Magnus being martyred

We had some visitors in our Sunday morning church meeting this week – which is big news in itself, really, but there’s more to it than that. To my shame I didn’t catch their names or where they currently live, but they have connections on the Orkneys and used to live there. For a small congregation like ours getting visitors can be quite scary. And of course, visitors can enhance a worship meeting or detract from it. I’m glad to say that this couple definitely enhanced our time together as they participated fully in what we were doing.

But it was the story they shared about an inhabitant of the Orkney Isles from the 11^th and 12^th centuries that really grabbed my attention. Magnus Erlendsson was the son of one of the earls of Orkney. In 1098, King Magnus ‘Barelegs’ (I kid you not!) of Norway attacked Orkney and made his son overlord, thus depriving the young Magnus of his rightful place. From Orkney the king left for a raiding trip down to Wales and took young Magnus with him. But when the raiding party arrived at the shores of Anglesey, Magnus refused to fight and stayed on board ship singing Psalms. The king was none too pleased with this overtly Christian behaviour but the young Magnus escaped and hid until the king died in 1102. In time he became joint earl of Orkney but island politics being what they were (and still are) his time as ruler did not go well and he would eventually loose his life. According to tradition many miracles occurred on the site of his murder and his grave.

Whatever the truth may be, the detail about Magnus refusing to fight because of his Christian convictions and the connections with Anglesey (apparently a Norse name for our island) is significant. According to our visitors it was on the Menai Straits – that narrow channel of sea between the island and the mainland – that this event occurred. Ever since the first Roman invasion, however, the Straits have only ever been known as the route that bloody invaders took. To hear of one who refused to fight, therefore, is worth noting.

And worth noting in a spiritual way somehow. My sense is that we need to mark this ‘historical’ event in such a way that cuts the bond that ties us to our conquered past. Not all who came here came to conquer, rob and destroy. As an initial idea I’m thinking of having people cross the Straits in a boat and that they are welcomed by us on this side. Not so much a walk this time, more a boat ride. Anyone up for that?

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