What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Sermon – Christmas 2

    Here’s what I had to say in the pulpit yesterday:

    Video first…

    When I was young, Christmas was pretty much the same every year at our house. The morning would comprise of morning worship and after that there would be lots of driving to pick up older relatives so that the family might be together at Christmas.

    Eventually gathered together around a specially prepared festive table we would eat and manage to get through vast quantities of food before listening to the Queen at three o’clock. And then and only then, unwrapping presents.

    The thing that I want to remember today is one of my older maiden aunts. Actually a great aunt, who was always with us at Christmas.

    The thing I remember was something that she used to say as we prepared to tuck into the food, glorious food, that my mother had prepared.

    “Do you know,” said that maiden aunt each year, (more…)

    , ,

4 responses to “tae see oorsels as ithers see us”

  1. Rev Ruth Avatar
    Rev Ruth

    My children just don’t understand it. Nor do they understand why I stay.

    Reply
  2. kelvin Avatar
    kelvin

    I suspect that the children of very many Christians in the UK these days don’t understand and don’t stay. We can see that laid out for us in page after page of diocesan and provincial statistics.

    And still we are expected to cheer on Archbishops who propose amendements which would institutionalise treating women as having less authority than men and also Bishops who tell us that banning gay people from leadership roles is good.

    In both these cases we are supposed to believe that these actions keep the church together. Meanwhile the children leave bewildered.

    Hear what the Spirit says to the children.

    Reply
  3. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    What surprises me is that it’s the same term “evangelical” that went from connoting “student-ish” in the 90s to “happy” (reserving outright clappy for those of charismatic designation) to “evangelicals come in Open form too!” now to “traditionalist” in matters of Backwards Beyond Belief(TM).

    Now I’m used to the arguments being “our tradition, restated more-so and louder” versus “put the Bible in context” – at least one party talking theologically.
    For a fresh thought, is the CoE (in particular, but also the AC in general) a bit preoccupied with not losing any *one* bum-on-its-3-legged-seat? There is a tension in the dynamic that could be resolved well by a large-scale rotation in membership – redefine the denominational lines by issues not history – that leads to a slimy weasely position of “I sort of want to go but don’t have the honesty to get on with it so I’ll sit around being a thorn in the canonical flesh and blame the church for trying to push me out”.

    Social evolution is too slow; that is where injustice lies.

    Reply
  4. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    I often ask me why I stay, and I’m in my late fifties. In the end, it is because I feel cheated without other people to worship with, and, well, to be a kind of thorn in the canonical flesh for the conservatives!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

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

Previous Posts

  • Scottish Episcopal Flickr

    I’m pleased to announce the existence of a flickr group for the Scottish Episcopal Church. It is open to anyone, not just members of the church; the only criteria are that photos shared with the group are of church events or buildings or people. Tourists passing by, you’re welcome. The group’s guidelines are over here.…

  • Ecumenical Websites (Sex and Gargoyles)

    Two ecumenical websites to report on and draw to people’s attention. Ecumenical websites seem to be all the rage at the moment, but like a lot of ecumenical things, it is hard to focus people’s attention on them. Firstly, www.resourcingchurches.org.uk. This one has things for Christians to do. Quite a lot of C of S…

  • Elephants are apocryphal

    We are reading stories from one of the books of the Macabees at morning prayer this week. There are a lot of elephants there. Nuggats such as this are on offer: “They offered the elephants the juice of grapes and mulberries, to arouse them for battle.” So far as I’m aware, elephants only appear in…

  • In Search of the Presbyterian Sense of Humour

    I’ve received a request off-blog from someone in the colonies, asking to be pointed to any Scottish bloggers writing from a presbyterian point of view who display the same kind of sense of humour as some of those linking to and posting comments on here. I don’t know the answer to this one, so my…