• Sunday Trading and the Churches

    Dear the Churches of England

    If you campaign against Sunday trading you are going to seem to the People of England to be as bad as you are. Campaign instead for the rights of shop workers of all religions who work at all times and the People of England might be more convinced. If you take on the Sunday trading thing you are going to lose anyway.

    Here in Scotland things have been much more liberal for a long time. We did have quite strict liquor laws which meant you couldn’t buy booze on a Sunday morning anywhere. This meant you couldn’t buy an emergency bottle of wine for communion on a Sunday morning in case it led to drunkenness, which always seemed to me to be a little odd. Even this law has been relaxed now.

    Seriously – the fight against Sunday trading isn’t one that churches can win and look sensible or fair. Please don’t make the rest of us look foolish.

    Remember the Sabbath day and what it was about and keep what it was about holy. It was about making sure workers got rest. It was about making sure there was time for leisure. It was about making sure that there were opportunities for worship. Churches should campaign for all those things. In multicultural Britain these things do not coalesce any more in the idea of one shared day off a week which is inevitably on a Sunday.

    Dear churches of England and the Church of England in particular – pick your battles wisely.

    Thank you for your attention.
    KELVIN

One response to “Sermon – Pigs Might Fly”

  1. Michael Kalmuk Avatar
    Michael Kalmuk

    On May 28, 2003 my partner Kelly Montfort and I were the first same-sex couple in the world Anglican communion to have a legally sanctioned same-sex blessing and literally two months later, two men in Ontario won their legal battle to be legally married. A few years have passed (10 to be exact) and now same-sex marriage is legal in Canada, many of the United States and various other countries. The pigs are flying and the world has not yet come to an end as the result of this scandalous news! Be true to your hearts and bless this change of attitude. It is all part of our never-ending quest to be tolerant of our differences and to try to love one another a little more. Our ancestors would probably not understood why this is so important. Our children’s children will wonder why there was so much anxiety over people loving one another.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Previous Posts

  • Prayers ascending

    Prayers ascending from Thurible Towers today for the Diocese of Brechin as the Electoral Synod there meets this evening to choose a new bishop. Episcopacy is a funny business. We seem to be pretty much convinced in the Scottish Episcopal Church that we want bishops but I suspect that what we want from the Episcopacy…

  • Lords’ Reform and the C of E Bishops

    Oh, who will rid us of these troublesome bishops? The first sign of the shape of proposals to reform the House of Lords has just been published and disappointingly seems to advocate retaining a privileged position for Church of England Bishops in the House of Lords. It does suggest dropping the number from 26 to…

  • Things people are searching for

    The following search terms have recently led people to land at this blog. So happy to be of service. Better well hung than ill wed The Bearded Nun Gay ministers in the Church of Scotland Mothers’ Union Homophobia O my people, what have I done to you Mission Implausible

  • Presbyterians move to openly ordain gay clergy

    Exciting news coming in this morning that Amendment 10A has now been passed by 87 presbyteries, which was the threshold required in order to enact it. The consequence of this is that there will no longer be a bar on LGBT presbyterians being ordained. More details over here.