Here’s the next of the videos that I recorded with Marion Chatterley of Waverley Care:
marion chatterley #3.movie from Kelvin Holdsworth on Vimeo.
In it we have quite a spirited conversation about HIV and the church. Marion explains to me why she thinks churches are making the HIV/AIDS situation worse in Scotland. Marion also gives details of how to contact her for anyone who wants to speak to a chaplain.
Do take a look.
Fred and Leanne’s comments, way off the mark when it comes to St Mary’s but true to a large extent about other churches, make me realise that a vital element of the new militant atheism/ secularism (not to be confused with multiculturalism as it is totally intolerant of difference) is its online presence. Everyone likes being smug and to be a smug theist you have to spend a considerable amount of time in a good library but to be a smug atheist you need about 3 minutes online watching a video clip of someone untrained in ontology or ethics (but, say, a professor of biology) expound on Being and preach amorality. Bingo! An easy rant to borrow down the pub. It’s the Tractarian approach to evangelisation. Give it to em in byte sized chunks.
“totally intolerant of difference”? You mean the Mainline Protestant churches and semi-Churches (Unitarians and Quakers) of North America, who’ve been preaching “Celebrate Diversity” for over 40 years while still remaining over 95% White and middle/upper middle class? “We hope to represent the future of religion”; odd, you’ve somehow managed to have a median age of 57+. Barely 9% of any Mainline Protestant body is under 31 years old.
The Tea Party and Republican National Convention are more “diverse” than these groups.
About as vibrant and colorful as skim milk.
Again, why bother? You either have the worst programs to “represent our neighborhoods in our churches” or you just don’t mean it.
I think it is very clear, Fred that Alan is not talking about mainline protestant churches in North America.
It was very obvious to me that the issues over race and ethnicity there are very far removed from what we experience at St Mary’s and I think in the UK generally.
That isn’t to say all is perfect but it is to say that things are very different here.
St Mary’s is very ethnically diverse, and a heck of a lot less than 95% white and does not draw its members from one income-bracket either … nor is our median age in its fifties, I would think. Nor have I ever heard any of us suggest that one has to be religious to be moral. It would of course be wrong to be smug about these things, but then – we are all a little wrong from time to time, aren’t we?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Could I ask you, just for a moment. And I promise you it won’t be for long. Could I ask you to think about something you probably don’t often want to contemplate too much. Could I ask you to think about…
I’ve to do the strangest thing today. I’ve to record the resurrection ahead of time. We are in the middle of Lent at the moment, which means worship in a lovely subdued mode, preaching of the passion on Sunday and a generally sub fusc mood. Yet I’ve agreed to a recording of a service for…
The news came through last night that the Anglican Communion is to have its second bishop who happens to have a gay partner. Canon Mary Glasspool was elected as a new suffragan bishop in Los Angeles a few months ago. What’s happened since is that the wider American church has had a chance to say…
Its a funny thing, Choral Evensong. A few years ago, I would have said it was purely of antiquarian interest. However, I was wrong. Last night was a good example. Glorious music. Quite a diverse aged congregation. A diverse aged choir too. Gorecki’s Totus tuus utterly beguiling us all in its simplicity and sparse beauty.…
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