What Paul McCartney, seals and the St. Philip's church have in common

Whatever you think of who wrote what in the Bible, there are some simple and basic truths in it.

Take Ecclesiastes 1:1-8: "There is a time for everything."

As hokey as it might sound to those who prefer originality over clichés, there really is a time for everything.

We all know it. There's no love without hate, no summer without winter, no up without down unless you want to get into relativity, and that's best left to mathematicians and physicians.

So, whether we like it or not, there's a time for celebrities like Paul McCartney to call for an end to the seal hunt.

We may question his credentials. We may point out that writing divine love songs doesn't make him an expert on social issues as complex as the northwest Atlantic seal hunt. But we can't take his time away.

Besides, the call has its own time. So many people have called for the end of the hunt in the past, and so many will continue to do so in the future, one more or less McCartney isn't going to make any difference.

That doesn't stop us, though, from asking McCartney what business he has sticking his nose into our seal hunt in the first place. McCartney's reply to that has been that hunting seals is not just our affair, it's a larger issue for all of humankind.

What happens to an old church

And that brings me to St. Philip's and the rector of its Anglican parish, Rev. Ed Keeping.

Keeping has asked the group called the Church By The Sea the same question. What business do they have telling him what the parishioners can or cannot do with their old church?

They have a new one. Who, in this day and age, needs one that's not being used - not to mention the fact that the deal to build and finance the new one included the condition that the old one be demolished.

Like McCartney, the Church By The Sea has pleaded the larger cause. The 120-year-old church is more than just parish property, it argues. It belongs to the whole community.

Cory Thorne, head of Memorial University's folklore department, agrees. In a recent letter of support for the campaign to save the church he writes, "As a building that was constructed by volunteers with money donated by community members, this is a property whose ownership expands far beyond conservative interpretations of legal ownership."

The foundation of an even older church 

According to historical records, the church was built by 80 men from Broad Cove on the foundation of an even older church dating back to 1848.

Thorne quotes an Evening Telegram article of June 8, 1893, which says the men built it with "such strength and skill of workmanship as could be surpassed by very few tradesmen." They even cut and milled their own timber.

Thorne also points out that because the church "has undergone so little renovation, this building is a particularly strong example of vernacular Gothic style, as locally interpreted and once commonly found in many of our island's Anglican churches."

The Church By the Sea group has a master plan to restore the building. It also has $45,000 in money raised and a Heritage Canada loan guarantee to make that happen. They've talked about turning the structure into a cultural centre for the community with activities such as music, arts and crafts, plus museum and gallery displays.

McCartney has an alternative proposal for the sealing grounds as well. Close them to hunters and open them to ecotourists.

Minding their own business, and yours

So here comes the question. Newfoundland sealers lay historical claim to their seals, the St. Philip's parish legal claim to its old church. If the sealers feel justified in telling McCartney to mind his own business, what's to prevent Rev. Keeping from telling the members of The Church By The Sea to mind theirs?

Those who will and those who won't

Well, there are two answers.

Yes, there's a time for everything, for those who will and those who won't, or, as McCartney and the Beatles once crooned, 'You say yes, I say no, You say stop, I say go, go, go.'

There's the other answer, that yes and no are merely end points between which any number of compromises are possible if the will is there.

And that's one more thing the seal hunt and the fight over the old church in St. Philip's have in common.

There's no will for compromise on the part of the McCartneys of the world; there was no will for compromise on the part of Rev. Keeping and his parish either.

The parish has applied for a demolition permit. Staff at Portugal Cove-St. Philip's town hall have recommended approval. The council is expected to vote on it at its next regular meeting and give it its reluctant OK.

And Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 will still hold true. There's a time for everything, including the parish's victory and the Church By The Sea's defeat.

Unless there's more to come. And when it does, there'll be time for that as well.