What is in Kelvin's Head?

How did I do with last year’s predictions?

31/12/2025
Here’s a run down of how I did at last year’s predictions.
- Good results for Nigel Farage following the English local elections in May. Terrible results for Conservative Party.
Exactly what happened. YES
- No progress towards the marriage of same-sex couples in the Church of England
Exactly what happened. Indeed, I think things may have gone into reverse. YES
- Turbulent year for WordPress, which powers about half of the internet.
The year began with Automattic dramatically cutting its contribution to development leading to stagnation in development and much acrimony. Subsequently restored. Deep divisions remain about Gutenberg. I’m claiming this as a YES.
- 2025 will be the hottest year on record.
Final figures yet to be calibrated but all reports indicate that this, unfortunately is a YES.
- No trade deal for UK with US. Increasing talk of re-aligning economy closer to EU.
Well, there was a trade deal in May called the Economic Prosperity Deal but it doesn’t seem to much and some of the basics have already been reversed. I suppose I have to be honest and say I didn’t get this quite right so it is a NO. But…
- Ceasefire in Russia-Ukraine war but no long term solution.
Hard to assess this one. No long term solution, certainly. There have been a series of ceasefires proposed but none seems really to have been fully implemented. Partial YES.
- “Assisted Dying” aka doctor assisted suicide becomes legal in at least one of the jurisdictions of the British Isles.
I have to put this down as a NO as it completed its parliamentary journey in the Isle of Man but hasn’t received Royal Assent yet, so not technically legal.
- Turbulent year for economy but stock market higher at end of year than beginning. (FTSE currently at 8,173)
Stock market at 9,931 today and there was quite a lot of volatility in the first part of the year. So this one is a YES.
- There will be fewer Commonwealth Realms (ie countries which share the monarchy) by the end of 2025 than there are now.
This one is a NO though there has been significant progress in that direction in Jamaica and moves that way in Grenada.
- Philip Mountstephen.
Well, I was pushing Philip Mounstephen’s name as he appeared to be the only senior bishop in the C of E who actually believed the [absurd] position of the C of E bishops on same-sex relationships. But it is a NO – nothing significant to report.

So – five and a half out of ten this year. Not as good as some years. A couple of near misses.
new year, predictions. 2025

22 responses to “What is really going on in the Church of England”

David

18/02/2017

Kelvin, thank you for your prophetic honesty. Living in Canada, I was shaken by how deeply I was emotionally involved this past week. But then as a friend suggested, one was simply living the reality of being joined in the living Body of Christ.

Reply
Treblef

18/02/2017

Kelvin, thanks for the brilliant comments, as ever helping to unpick the knots. When do you think the Church will start recognising that some people are required to be celibate whatever their sexuality? When will they start to give loving support to those who have no one in their lives to share with, whether LGBTI or straight?

Reply
1. Kelvin
  
  18/02/2017
  
  I think that the church does recognise that some people are called to celibacy. There’s quite a rich discourse about this from within and far beyond the religious orders.
  
  I’m not sure that the church does so well with single people however.
  
  Reply
  1. UkViewer
    
    18/02/2017
    
    If someone is single, what distinguishes them from someone who is celibate?
    
    Unless one or other wears a badge proclaiming their status, it’s difficult to understand the only difference is their being available for having a relationship or not?
    
    I suppose that those in celibate relationships will also be indistinguishable from those couples (straight or gay) who live in full relationships.
    
    I am unsure why those who wish to keep the same sex relationship in the closet are bothering to fight a fight, which in the longer term, they must know they will not win.
    
    Reply
Jeremy Pemberton

18/02/2017

Kelvin,
It is probably only fair to tell you that the negotiations between LGCM and CA went on for over two years. So, prescient though you are, others were already engaged in doing what I think everyone could see was a desirable reunion from quite a long time ago.

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1. Kelvin
  
  18/02/2017
  
  That Jeremy – I wasn’t trying to suggest it was me wot done it. More that it was me wot was pleased at the outcome.
  
  Reply
S. Thomas

19/02/2017

Strange world – when otherwise balanced, kind, Christian people – with a (so-called) ‘phobia’ – are criminalized and persecuted, hounded and made to feel even more uncomfortable about their inherent spiritual / psychological / moral disposition. To what other phobias might this be response be reasonably applied?

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1. James Byron
  
  19/02/2017
  
  “Homophobia” isn’t usually meant literally. Maybe not the best term, but the one that’s entered common use.
  
  As for criminalized, the definition of “homophobia” used by English prosecutors — homophobia is wholly subjective, and means whatever a person thinks it means — has no weight in any court of law: it’s a recording tool. Actual English laws against “hatred” on grounds of sexual orientation set the bar so high that anything much short of threatening violence is likely to fall short. Conservative Christians were so un-persecuted that they got a special section inserted to clarify that the could continue to condemn homosexuality and try and heal LGBT people to their heart’s content.
  
  Personally I’d have one of those hypothetical reasonable persons define what homophobia is. Institutional discrimination, labeling gay relationships as sinful, and disciplining same-sex couples who wed would certainly quality.
  
  Reply
Scott Smith

01/03/2017

Kelvin, I get the impression that there is no compromise position between the two sides — that ultimately, one side will have to totally capitulate for the Church to get beyond this issue. Would you agree? If so, do you think both sides are aware of that?

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1. Kelvin
  
  02/03/2017
  
  No – I wouldn’t entirely agree in that I don’t see this as being about two sides. It is far more complex than that.
  
  What I see is a church where the bloc of those who have traditionally been opposed to equality for LGBT people is fragmenting and doing so fairly quickly.
  
  The ecclesiastical solution to this is for people to recognise that people who have different views to themselves are fully Christian and that this is merely something upon which Christians disagree. Gradually, different churches and different provinces within Anglicanism are coming to this view. This is not surprising as it is fairly basic common sense.
  
  If there are going to be losers in this, those who are determined to demand that the whole church reflects their own view are inevitably those who are going to lose.
  
  Reply