What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Some snippets from Englandshire

    Here’s Bishop Alan Wilson on how the C of E bishops have been managing things:

    Bishops sat on the fence for the sake of unity in the name of even handedness, trying to slow everything down and keep order. The result was disunity, frustration and chaos.

    In reality there was no fence to sit on. In effect, doing nothing was siding with the decreasing majority who believe gay people are wicked, stunted, sick or disabled, or the one that believed women were made by God for non-leadership roles.

    Caroline Criado-Perez on gender representation on banknotes

    Make no mistake, the battle has not been won – and I am still prepared to go to court if I am not satisfied with their response. We have no guarantee, either that women will remain on banknotes, nor that the bank will commit to making future public decisions under the auspices of the Equality Act. I hope that when we meet next week the bank will acknowledge our actual concerns, rather than what they would like our concerns to be.

    Simon Sarmiento on my list of Unanswered Questions about Same-Sex Marriage

    Similar questions may also apply to members of the Church of England and the Church in Wales, in due course, but it seems very likely that the answers will not be the same as in Scotland.

    , ,

32 responses to “Sign seen”

  1. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    What was the character of the debate? If one believes that the admission of women to the threefold ministry of the Church was an extension of an existing doctrine, not a doctrinal change, and that the dropping of the ‘filioque’ clause from the Creed wasn’t a doctrinal change either (nobody is compelled to deny that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son), the change to the doctrine of initiation was the most important doctrinal change made by the Scottish Episcopal Church not just in my lifetime but perhaps even in the SEC’s history. It amazes me that it seems to have been so uncontroversial.

    Reply
  2. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    (I don’t say I necessarily disapprove of the change. I’m quite happy not only for the unconfirmed but also for the unbaptised to be admitted to Holy Communion and would turn away no-one – except perhaps ++Judas Williams, and even then probably not – from the altar. But I can’t understand how a Church can teach two contradictory things at once.)

    Reply
    1. kelvin Avatar
      kelvin

      To a certain extent, saying two contradictory things at once is part of the consequence of having old liturgical formularies alongside modern ones, I think.

      (If you are not going to say something new, what’s the point in producing something new after all).

      The modern descriptions of marriage in the 2007 marriage rite don’t seem to me to be entirely consistent with the marriage rite of 1929, for example.

      It is the way we live now.

      Reply
  3. kelvin Avatar
    kelvin

    Well, as I said, there were several of us who spoke against the change, for one reason or another but it was passed by a fairly high majority, I think.

    It seems to me that there is just about every view about initiation into the Christian church that has ever been held is currently also held and practised in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Indeed, there are varieties of practice and procedure within congregations and even within families.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

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

Previous Posts

  • No sermon today

    No sermon today – we read the Passion according to Mark instead, the congregation as the Body of Christ reading Jesus’s words.

  • The Silver Swan

    The silver swan, who living had no note, When death approach’d, unlock’d her silent throat; Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more. Farewell, all joys; O Death, come close mine eyes; More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.

  • Pestilence and death

    Fr Gareth announces that he is going to live in Cellardyke and within days, pestilence and death are reported there.Are we supposed to think there is no connection? 

  • Many thanks

    Many thanks to the person who kindly bought me a few items off the wishlist.