at regular, two-minute intervals for advice and a cuddle - and still do (though such is their size that I sit on their knees these days). How can I complain about the aggravation, when they also provide such a vital source of inspiration?
And special thanks to that wise critic and partner, my lovely husband, who set me on the trail in search of my Jewish roots, has shared the adventure with me into our more mature years, and complains very little about having the intimate details of his private life made public - all things considered.
Glossary of Hebrew Terms
Festivals Rosh Hashanah Jewish New Year (usually in September) Yom Kippur The Day of Atonement (a week after the New Year) Sukkot The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (a week after Yom Kippur) Pesach The Passover Purim The Feast of Esther (March) Shavuot Pentecost (The Feast of Weeks) Hanukkah The Festival of Lights (December) Adonai The Lord - a very holy name for God Afikomen Middle piece of three matzos used by leader in Passover service and symbolic of Passover lamb Bar Mitzvah Lit. blessing of the son , the coming of age of a Jewish boy at thirteen Bat Mitzvah Lit. blessing of a daughter , the coming of age of a Jewish girl at twelve Beth Din The court of rules Bimah Raised platform at the front of the synagogue Charoset A mixture of apples, wine and walnuts eaten at Passover as a symbol of the mud that held the bricks together in Egypt Chasid A very orthodox Jew Cheder Hebrew classes Chollah The plaited Sabbath loaf Chuppah The bridal canopy Cohanim The priestly line Davening Swaying and praying Etrog A citrus fruit held at the feast of Sukkot Gefilte fish Chopped fish balls Goldene Medina The golden (promised) land Goyim Gentiles Grebens Fried bits of chicken skin Haggadah Lit. The telling , the Passover service book Halachah Lit. The progess or journey , the rules of Judaism passed down by word of mouth that describe the proper path through life Ha shem The Name , a common word used when speaking about God Helzel Savoury stuffed chicken intestine Jahrzeit Annual commemoration of a dead relative Kaddish Prayers in memory of the dead Kiddush The traditional Friday evening Sabbath prayers Kiddushim Marriage, lit. holies Kneidlach Matza meal dumplings Kosher Prepared according to the dietary rules Landsleit A relative Lulav Threefold branch waved in synagogue at feast of Sukkot Ma erev Evening prayer Maccabi Jewish youth movement Matzo Unleavened bread Minyan Ten men needed before Jewish prayers can be said publicly Schmaltz Chicken fat Schmatters Tatters, or cheap clothes Schochet The ritual slaughterer Schul The synagogue Seder Lit. The Service , Passover service, usually said in the home Shabbat Sabbath Shema The prayer said by every Jew morning and evening. Lit. Hear Sheitel The wig worn by orthodox Jewish women Shiva Seven days of official mourning after a bereavement Siddur The Jewish prayer book Shofar The ram s horn Simcha A party Tsimmes A sweet, one-pot stew Yiddishkeit A Jewish way of life
Introduction

I don t think anyone should write their autobiography until after they re dead.
Samuel Goldwyn, movie maker
E veryone has a story, an autobiography, inside them. To get the chance to write it and share it once is an immense privilege. To do it twice may seem a tad self-indulgent. After all, there are thousands of people still alive, not to mention the ones who are not, who have been far more altruistic, entrepreneurial and successful, have made a far greater contribution to the world and are much more deserving of having their deeds recorded for posterity. I was just little Miss Nobody from Nowhere , and still am - a Jewish girl who set off on an adventure that involved being married to a vicar and the Church of England too. Reeling from the shock of it, and from the feeling that the essential person I was would simply be swept away by the powerful force of church culture if I didn t swim for my life, I hung on to who I was. It is that passion for authenticity in the face of expectations and the pressure to conform that has always driven me to record my experiences, in the hope that they may resonate in other lives, stirring up the courage that will make uniqueness a God-given gift to be welcomed, not feared.
I knew when I wrote it, almost thirty years ago, that I had written Child of the Covenant too soon, and would one day want to write it again. It s not that the basic facts didn t happen or were inaccurate. It s just that over the years the kaleidoscope kept turning and what seemed important then no longer seems so today, and what I left out then now has immense significance in the light of the way my life has turned out. Distance changes the perspective. I thought I had resolved the culture shock that pursued me through Promised Land and A Little Kosher Seasoning , that I had become a fully assimilated, totally kosher church member, but that was naive. Resolution has come slowly and sometimes painfully, through living with that sense of alienation, embracing it and learning to use it constructively, accepting that being Jewish, and in a foreign environment at that, I ll always be a bit of an objective observer, an outsider, a commentator, what my husband affectionately calls, a bump on a log . For someone with a career in journalism it has actually been immensely useful.
Not only that, but whether I like it or not, thirty-five years is almost two generations, and now, much sooner than I ever imagined, I can set my story in a historical context. The rigid class distinctions of the post-war years that defined my early childhood have vanished. So have the swinging, snogging, scary sixties of my teeny-bop, university era. Now, in the light of rapid advances in technology and communications, and a different world for women, they would seem like quaint timepieces. Anyone under the age of thirty would need some explanation of how we lived in those dim, distant days.
When I reread Child of the Covenant I realized it couldn t simply be reprinted, even in an updated form. Hindsight is just too instructive and illuminating a companion. So even though I m not dead enough yet to follow Sam Goldwyn s excellent advice, I couldn t resist the urge to go back to the writer s equivalent of a drawing board and start the story all over again. So now, if you re sitting comfortably
Chapter 1
Of Pedigrees, Peers and Poverty
I do love a pedigree. It conveys a sense of history, of continuity, even of immortality. My husband s, presented to me on the occasion of our engagement, is most impressive. He can boast of