Lovely to be with Bishop Gregor for the priesting of James Currall in Largs.
4 responses to “tae see oorsels as ithers see us”
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My children just don’t understand it. Nor do they understand why I stay.
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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.
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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.
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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!!
Previous Posts
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What am I listening to?
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Sermon 11 February 2007 – Blessings and Woes
One of the most interesting characters that I have met in my ministry was a Jewish professor in one of the universities that I have worked in. He was often in the chapel and used to proclaim that he was fascinated with Jesus, but could never be a Christian because of what we had made…
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Liturgy Classes
I remember only two things from my liturgy classes from my training. I learned a lot more from our liturgical formation as ordinands, and I think that is generally what was intended at the time. However, the two things that I remember from the classes were both things that Fr Ian P said. Firstly, he…
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Amnesty International
The local Amnesty International group meets in St Mary’s every Thursday evening. Last night was the first chance that I have had to pop in and say hello since I arrived in St Mary’s last year. It was good to see the group alive and well. Letter writing campaigns were in full swing and several…
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