Suffering at Liverpool Cathedral

Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is always cold, but then it is very big.
I went there this morning for "Breakfast with the Bible" with Canon Dr Jules Gomes. Which had more breakfast, and less Bible than usual, as he explained.  Instead he delivered a lecture on why the theory of evolution isn't all that reliable and at least shouldn't be taught as fact when it has many detractors.  He did this using quotes entirely from non-Christian scientists.  Talking to him afterwards, I did question him about one assertion: that if you believe God created through evolution, then you have to explain suffering.  I first heard this statement a week or two ago, and there was something about it that didn't ring true for me.  My first thought was that suffering is very much part of this - God's - world.  No matter how we got here, if we claim that God put us here and we admit that there is suffering then we have a problem.  At most there is a bit of additional explaining to do if we accept evolution was part of the mechanism.  But the problem of suffering doesn't go away if we believe in 6-day creation.
What is suffering anyway?  Are we talking about animals suffering because they get eaten?  Is suffering a human value that we project onto each other and certain other creatures (flies?  bacteria?).  If there were no people would there be any suffering?  Maybe that's what the Creation story is saying in the myth of 'The Fall' - before the first people, there really was a suffering-free paradise.

Stayed for the Choral Eucharist - excellent music as always.  And an excellent sermon from Dr Salim J Munayer, who introduced himself as a Palestinian Christian and an Israeli Citizen.  Sounds like he does some great work in reconciliation, sometimes involving taking people out into the desert on camels!  I was also struck by something that should have been obvious - Christians are ideally placed to be peacemakers between Moslems and Jews in that part of the world.  Dr Munayer commented that many American Christians are more pro-Israel than the Israelis.  But after actually visiting and meeting Palestinians, they can become more pro-Palestinian than the Palestinians!
Blessed are the peacemakers.   

Also managed a chat with Dean Justin about this kind of thing: