• Creative morning coming up

    The intention today is to spend a creative morning looking at upcoming issues of inspires, the magazine of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

    I’m trying to apply a broad theme to the magazines at the moment and so far as I can tell this seems to be appreciated by the readers.

    Upcoming themes are Journey/Pilgrimage/Place, The Communion (Anglican and Otherwise) and something on buildings/sacred space. I’ve a notion that we’ve not really done much on liturgy and I’m going to be discussing some ideas with a couple of other people today.

    I rather like doing this work but being the Editor of a magazine and running a cathedral are not always terrible compatible occupations. Deadlines and the liturgical year don’t always play nicely together.

    I’m always so grateful to the writers of the articles. Some people have the gift of generous writing – fast, accurate and interesting.

    They are a delight.

    I’ve asked before in the magazine itself whether people want to suggest themes for issues and two of the themes listed above come from people’s suggestions.

    Anyone want to make a suggestion here? Feel free in the comments below.

4 responses to “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.”

  1. David Kenvyn Avatar
    David Kenvyn

    I am a little worried about this concept of “African Marriage”. It seems to assume that Africa as a continent is culturally homogenous. This is not something that we would ever say about Europe or Asia, and it is simply not true. Morocco has very little cultural similarity to Mozambique. In South Africa, Xhosa-speaking men are circumcised at about 16 years old. Zulu-speaking men are not circumcised. They live in neighbouring provinces and inter-mingle in the cities. I think we have to be very careful when we describe practices that are common in Nigeria or Tanzania or Namibia as African, as they may not apply across the whole continent. It would be like calling bullfighting or reindeer racing European cultural norms, when we know that they are specific to particular countries.

  2. Seph Avatar
    Seph

    I think what Christians and others need to bear in mind is that it is possible to be accepting of divorce as a fact of life while still valuing commitment and regarding marriage as ideally being a lifelong covenant. In truth, if a couple is considering divorce then there is already brokenness (or sin—although in this context the word has some uncomfortable connotations) in their relationship, and trying to maintain it purely because the Church (or, heaven forfend, God) Says No doesn’t seem to me to be in any way a holy or virtuous thing to do.

    ‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E.’ is a lot less effective an obfuscation in writing than when Dolly sang it.

  3. David Kenvyn Avatar
    David Kenvyn

    Jacob Zuma has five wives, Desmond Tutu has one wife, Nelson Mandela had three wives and divorced two of them. What does this tell us about the concept of “African Marriage”?

    1. Kelvin Holdsworth Avatar

      I was quoting an African priest. And I agree with you.

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