What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Church and Civil Partnerships

    As I awoke in a bleary haze this morning, (today is a post-Ceilidh morning) I heard someone one the radio talking about how the Church of Scotland might be the first church to allow people in Civil Partnerships to serve as ordained clergy.

    It won’t of course. The Scottish Episcopal Church already has plenty of people in Civil Partnerships who serve as ordained clergy. Unlike in England, they don’t have to pretend that they are living lives of celibate friendship either.

    There’s going to be lots of news about LGBT relationships this week, with the bill coming to parliament in Westminster (does not affect Scotland) and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland trying to get its knickers out of a twist about gay ministers in Edinburgh.

    Not all the news is going to be accurate either.

4 responses to “Here is the sermon…”

  1. Beth Avatar
    Beth

    I remember that workshop being done as part of an LGBT group meeting. I was slightly skeptical about it in the beginning, but ended up getting a lot out of it and thinking about God in ways that I hadn’t consciously before.

    Reply
  2. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    FWIW, in order to dot some `t’s and cross some `i’s, my sensibly heretical book The Five Gospels colours all the speech black apart from the saying about women grinding corn (which merits a grey, at best). Ie, none of the text goes back to any historical Jesus, with the apocalyptic context added by the gospel authors; the `thief in the night’ is an Christian saying of the early churches (witness other epistles, written before Matthew, where the image appears) and therefore probably planted, in that order, in Matthew.

    I guess taking what you most charitably will out of the passage is entirely reasonable, then. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    (I had to read that, and a bit from Romans at church up here, too… was “interesting” turning a blind eye to it. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Tracey Avatar
    Tracey

    Thanks for that Kelvin. When I read that Gospel at the 8:30 service, i remembered the severe fundamentalist church I was brought up in as a child, and it made me uncomfortable. Reading your comments, I remember my first few visits to an Episcopal worship service and remembering how joyful and non-scary it was, and being amazed by the fact that I didn’t have to be afraid of God. Thanks for the reminder.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Previous Posts

  • Sermon – 20 February 2006

    It is inevitable that I am beginning to reflect on what my time here in St Saviour’s has been all about. Indeed, I am pondering what it is that that I have been trying to communicate as I have stood here in this pulpit in this beautiful church on Sunday mornings, for almost three years.…

  • Ingenuity

    The ingenuity and creativity of people knows no bounds.I came upon a webpage today which details using Google maps, the pubs which cathedral choirs like to drink in. Excellent. 

  • Case Study

    To Perth this evening to spend an evening with those in the diocese who are making transitions into authorised ministries. Did two case studies – the one below and one about Civil Partnerships. Also drew them "A Course of Christian Ethics in Six Scruffy Cartoons".The first case study was this:"As a member of the ministry…

  • Ethics

    I’m going to spend some time tomorrow with some of the people moving into ministry in the Scottish Episcopal Church. They have a Ministry Reflections Course once a month or so.Tomorrow evening is called "Being a critical reflector".It has got me thinking about ethics again. Sometimes the internal differences that get exposed in the church…