• The Past Tense

    Sometimes museums are terribly annoying. I found myself getting all worked up about this thurible.

    image

    Well, It wasn’t exactly the thurible that got me worked up but the card next to it.

    image

    The caption uses the past tense. “Censors were used…”

    Censors are used. It somehow felt so frustrating to look at an object that I could pick up and use in my daily work and which seemed to me to be in as good a state as when it was first made and yet see the caption speaking about the use as being something in the past.

    As I looked around the same gallery, all the references to anything liturgical were expressed in the same way:

    “Music was important in the Christian liturgy…”

    There’s no was about it.

7 responses to “C of E Border Crossing”

  1. Eamonn Avatar

    I’m fizzing too! It’s not helped, either, by those of our own members who refer to us as ‘the English Church’.

  2. agatha Avatar
    agatha

    That is completely outrageous! Maybe the SEC should have talks with the Muslims and then we could declare Fatwas.

    Or is this the CoE’s off the wall attempt to solve the women bishops/gay bishops question by moving to nae bishops?

  3. FrPaulB Avatar
    FrPaulB

    As an English Anglican I’m pretty embarrassed. So much for the “Anglican Communion” we’re supposed to be busy preserving by setting up covenants and writing letters.

  4. Martin Ritchie Avatar
    Martin Ritchie

    Well, maybe this is a good thing for the SEC? At least we are not being lumped in as “Church of England” which is perhaps a step forward. The future for “state” churches in the UK seems to me to be shaky to say the least, so perhaps it’s to the benefit of the SEC to not be part of that! It is rather surprising that there is no mention of the SEC in the “history” part of the paper, other than a cursory reference to the continuing episcopalian element after 1690. Maybe all this means that we should feel completely free to reject the Anglican covenant as totally irrelevant and a hindrance to the mission of the SEC?

  5. fr dougal Avatar
    fr dougal

    I’m heading for the West Port to saddle up! Bring back Clavers and the dragoons!

  6. John Lindsay Avatar
    John Lindsay

    The CofE CofS meetings have been going on for a very long time as two national churches. The recent report is actually designed to include the SEC – check facts with ICRC or read the report itself!

  7. kelvin Avatar

    Hi John, nice to hear from you.

    I’ve read the report and was not impressed by it. I suppose I am glad that the SEC is to be included next time, something that I acknowledged above that was to happen.

    I’m entirely unimpressed with the C of E appointing one of their bishops as an emissary to the C of S though. Very much border crossing. Very inappropriate.

Leave a Reply

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

Previous Posts

  • Brown Shoes

    I received the holy mysteries yesterday from someone who celebrated wearing brown shoes. The shoes in question were beautifully polished and the feet that they were on were of the most reverend quality, (the Most!) but it still bothers me 24 hours later. Time we rewrote the canon on clergy dress, I think. Tell me…

  • Big Bro

    For those reading from overseas, the reality show Celebrity Big Brother is causing a huge amount of comment in the UK (and in India) at the moment. The cameras are on the contestants every minute of every day and the producers manipulate the footage to make the nation watch and talk about it. They have…

  • Quiet Days book review

    Creative Ideas for Quiet Days by Sue Pickering – from Canterbury Press – £14.99 Many folk in churches are picking up on the idea of a day retreat or quiet day. These are particularly popular during Advent and Lent. It is common for retreat houses and religious communities to offer to organise and host such…

  • Blogging

    Just watched a fascinating documentary on political blogging in America. I’m not sure whether precisely that kind of blogging will work over here. I tend to the presumption that people are generally turned off by negative campaigning here, but who knows? The internet changes everything. Within the controversies of the church, there are blogs with…