• Review of Predictions for 2018

    On 1 January I made predictions for the coming year. Time to see how I got on.

    1 – General Election in the second half of the year.

    Well, no we didn’t and the government linger on. Not right

    2 – “…and as the polls close, our exit poll predicts that the Conservative Party is unlikely to be able to form a new government…”

    Well, the government did linger on of a fashion.  N/A

    3 – The next but one leader of the Conservative Party becomes Ruth Davidson MP.

    Too soon to tell. Not right yet.

    4 – The hipsters get bored of vinyl and discover cameras with actual, you know, film.

    In September, I happened upon three or four hipster types from Denmark in the cathedral grounds taking photographs for a fashion shoot in Belgium. They had stopped shooting for a moment…. to reload film canasters.  Right – but likely to become more common yet.

    5 – No date for a new referendum on Scottish Independence.

    No date for a new referendum and no great call for one either. Right.

    6 – No progress for LGBT affirming Anglicans in England.

    Sadly correct. Right

    7 – Progress for LGBT affirming Anglicans elsewhere, particularly Brazil.

    Stunning progress in Brazil – marriage agreed by huge majority on synod floor. (And who else saw that coming!) Right.

    8 – Increasing realisation that sexual abuse is part of church culture. #churchtoo #metoo.

    Yes – meetings happening all over the place trying to work out how to respond. Few coherent policies yet. Right.

    9 – FTSE lower at the end of 2018 than it is at the beginning. (7687)

    As I write this the FTSE is at 6728 – worst year in a decade. Right

    10 – The end of the beard.

    Those with style, manners and culture have seen the error of their ways and shaved. A few young and misguided types cling on. Completely and utterly right.

     

    Not a bad year, I think.

5 responses to “Ordinary Sunday in Eastertide”

  1. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    But, but… this Sunday is in no way ordinary time! It is still in Easter!

    1. kelvin Avatar

      You are right, Tom. It is just an ordinary special Sunday…

  2. Pam Avatar
    Pam

    Wall to wall gorgeousness from the choir – music to my ears! (Perhaps a video one day)?

  3. Augur Pearce Avatar
    Augur Pearce

    I guess the Ascension was celebrated on Ascension Day? Very right and proper; but for those places that can’t achieve a Thursday evening crowd, yesterday would have been a high festival too!

    1. kelvin Avatar

      I’ve never been in a church that didn’t keep Ascension on Ascension Day and I’m wondering why there are churches that don’t.

      Is it that the people stopped coming because it wasn’t done well or because they are too lazy to turn out or is there some other reason?

      There is a curious habit in this diocese of having joint regional services on Ascension Day in some of our regions. This has never made me think any better of our regional system.

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