St. Maximos' Hut

Winston Churchill features briefly in Daniel Yergin's book The Prize, which chronicles the oil industry's history. Shortly after FDR met with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, Churchill also met the king. Ibn Saud did not allow smoking or drinking in his presence, and so FDR had been reduced to stopping the elevator between the meeting room and lunch room on the presidential ship where the two men met so that he might have time to smoke.

When Churchill was told that he could not smoke or drink in front of the king because of the king's religious sensibilities, he responded that

"I was the host and I said if it was his religion that made him say such things, my religion prescribed as an absolute sacred rite smoking cigars and drinking alcohol before, after, and if need be during, all meals and the intervals between them."

The story is told on page 405 of the paperback edition of The Prize. Perhaps we all need to learn more about the Church of England, whose stuffy reputation in some quarters may be undeserved..... Fr. C, care to comment?