What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • World AIDS Day 2014

    Here’s the final video in the series of conversations that I’ve been having with Marion Chatterley the Chaplain at Waverley Care.

    World AIDS Day video 2014 from Kelvin Holdsworth on Vimeo.

    In this video, the tables are turned and Marion gets to ask me the questions.

    She starts by asking me why churches don’t seem interested in HIV AIDS issues during most of the year. We talk about people in pews and pulpits who are themselves living with HIV.

    We talk about why there’s stigma around HIV and return to the connection between what the churches and their leaders have been saying about marriage and keeping people safe from HIV.

    I remind Marion that there’s only a few hundred yards of Scottish streets where gay people might feel comfortable holding hands and talk about why relationships are still frightening and still being hidden because churches are not challenging discrimination and are indeed promoting it by their language around sexuality.

    We talk about the phrase “Well, it isn’t living up to God’s ideal” and the way that my denomination is failing me as a priest.

    We talk about early HIV prevention campaigns and what the churches might be saying now. We also talk about the churches’ obsession with acts and bodies and how I think that while current policies from church leaders focussing entirely on the sexual element of relationships remain then the devil will go on winning.

    We return to the theme of healthy relationships that has come up in each of the videos, including negotiation in relationships and how to find someone you can stay safe with.

    The other conversations can be seen below.
    (more…)

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5 responses to “Diocesan Synod”

  1. Mary Sue Avatar
    Mary Sue

    I fight this every stinkin’ time I’m in church. The average age of our Vestry is 47, the eldest is 69 and the youngest is 28 (*waves*).

    However, all I hear about is how we are a ‘grey’ church in fear of dying.

    I think it’s too much trust in statistics and not enough in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I will beat that through their heads if it KILLS ME.

    Reply
  2. Eamonn Avatar
    Eamonn

    Conversations about mission that assume the Church is dying are bad enough, but at least the subject is being talked about. It’s worse when the mere idea of having a conversation about mission causes consternation and retreat behind the brocaded curtains.

    If such a conversation is to get going at all, however, we need to be prepared to rethink radically our ecclesiology. It may not be strictly inevitable that decline will continue, but we need to be realistic about the prospects (such as they are) for future provision of ordained ministers and stipends to sustain them. All churches are facing a decline in these areas.

    Reply
  3. Eamonn Avatar
    Eamonn

    P.S. – I’m not leaving the Holy Spirit out of the reckoning, simply saying that sober and realistic thinking is one of the less trumpeted gifts of the Spirit.

    Reply
  4. Kirstin Avatar
    Kirstin

    I was feeling much the same Kelvin, I was starting to believe all the doom and gloom merchants and wasn’t looking forward to another 3 days of it. I didn’t really think it was the case but when the dripping tap just keeps on going eventually you start to wonder. LYCIG gave me the kick up the backside I was needing to stop listening to the negative and concentrate on the positive and there is lots of that about. If we keep talking about decline we will talk ourselves into it, we need to stop it now!

    Reply
  5. duncan Avatar
    duncan

    Mary Sue,

    Perhaps some parts of our church are glad to be grey.

    But seriously, while I applaud the resistance to ‘sociological determinism’ (i.e. decline is inevitable), I think we can also think creatively about our demographics before we chuck out the baby, or the bathwater. It’s time to recycle the grey water.

    Some recent thoughts I had are here:
    http://www.dunc.info/?p=94

    (I don’t know how to do that clever trackback thing…)

    Reply

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