• Any Questions on Marriage?

    I’m going to be posting sometime over the next week a considered response to the announcement last week regarding marriage law reform in Scotland.

    (Note that I’m not calling it Equal Marriage yet as it seems to me to be a step in that direction but very definitely not yet a proposal for equality).

    I’ll be responding to comments and questions that have been raised off blog with me in the last week. Some in relation to what this means and some in relation to what it means within the church. Anyone who wants to ask anything or make a comment on here about all of this, is welcome to do so either in the comments, using the contact form or by twitter.

7 responses to “The Antisemitism Notice”

  1. Gordon Avatar
    Gordon

    Helpful, thank you

    What is the concern with the reproaches? I’m not familiar with them

    1. Kelvin Avatar

      They can be interpreted as being directed at us the listeners. But they can also be interpreted as speaking to Jewish people as all the imagery is from the Hebrew Scriptures and doesn’t reference the experience of those who actually were around Jesus during his life on earth.

      For example:
      “I led you out of Egypt, having drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea:
      and you have delivered me to the chief priests.”

      Who is being addressed here?

      1. Nick Drew Avatar
        Nick Drew

        That’s interesting, because whenever I have sung the Reproaches I have always felt them as being expressions of personal repentance rather than accusations thrown at the listener.

  2. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    I must admit I had always read the Reproaches as directed to the listener. That the Egypt from which we are delivered is the Egypt of the modern world, the slavery of ghastly jobs (I’ve had a few, in fact a lot) and the oppression of terrible political systems. But I come from a totally different thought world to that of most people today, and I absolutely see they wouldn’t commonly be read that way.
    But I think it would benefit everyone to find a way of expressing BOTH what faith can offer in terms of freedom AND the mess we do make of the world, and sitting with that tension.
    And I think the church as a whole urgently needs to find a compelling and deep reaching way of doing both.

    1. Kelvin Avatar

      You might be interested that we’re looking at Isaiah 59 as a helpful text for this year, given the current ways of the world.

    2. Christine McIntosh Avatar
      Christine McIntosh

      I’m of much the same mind. (A mind that is still blown away when I hear them sung)

  3. Dan Floyd Avatar
    Dan Floyd

    Thank you

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Old Skills

    For reasons too complicated to go into here, I need to revive computer programming skills that I last used 20 years ago. I have a particular task, to do with mapping the local council wards, which I think can o­nly be perfomed using Prolog. I was always fascinated with this logic based language but never terribly competent.…

  • Reaping the Whirlwind

    I am interested in a metaphor that is doing the rounds at the moment. Clare Short has said that Tony Blair is now reaping the whirlwind. This is in relation to the terrorist attacks that seem to have become more likely since the war in Iraq.The metaphor comes from the Bible (Hosea 8:7) and is…

  • Christ the King

    Hear the Christians sing. Crown him with many crowns! O worship the King all glorious above! Hail redeemer, King divine! Jesus Christ, superstar! What is it with belief in Jesus which makes people sing out these things? The evidence of his life alone is not impressive. Born to a family on the run. Preached sermons…

  • Monarchy & STV

    Two worlds collide in my weekend. To Perth today for a conference o­n the proposed new method of electing people for local, perhaps even national government, STV. Single Transferable Voting is fair but complicated. Then tomorrow, the feast of Christ the King, which I am making much of in church. Choir, string quartet and special…