It should not be long until the Scottish Government comes to its decisions about how to move forward on Equal Marriage in Scotland.
Two members of St Mary’s, Jaye and Ruth Richards-Hill had a good (and surprisingly long) interview on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday.
If you are interested in hearing it, you can find it here: http://t.co/85R0zdoL
The clip starts at 2 hours 31 minutes in – available for another 6 days.
You’ve missed out one that I know is important to you: a clear commitment to social justice, local, national and global. Sublime aesthetics are all very well but most Freshers are young people and they want to know what you stand for. Otherwise, saying, in a nutshell, ‘all is well’ rings rather hollow. So a church that doesn’t indulge in party politics but does for instance condemn the malevolent stupidity of attempting, again, to fight an anti-Western ideology with indiscriminate Western bombing would let Freshers know that this church at least is smart enough to read the signs of the times and apply relevant Gospel values. Rather than just be vaguely lovely when our government is getting away with murder.
These are wise comments Alan. Several decades ago when i was a fresher…the anti-Vietnam protests in Australia were in full flight.
I don’t think the church took a high enough profile, but many of us participated.
Then there were the anti-apartheid demonstrations, when South African Rugby visited…these too were important.
A wise Archbishop of Adelaide (later Australian Primate) Keith Rayner reminded us that one of the roles of young Christians is to pursue causes, be enthusiastic, and to challenge the church.
Having been a University Chaplain (University of Adelaide, South Australia), and now a priest in an inner city church of a University town (Adelaide, South Australia http://stmarymags125.blogspot.com.au/) I perceive much wisdom in your comments here
I also want to add another dimension, which is true both of our church (St Mary Magdalene’s Adelaide, & of the Cathedral Church of St Peter, Adelaide):
that social outreach is important.
A very Anglo Catholic principle.
Two decades or more ago a group of ‘earnest’ (quite the wrong word to describe the lovely kids who were uni students in the 80s) but genuine Christians ….sat around for weeks wondering about how they should put their faith into practice. Finally they just decided they needed to DO something. That something was putting on a slap-up meal on Saturday nights. That has continued for nearly thirty years. Diocesan parishes and schools volunteer every week.
Really looking forward to my first Christmas here, when the parish will outdo itself with a proper Christmas dinner for those who we are called to love.
I am impressed by the quality of University and young professional volunteers who staff this wonderful ministry.
It strikes me that most freshers get this as authentic Gospel…and so do I
Kelvin: Operation completed successfully on Tuesday – no complications. I am in awe of the surgeon.Tilly: Sticky paws and a bad temper. She is in awe of the vet. [The bad temper is a sign of normality].
I'm going to have an operation on my mouth today. Yeuch. I will continue to appear to blog over the next few days, but some of the entries will have been written and posted in advance. Yesterday was a bumper day – the largest number of people reading this so far. The website served up about 90…
I'm impressed with the on-line petition that has been set up on www.inclusivechurch.net, in response to the events in the Church of England this summer. I've signed it and would recommend that anyone who wants an open and inclusive church does so. The fundamentalist parts of the church seem to want to dictate who is…
The Whole Armour”How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts.”So said the psalmist in the psalm we read together this morning (Psalm 84).One of the things which I tend to do when I am on holiday is to make for the dwelling places of the Lord of hosts ? or at least make…
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