What is in Kelvin's Head?

Dear St George – here’s 3 dragons I’d like slaying

23/04/2015

Today is St George’s Day. Cue articles about how we know almost nothing about St George and bewilderment as to how he became patron saint of England.

Instead of that, here’s a few dragons that I like to see expertly slayed in our own day.

1 – Foodbanks in the UK.

When I went to the USA a few years ago on sabbatical I was filled with both admiration and horror at the amount of food that the churches were giving away in foodbank operations. Wonder at the sheer commitment and horror at the need. I proudly said that this kind of thing would never become a reality in the UK as we had a good social security system in place and if anyone ever tried to change that then the population would rise up against whoever was being so foolish. Sadly I was wrong – I came back to foodbank Britain not the Britain I’d left some months before. It isn’t nationalism or unionism that will stop foodbanks either. To kill this dragon we need a St George to rise up in the political world and bring an end to benefit sanctions and and ensure the timely processing of benefit claims.

2 – Xenophobia, anglophobia, islamophobia, anti-Semitism etc

The dragon of racism is stalking us again. Oh for a St George who could kill it once and for all instead of merely maiming it. People are just people.

It is difficult to believe that we are now having to tackle a real threat from the political right to the progress that we had made in freeing Europe from the tyranny of war. It is equally hard to believe that Jewish communities in the UK complain about insecurity. It grieves me greatly that my Muslim neighbours are often presumed to be complicit in terror.

3 – Same-sex marriage

This was a baby dragon that we adopted as a pet but the truth is, it has now grown up and become a little frightening. Whereas once same-sex marriage was a rallying cry for the cause, now the very words are being used against those who want equality, particularly in the church. We don’t want same-sex marriage in church, we want marriage to be open to straight couples and same-sex couples alike. One institution, one blessing, one God, one sacrament. It is time for same-sex marriage to die.

6 responses to “Liturgy Online & the Papal Mass”

stew

17/09/2010

I found the Bellahouston event very moving and there seemed to be a lot of fervour – did you watch it?

I’m not sure of the relevance of comparing the ‘fervours’ but maybe I missed your point.

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kelvin

17/09/2010

Hi Stew – glad to hear that you enjoyed the Bellahouston event. I did watch it, online.

I was simply drawing attention to the difference between the two papal visits, which no doubt tell us as much about changes in the UK as in the UK Roman Catholic Church since that first visit.

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David | Dahâ€¢veed

17/09/2010

JP2 seemed delighted by the roaring response.

I noticed that your Queen had a rather sour puss in all the photos that I have seen of her welcome to her fellow Head of State. Was that to be interpreted as any form of commentary from the Supreme Governess of the Church of England or is she soured upon all the world of late. Perhaps she needs more prunes in her diet.

And El Papa looks like he has just been released from his padded room with those crazy, staring eyes and windblown hair.

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Peter

17/09/2010

A reaction to two of the elements of your post, Kelvin

First, the questions you raise about online liturgy are very similar to the questions I struggled with when I was working in higher education. It’s taken 40 years of trying and we still don’t have a fully satisfactory way of teaching equally to local and remote audiences. Some of the best work is being done in your own city – I could give you some names.

“a Problem Like Argyll” – depends on where you stand (I hope the locked church was not in Argyll!). If you had been able to join me over the past 3 weeks with faithful congregations (mostly tiny) witnessing in Iona, Ensay and Eoropaidh – as they have done centuries – you too might see it as humbling and encouraging experience. See Bishop Mark’s blog http://www.moray.anglican.org/index.php/bishop/ for a flavour. No hope of seeing them online because two don’t even have electricity, let alone broadband!

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1. kelvin
  
  17/09/2010
  
  Thanks Peter
  
  No – last Sunday’s experience was not in Argyll, but somewhere with similar geographic challenges.
  
  The existance of small vibrant congregations is great. If they didn’t exist there would be no Problem, so its a good Problem to have in some ways! I don’t doubt the existence of the church there. (I’ve had excellent experiences of the church in Argyll and The Isles and, it has to be said, one or two trickier experiences of the church over there on other travels).
  
  Reply
Liturgy Online – again | What's in Kelvin's Head

18/10/2010

[…] I want to return to a question that I began to raise a couple of weeks ago regarding liturgy online. […]

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