• 10 questions arising from the misogyny of a “headship” bishop

    Plans were announced last night to appoint a new bishop in the Church of England who will specifically believe that women are subordinate to men to minister to, encourage and represent those in the Church of England who believe this, ie that men have been given headship over women by God, to be true.  (This isn’t a joke, this is real).

    This had been planned for some time and was part of the deal whereby that church agreed to open the Episcopate to candidates who happen to be female.

    It rather neatly proves some of the terrible things I was saying about the Church of England earlier in the week to be true.

    On this occasion, I take no pleasure in being right.

    The following questions arising from the misogyny of a “headship” bishop should now be raised:

    1. To Members of Parliament: Are you really comfortable with 1 million children being educated every day by an organisation with these values?
    2. To candidates in the next election: Will you support the disestablishment of the Church of England because organisations which behave in this way should have no privileged place in parliament?
    3. To the Archbishop of Canterbury: Do you realise that this makes you personally look like a misogynist too as suffragan appointments are always personal to the bishop involved?
    4. In the General Synod of the Church of England: …. and if people ask for a bishop with racist views to represent them, will we do that too?
    5. To the BBC: Why are you not covering this story as a major news item?
    6. To those who serve in Church House, Westminster: Why do progressive changes to the Church of England have to go through years of debate at General Synod and regressive ones don’t?
    7. To Primates around the communion: Why is this novelty and abuse of the episcopate acceptable when the appointment of a man who happened to be gay was so unacceptable?
    8. To the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Question Time: Does the Prime Minister share the concerns of many in this country that the Church of England is institutionalising misogyny.
    9. To the silent Church of England Bishops who believe themselves to be liberal: How do you sleep?
    10. To the first woman to be consecrated as bishop in the Church of England: Was it worth it on these terms?

     

4 responses to “Explaining Blogging”

  1. Freda Avatar
    Freda

    Blogging
    Enjoy the whole process and let people know your url.

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Blogging – pictures
    As someone who enjoys the pictorial side do not forget Kelvin’s Photoblog at http://photoblog.thurible.net/

    A picture can communicate a thousand words.

  3. Bishop David Avatar
    Bishop David

    Blogging
    I think what I enjoy is way in which you gradually develop a sort of parallel/virtual universe – disconnected in space and time – and invite other people to step inside it.

    On the more serious side, you need to be very cautious about people and situations. I note that, quite properly, Kelvin’s blog tells us almost nothing about how things are going at the Cathedral!

  4. Brannon Hancock Avatar
    Brannon Hancock

    more advice
    Sorry for the late contribution here, but I could not appreciate blog culture until I realized the following, which I think every blogger should heed.
    1) Don’t take blogging too seriously – it’s not journalism, it’s not memoir, it’s not an academic journal (etc), it’s not an easy way to get your writing “in print” – it’s somewhere between an online confessional and a digitally-mediated small group conversation, especially when viewed not just individually but in relation to other blogs. And…
    2) DON’T TAKE BLOGGING TOO SERIOUSLY – either what you write, what other people write, what you comment, what they comment or what anybody comments! It’s not legitimate, intricate discourse, it’s pub chat online. It’s BS-ing around the ping-pong table in somebody’s basement.
    That’s all I’ve got.

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