- It is on Thursday 19 June 2014 this year.
- It is always on a Thursday.
- It is one of the most extravagent and lovely religious festivals that human beings have devised.
- Thomas Aquinas is said to have invented it to bring the focus back to Jesus Christ in churches which were rather keen on his mother.
- It is about gazing in wonder – and we don’t do that nearly enough.
- Our Lord himself comes and wanders amongst his people – just like in real life!
- Abraham (as Bishop Kevin was always wont to say) would have understood this feast
- We scatter flower petals hither and yon to make a suitable pathway for God to come amongst us
- It smells. Lovely.
- The service takes place at 7.30 pm in St Mary’s on Thursday evening – please bring flower petals to the sacristy by 7 pm if you can
20 responses to “Lambeth Conference – Some are Welcome in this Place”
-
Aargh, horrible decision. My first “gut” reaction was no, make a point of not going and make it clear why not. Then I read the responses here and they’ve got a point too.
I hope you make the right decision for yourself that you feel comfortable with. Interesting point too about the Catholic bit. I don’t consider myself Protestant as such, more a Catholic who is exlcuded from many things Catholic by the Catholic church. I’ve always been a bit confused though!
Good luck x
-
I’m interested that all voices responding so far are female.
-
Does the excess of female voices not simply represent the majority of congregations? Not, of course, of clergy – yet. :=(
-
I’ve no idea what other congregations are like – St Mary’s is pretty gender balanced, as was my previous congregation.
Are there really congregations that are mostly female? How very odd.
-
A convent maybe? Do you have convents in the SEC?
-
There are convents, but not terribly large ones.
-
Not only are all the comments so far from women (so let me make a modest effort to redress the balance), but there are far fewer voices than one might have expected, given the seriousness of this exclusion, which in the long run could affect all Episcopalians and Anglicans worldwide. The notion that one has to ‘qualify’ to attend Lambeth by criteria other than lawful episcopal consecration is a new and disquieting departure. Why are more people not protesting?
-
Thought this might be of interest.
-
I’ve only ever belonged to my current congretation. There are men, but old, unwired ones for the most part.
I’ve had another thought, though. Maybe women comment because women have been sidelined in the church for 2000 years. Coming out in sympathy, perhaps? -
“unwired men” – what a helpful description.
Previous Posts
-
Apple Tree
Last night’s Choral Evensong began with one of my favourites; a piece which gets sung quite a lot at this time of year and which is high on the list of Music Which Makes Me Cry. It was Elizabeth Poston’s carol Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. It is the weirdest thing. Most of the time…
-
I seem to have been spared
It would appear that I am spared. The virus that laid me low last week has not beaten me. There seems to have been a lot of people who have been sick with various bugs over the last few weeks. It is good to be feeling better. I’ve been picking up work fairly gently over…
-
Prop 8 – The Musical
My grateful thanks to Colin for alerting us to this important piece of musical theatre.
-
Broadcasting Central
It was quite a busy weekend at St Mary’s last week. It was also a busy weekend on the wireless. My colleague the Rev Shona Lillie has provided a couple of services for Radio Scotland for their New Every Morning Strand. You generally need to be up pretty early to hear these broadcasts. Though if…

Leave a Reply