What is in Kelvin's Head?

Isn’t it time to stop teaching sport to children?

11/11/2015

Isn’t it time to stop teaching children sport?

It is drug-addled, corrupt, nationalistic, sectarian, sexist, homophobic and brings out the very worst in people. Why on earth do we presume it is something suitable for children to participate in?

From time to time I am asked to comment on calls from one secularist group or another who want to get rid of religion in schools or who want access to Thought For The Day. Often religion is dismissed as something that children should be protected from. But why don’t the secularists turn their attention to sport if they really want to protect children? Surely 3 minutes of Thought for the Day is considerably less harmful than the privileged access that sport gets to every news broadcast in the world. Sport seems to have become a religion anyway but where is the organised opposition?

There have still been more Anglican bishops in the world who have come out than premier level footballers. The fear that sport can induce in young LGBT people can last a lifetime. For their sake shouldn’t we just say “No” to activities that can cause so much harm?

I want boys and girls to learn that they are equal but I look at men and women’s sporting rewards and despair. What hope is there for girls’ self esteem whilst they are constantly exposed to sport?

The city I live in is blighted by sport centred sectarianism and still the violence is encouraged by co-opting children at a very young age in school. Why do they make football compulsory for boys? Why? How are decent parents supposed to keep their children from such negative and corrupting activities? You have a right to remove your children from religious instruction but not from sport. Oh no, not from sport.

I can see the point in teaching kids about heath and fitness. I can see the point of putting gyms in secondary schools and I can see the point of teaching all young people how to swim. But the competitive, money dominated, cess-pit of professional sport is surely the last thing we need to encourage them to believe is a proper activity for adults.

16 responses to “St Andrew's Day 2008”

Christina

04/12/2007

On a related theme, was there not a year recently when we had to move the assumption because it fell on Ash Wednesday? I don’t remember Christmas being delayed, but of course, can’t comment on the delay of the second coming.

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Christina

04/12/2007

And I know I meant “annunciation” before you point it out to me.

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Rob Murray Brown

26/08/2008

Is there a reason that the two celebrations cant be held on the same day? Do you really think that Christ would object to sharing a day with one of his disciples. I think not!

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kelvin

26/08/2008

I think that it is more about giving the church the full opportunity to concentrate on both.

The themes that we remember at Christ the King (ie how Jesus undermines all our expectations of monarchy and power) don’t fit terribly well with theme we think about on St Andrew’s Day (thinking about missions and spreading faith in the world and also praying for Scotland). Advent 1 is something else altogether and also does not make a good fit.

I quite like the way the calendar works as it is a good reminder to us that being God’s people is something that happens daily, not weekly.

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Rob Murray Brown

13/10/2008

Im feel sure that your congregation would manage to digest more than one message on any particular day. The fact is that St Andrews Day is on the 30 November each year – every 7 or so years this will fall on a Sunday. I cant remember it ever being moved before and see no reason to start in 2009.

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Kelvin

13/10/2008

St Andrews Day is on 1 December this year in the Scottish Episcopal Calendar as it is every year when 30 November falls on a Sunday.

It is the way the Ecclesiastical calendar works.

To quote fully from the published Calendar:

Each Holy and Saint’s Day listed in the Calendar has been assigned a number which indicates its category.
It is intended that feasts in categories 1 – 4 (below) should be kept by the whole Church. Days in categories 5 and
6 may be kept according to diocesan or local discretion. Commemorations not included in this Calendar may be
observed with the approval of the Bishop.
When two celebrations fall on the same day, the following table indicates which takes precedence.
1 Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday;
Easter Day (and the weekdays following);
Pentecost;
Ash Wednesday; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Holy Week; Ascension Day;
Christmas Day ; Epiphany;
Sundays of Advent, Lent and Easter.
2 Feasts of The Lord (Naming, Presentation, Annunciation, Transfiguration);
Trinity Sunday; All Saints’ Day;
Dedication and Patronal Festivals;
Eves of Christmas and Pentecost;
First Sunday after Christmas;
First Sunday after Epiphany (the Baptism of the Lord).
3 Sundays after Christmas (except Christmas 1);
Sundays after Epiphany (except Epiphany 1);
Sundays after Pentecost (except Pentecost 1);
Weekdays in Lent.
4 Feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists;
Saint Mary the Virgin, the Visit to Elizabeth;
Joseph, John the Baptist (Birth, Beheading);
Mary Magdalene; Michael and All Angels;
Stephen, the Holy Innocents;
Kentigern, Patrick, Columba, Ninian, Margaret of Scotland.
5 All Souls’ Day; Holy Cross Day;
Conception and Birth of Mary, Mother of the Lord;
Thanksgiving for the Institution of the Holy Communion (Corpus Christi);
Thanksgiving for Harvest.
6 Other commemorations.
Notes:
(i) Epiphany may be kept on the Sunday following 1 January, and the Ascension on the Seventh Sunday of
Easter.
(ii) Feasts in Category 2, falling on a weekday, may be kept on the nearest Sunday, except Sundays in
Categories 1 and 2.
(iii) Feasts in Category 4, falling on a day of higher category (other than a weekday in Lent), should be
transferred (in chronological order) to the next available weekday.
(iv) Where feasts in Category 4 fall on a Sunday (other than a Sunday in Categories 1 and 2), they may, if local
circumstances require, be kept on that day.
(v) The weekdays of Advent and Easter may be given special weighting.
(vi) When days in Category 6 coincide with a day of higher category, they should be omitted that year.
(vii) Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion is particularly associated with the Thursday after
Trinity Sunday.
(viii) Thanksgiving for the Harvest may take place on any appropriate Sunday.

The full thing can be found within this zip file:
http://www.scotland.anglican.org/media/liturgy/liturgy/calendar_and_lectionary_pdf.zip

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