• The Primus’s Radio Interview about the Columba Declaration

    It is incomprehensible to me that the Church of England establishment, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, can have claimed in the English Synod yesterday that the Scottish Episopal Church is “content” with the Columba Declaration and sees it as a positive move forward when the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church is describing it as “improper”, causing distress to the Scottish Episcopal Church, says it is not the way we do things in the Anglican Communion and talks of is as an example of the Church of England trying to exercise jurisdiction in Scotland.

    Here’s his radio interview today – well worth a listen.

    Can anyone explain what the Archbishop of Canterbury meant yesterday? I’m struggling to see the truth shining through his words – can anyone help me?

4 responses to “Politics of Pilgrimage”

  1.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Living in Ireland – at one time not too far from Knock – it always astonished me when driving through the village how those who had just visited the shrine seemed to think that it had made them invincible! They’d wander into the middle of the road and totally ignore the traffic streaming around them!

    A bottle of Knock holy water in the shape of Our Lady sits behind me as I type – next to a similar one from Lourdes and a knitted Orangeman bedecked with a collarette proclaiming him a member of LOL 1, Portadown! The juxtaposition is deliberate! (I wonder if + David has one on his shelves from the "support Drumcree" shop?!)

    Which leads to the question "How do holy water taps work?" – theologically, that is! What is blessed to make it holy? Is it the reservoir (but that is constantly replenished and so eventually, after being diluted for a long time, the water becomes "unholy". Is it the tap itself and the water is sanctified by passing through it?

    Discuss!

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Holy Water Taps
    Perhaps the water becomes holy when it is applied by the believer to the cat.

  3. Joan Avatar
    Joan

    Holy water and questions about pilgrimage

    Hmmm, yes I can see the dilemma…I guess the female ordaindees (not a word really, apologies for my attack on the English language) are excluded – though would it be possible to construct a small al fresco altar and hold a ceremony of your own?  Pilgrimage places become so because people believe something, not just the ecclesiastical hierarchy, I think?  If we don’t go then it is like saying ‘ok, you have that site of devotion then’.  (Yikes I sound so serious, which I am, but I really do mean my statements to come out as questions…not commands.)

    As to the cat, holy water, and the believer – maybe  all the water is holy and we just think we play a role in making it so?  Alternatively, maybe the cat is the believer and the water is transformed through a great mysterious purr.

  4.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    The Cat in Question
    As for the cat in question, she is not a believer as such. Rather, she thinks that she is the only proper object of veneration.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Online Evening Prayer

    I’ll be leading online evening prayer in a google+ hangout at 5 pm today. Check back here for the liturgy. The place to go on google+ is this and you need to add it to your circles in order to be invited to the hangout. More details here. UPDATE – liturgy now available here.

  • iBooks and all that

    I seem from the posting of several others (including Akma) that Apple have something new on offer. It is a new piece of software iBooks Author which allows people to construct what they are inevitably calling iBooks  very easily, that can be read on portable devices. I ought to be excited – it sounds like…

  • Murder. Crime. Poverty.

    Someone I met when I was down in Londonshire last week asked me where I was from. On receiving my reply, he pulled a face. “It’s a great city,” I spluttered, more out of petulance than anything else. “All I know about it is murder, crime and poverty,” was the response. Now, we all know…

  • Looking at pictures

    It is good to see Kimberly blogging again a little more – and I very much enjoyed her picture challenge. Particularly good for Epiphany and there is quite certainly more to be said. Worth joining in with here: http://wonderfulexchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/turning-point/ And don’t miss her follow up comments here: http://wonderfulexchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/res-miranda/