What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • The Marriage Business

    The time has come for Church of England clergy to show us what they are made of.

    The government has decided that the Church of England (and, bizarrely the Church in Wales) is to be banned from opting into the legislation permitting same-sex couples to get married.

    Those who are clergy who are supportive of the right of gay couples to marry really have only one option open to them. They should refuse to do any further legal marriages. No-one can force anyone to solemnise any marriage – a fact which has been much glossed over by the media. Some couples in some circumstances have the right to marry in particular places but not the right to be married by any one person.

    If it is good enough for gay couples to be told to go get a Civil Partnership and then get a blessing from the Church then the same must be true for straight couples – they should go and get a Civil Wedding and have that blessed rather than getting legally married in church.

    There are many clergy who think that the church should get out of the whole legal side of weddings in any case – this may be the start of that.

    Clergy of the Church of England – it is time for you to put a ban on banns. The time is coming for you to stop doing weddings. Once the new legislation is passed, if your denomination cannot or will not opt in then the time has come for you to stand up for what’s right. If you support equality, do something about it and show us what you are made of.

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

  • 20 Questions

    I took o­ne of these o­n-line personality quizes yesterday. [It was my day off, after all.] This o­ne was called 20 Questions to a Better Personality.  This was the result: You are a SECL–Sober Emotional Constructive Leader. This makes you a Politician.You cut deals, you change minds, you make things happen. You would prefer to…

  • Dog Collars

    There are many mysteries in religion, but none so impenetrable as the question of where dog collars go. I almost caught Tilly attempting to eat o­ne the other day, which might have answered both the mystery of where dog collars go and the question of what is wrong with the cat's belly this week. However, she…

  • And when the revolution comes

    One of the verses of “When the saints go marching in” goes like this: And when the revelation comes And when the revelation comes I want to be in that number Oh when the revelation comes. Well, it is supposed to be one of the verses in the version that the choir were singing with…

  • Sermon – 31 October 2004 – All Saints' Sunday

    On Friday night this week, I was invited to a banquet. Such things don?t happen every day and I so I want to tell you a bit about it. I was invited up to Stirling Castle by the Provost of the City, to attend the Civic Award Ceremony. The dinner was held in the magnificent…