麻豆约拍

A reflection and prayer to start the day with Rev Cheryl Meban

Good morning.

If you like Rugby, you may have noticed that Toulouse recently became the first side to win five Champions Cups. As a Francophile, I was fascinated to discover another Toulouse victory, in the year 721 鈥� exactly 1300 years ago today.

Odo, Duc d鈥橝cquitaine, had fled his capital city, Toulouse. The wali of Al-Andalus, had built up a strong Umayyad army to invade Acquitaine. Toulouse after a siege of some three months, was about to surrender, when Odo returned with reinforcements. The invaders had become overconfident, neglecting to maintain the outer defences around their siege camp. The returning Odo鈥檚 forces completely surprised the besieging army, scattering and slaughtering soldiers resting, and those fleeing without weapons or armour.

For this victory, Odo became 鈥淥do the Great鈥�. Even though he was dreadfully defeated 12 years later at Bordeaux,the Battle for Toulouse secured time for the Frankish forces to develop sufficiently eventually to secure a decisive victory against the Umayyads eleven years later at Tours.
We鈥檒l never really know what would have happened, if Odo had been defeated at Toulouse, or arrived later 鈥� or sooner. And no earthly justice can repay the cruelties of the competitive human spirit and the inhumanity of the compulsion for power. But the arc of history is long鈥�

God thank you that so many of our tribal battles can be played on pitches; and with rules and time limits rather than the powerful imposing their presence violence. Prevent us from perpetuating economic warfare, taking lands from indigenous peoples, burning rainforests and trashing ecosystems. Amen