• The Kalendar for 2022 – 2023 is available free!

    For years now, I’ve produced a Kalendar for the Scottish Episcopal Church with all the bible readings set out for the year.

    In the past I’ve sold it for around £4. For a range of reasons, I’m not going to be selling it this year but am releasing it online so that anyone can download it and print it out for themselves.

    It is available right here: Kalendar 2023

    Anyone who would like to make a donation because they enjoy the Kalendar so much and want to encourage me to keep doing it is welcome to do so via paypal.

     

     

14 responses to “Breastfeeding in church?”

  1. Eamonn Avatar

    I’m OK with breast-feeding. But is that a tambourine I see in the background?

    1. Kelvin Avatar

      Oh, she likes her tambourines and guitars does Herself.

      1. PamB Avatar
        PamB

        It’s a lute. Pronounced lyoot by all the best choirs.

        1. Kelvin Avatar

          It is a lutenist angel playing Shine, Jesus Shine.

          1. Bob Chapman Avatar

            That might be the only time “Shine, Jesus Shine” would be appropriate to sing.

  2. Christine McIntosh Avatar

    I fear the tambourine might disturb the feeding child. Trust me. I know about this.

  3. Kennedy Avatar
    Kennedy

    Is the picture of Madonna and Child in the chapel at the Cathedral of the Isles in Millport not showing Mary breastfeeding, not too ostentatiously?

  4. Bob Chapman Avatar

    Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
    Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
    Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
    The ox and ass and camel which adore.

    http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238450

  5. Gay Corran Avatar

    Christine is right: a rattling tambourine would distract a nursing child, particularly one as old as this appears to be! Lute music would be soothing though. Mary’s anatomy is distinctly odd. She seems to have no shoulders, and her breast is in a very peculiar place on her chest. However, we get the point: how could something ordained by God, or “nature” be offensive to anyone? When babies need feeding, they won’t wait; should mothers not go to church or to restaurants for up to two years after a birth? If page 3 type breasts loom from every newsagent’s shelves, what could be so disturbing about breasts being used for their other function?

    1. Christine McIntosh Avatar

      Er … I think you’ll find, Gay, that breastfeeding is the primary function of a woman’s breasts; any other is a creation of male fantasies.

      1. Gay Corran Avatar

        Interesting point, Christine. Although I said “other” not “secondary”. You know that tee shirt for pregnant women that goes “it began with a kiss”? When most of us got pregnant one of the two functions came into it, I’ll bet, male fantasies or otherwise! Breasts have two functions; what is extraordinary is that one is designated as so disgusting that it has to be performed in private, in a corner, or hidden under a napkin – but it’s the wrong one… Bring on the lutes and adoring angels!

  6. Janet Koch Avatar
    Janet Koch

    Hey, Jesus was breast-fed.

  7. Eamonn Avatar

    ‘Is the picture of Madonna and Child in the chapel at the Cathedral of the Isles in Millport not showing Mary breastfeeding?’ Yes, I think it does, Kennedy. It’s also the only Madonna and Child painting I like, as it shows Mary, realistically, as a bedraggled, just-delivered 16-year-old single mother. I wish it were better known.

  8. Jennifer White Avatar
    Jennifer White

    There is nothing better than these comments and this beautiful meme today. 🙂
    -a mom who nursed 2 children for 4 years total

Leave a Reply

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

Previous Posts

  • Ariodante – Scottish Opera – review – ****

    This review appeared first at Opera Britannia Scottish Opera’s new production of Ariodante has a huge amount going for it. Performed by a solid cast, there’s a cracking trouser role, glittering sopranos and a pantomime baddie countertenor to boot. Only some dubious work in the pit and some slightly odd decisions from the director get…

  • Pilgrimage Days – Who on Earth Are You?

    I’m looking forward to hosting two Diocesan Pilgrimage Days at St Mary’s on 20 and 27 February 2016 exploring the theme “Who on earth are you?” It is difficult to think of a better week for exploring our identity as Episcopalians but it isn’t going to be all about the Columba Declaration. We’ll be focussing…

  • 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…

  • Sermon – preached on Valentine’s Day/Lent 1

    So. It is Valentine’s Day and the church bids us to go with Jesus into the desert. Well, that’s the story of my love life. But what are we to think today? How are we to deal with this story of Jesus being tempted in the desert? Jesus gets led in the desert, we are…