I am a great admirer of much preaching as an effective form of communication. This type, however, rarely works. It consists of taking something believed to be ‘in people’s minds’ and using it as a metaphor. In this case masks are used. I am sure if giraffes had escaped the local zoo the Bishop would be tempted to base a sermon on that perhaps pointing our that looking around us from a great height can help understand the path to true spiritual freedom. (For clarity I’m just here talking about the communications technique, not the substance of the Bishop’s message, or suggesting that the Bishop is anything other than a really nice person!)
