Sister Wendy Beckett

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Has anyone ever heard of her?

Last night I turned on the TV and there was a documentary by BBC. It showed different paintings of Jesus and this nun was talking about the story behind each one. The documentary was of an informative nature but in the interviews with the nun she had a way of introducing Jesus to the audience in a deeply personal way. I was very moved by it. I was kind of surprised because I’ve always thought that BBC had an anti-Christian bias. But this was a very beautiful documentary.
 
I would say that the BBC have a anti Catholic bias, but probably not a consciously deliberate one. As with most media sources they have a strongly liberal bias due to the strong bias towards liberal politics that permeates the performing arts and many news and other media outlets.
They have a charter which requires them to be Unbiased, and they do their best to live up to this, but would have very few non “Liberal” christians in decision making positions.

As England, where the BBC is based have an established church in the Church of England, most christian programming is based on the Church of England view. Most other programming about the Church tends to be “News and current affairs” which only likes to report “Bad News” and will therefore include a lot of the modern witch-hunt against the Church… Luckily they dont seem to ignore the crimes in other organisations that the church gets so often accused of… I understand that in some countries like parts of the USA and Ireland that when there are sexual scandals surrounding state institutions, media institutions, other faiths, other schools etc that they tend to be ignored by the press… only cases involving the Catholic Church get reported… In the UK and reporting by the BBC does not follow this pattern. In fact there is a major enquiry at the moment into why a news programme scrapped an enquiry into abuse by a major TV presenter in the 70’s and the result has been a huge police investigation which has resulted in large numbers of former Childrens TV presenters, other Media Figures, Politicians, Producers and many many other public figures being charged with a wide range of offences against young and vulnerable people.

The BBC have run a number of documentary programmes in recent years that have been very favourable to the Catholic Church, including a series looking at a number of young women considering vocations to the Religious Life in Carmelite Franciscan and other convents, and followed them through their discernment and early formation. It treated those who did not ultimately discern that their choice was right just as fairly as those who found themselves very happy with their choice…

They do have daily “Thought for the day” slots on some radio stations, which have a rotation of speakers each day - unfortunately I think every single speaker on their rota seems to be from “Liberal” branches of their faith… including the Catholic people chosen. Some such as the Jewish speakers openly identify themselves as such, as do several of the other christian speakers. The catholic speakers tend to only come on rarely.
 
CompSciGuy said:
Has anyone ever heard of her?

Last night I turned on the TV and there was a documentary by BBC. It showed different paintings of Jesus and this nun was talking about the story behind each one. The documentary was of an informative nature but in the interviews with the nun she had a way of introducing Jesus to the audience in a deeply personal way. I was very moved by it. I was kind of surprised because I’ve always thought that BBC had an anti-Christian bias. But this was a very beautiful documentary.
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Yes, I remember Sister Wendy from way back! I think she is something of an art historian or enthusiast, and I recall her wonderful talks about paintings on television.
 
CompSciGuy said:
Has anyone ever heard of her?

Last night I turned on the TV and there was a documentary by BBC. It showed different paintings of Jesus and this nun was talking about the story behind each one. The documentary was of an informative nature but in the interviews with the nun she had a way of introducing Jesus to the audience in a deeply personal way. I was very moved by it. I was kind of surprised because I’ve always thought that BBC had an anti-Christian bias. But this was a very beautiful documentary.
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I LOVE Sister Wendy, and recently watched the entire series again. It was wonderful.
 
Besides the interesting TV programs, she has some good books.
 
CompSciGuy said:
Has anyone ever heard of her?

Last night I turned on the TV and there was a documentary :)behind each one. The documentary was of an informative nature but in the interviews with the nun she had a way of introducing Jesus to the audience in a deeply personal way. I was very moved by it. I was kind of surprised because I’ve always thought that BBC had an anti-Christian bias. But this was a very beautiful documentary.
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I’ve some of Sister Wendy’s programs. I think that she is a Church of England cloistered nun (don’t remember the order). :cool 🙂
 
Sister Wendy is a VERY interesting person. Not only is she a Religious and a Art Historian, she is also a hermit. On top of that, she admits to have some personality quirks that make being a hermit quite necessary. She does not attend Mass in the Church, but sits alone in the hallway outside and only comes in for the Eucharist. She lives in a trailer on the grounds of a convent, alone. She claims to have trouble relating to people, including her fellow sisters, altogether. One sister is responsible for bringing her her meals, which she eats alone in her trailer.

She says that she does not have any feelings of sexuality, and therefore her sacrifice of Chasity is one she cannot really share with her community as for her, there is no sacrifice involved. Likewise, she claims to have trouble understanding a lot of human interpersonal feelings as she just doesn’t have them and doesn’t really understand how other human beings think and feel. She actually sounds like she has Aspergers, but she grew up in a time when such was not known or understood.

Yet, for all her claims of not understanding human emotions, she is quite eloquent when describing paintings that are about human emotions! It is really a puzzle.

She claims to hate the part of her life that involves leaving home and talking to other people or discussing with editors her books. For her, that part of her life is her cross, but it allows her to contribute to her community financially and not require her to work in community to do so.

Despite all of her challenges, she always appears (at least on TV) to be cheerful and happy.

There is a documentary about her that shows her sitting in the hallway alone at Mass, and discusses her living arrangements and shows her little trailer (called a caravan, I believe). She seems bemused by how interested the world is with her and her life.

Her books are wonderful and the plates are pretty good quality for the price. I used the one on prayer in art for my son’s art history lessons when he was little.
 
tabycat said:
I’ve some of Sister Wendy’s programs. I think that she is a Church of England cloistered nun (don’t remember the order). :cool 🙂
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Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. It’s a Roman Catholic order, dedicated to teaching, Sister Wendy taught English and Latin.

In 1970, due to health problems, she left her congregation with papal permission, and became a consecrated virgin. She lives under the protection of Carmelite nuns at their monastery in Quidenham, England.

Her days are dedicated to solitude and prayer, except for 2 hours a day to earn her living. For many years, she translated Medieval Latin scripts, switching to her second passion, art, sometime in the 1980’s.
 
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that she was born and grew up in South Africa.
 
That’s true! And she loves Star Trek, though she only gets to watch it when she is staying in a hotel for work, which isn’t too often anymore as she is 80 or more years old. He also likes horse racing (again has only watched) and studies the racing forms but doesn’t bet. She claims to be able to pick winners more often than not. She also claims to enjoy watching golf on TV in the hotel rooms, which simply amazes me. Golf? Interesting? Hee-hee, that is one area we disagree on!

In her documentary, she claims to have trouble relating to human emotions, but in an interview, she claims to be empathic and able to read the “darker things” in people’s hearts much like that empathic character in Star Trek, who she delights in.

All in all, she is entirely interesting, isn’t she? As a big fan of art history, I’d say she’s quite spectacular in her analysis of art. And as a religious - inspiring. But as a quirky character… spectacular.
 
sojo said:
That’s true! And she loves Star Trek, though she only gets to watch it when she is staying in a hotel for work, which isn’t too often anymore as she is 80 or more years old. He also likes horse racing (again has only watched) and studies the racing forms but doesn’t bet. She claims to be able to pick winners more often than not. She also claims to enjoy watching golf on TV in the hotel rooms, which simply amazes me. Golf? Interesting? Hee-hee, that is one area we disagree on!

In her documentary, she claims to have trouble relating to human emotions, but in an interview, she claims to be empathic and able to read the “darker things” in people’s hearts much like that empathic character in Star Trek, who she delights in.

All in all, she is entirely interesting, isn’t she? As a big fan of art history, I’d say she’s quite spectacular in her analysis of art. And as a religious - inspiring. But as a quirky character… spectacular.
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I had no idea about her need to be alone. That does sound like a psychological condition of some sort and not simply eccentricity.
 
Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but didn’t she say she liked the “art” piece (if you can call it that) that had a picture of a crucifix in urine? Or was that just a rumor?
 
I hadn’t heard that, but I wouldn’t be surprised. She burst a lot of preconceptions for a lot of people.

I know that journalists and TV folks have repeatedly tried to shock her by showing her paintings with sexually explicit stuff and she was totally unfazed. On one painting she commented on the “fluffy pubic hair” without blushing.

Another time a journalist referred to “naughty bits” and she reprimanded him saying that what God created was not naughty but good.

Her latest “oops” was that she opined that the Church may eventually soften its view on gay unions. It wasn’t her opinion that it “should” happen, but it was her opinion that it “may” happen. Nonetheless, her innocent opinion created quite the stir.

She is her own woman and just can’t be pigeon-holed.
 
WildCatholic said:
Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but didn’t she say she liked the “art” piece (if you can call it that) that had a picture of a crucifix in urine? Or was that just a rumor?
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Not really.

I SAW her speak of this piece of ‘art.’ I am sure people expected her to express ourtage, but Sister Wendy merely, in a very cool fashion, said it failed as a work of ‘art’ because it was not very interesting.
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
Not really.

I SAW her speak of this piece of ‘art.’ I am sure people expected her to express ourtage, but Sister Wendy merely, in a very cool fashion, said it failed as a work of ‘art’ because it was not very interesting.
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That sounds like the Sister Wendy I know. 👍
 
Me too! Lots of people have tried to shock this woman, but she seems unflappable.
 
Sister Wendy is a real treasure. Her TV shows and writings are very good.

I remember her describing how she found her vocation in life: it was “sitting under a table, aged 5” when she suddenly became profoundly aware of the presence of God.
 
sojo said:
He also likes horse racing (again has only watched) and studies the racing forms but doesn’t bet. She claims to be able to pick winners more often than not.

.
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So we have that in common? 😃
 
Sailor_Kenshin said:
Not really.

I SAW her speak of this piece of ‘art.’ I am sure people expected her to express ourtage, but Sister Wendy merely, in a very cool fashion, said it failed as a work of ‘art’ because it was not very interesting.
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Well then that’s very good and very shrewd of her. Rather than get all bent out of shape about it, she simply said it wasn’t that great and moved on. I stand corrected on my assumptions. Good for Sister Wendy
 
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