What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • So, let me get this right…

    Let me be sure I’ve understood this.

    From sometime next year or the year after, a gay couple will be able to get a Civil Partnership, then come to a Scottish Episcopal Church for a blessing from a Scottish Episcopal priest, make promises to one another, exchange rings, have them blessed, sing hymns and have a Eucharist celebrating their union. And then they will be able to convert it to a marriage soon after (what a day later?) by filling in a form and paying a small fee. Or maybe they will not even need to go through the Civil Partnership bit and just be able to come for the whole blessing thing after getting married.

    And that’s going to be OK with just about everyone. Admittedly not absolutely everyone but not far off.

    And we are now currently insisting in submissions to the Scottish Government that the same Scottish Episcopal Church is opposed by virtue of our doctrine to same-sex couples getting married.

    And we expect government (and the general population) to take us seriously.

    Have I understood that correctly?

    , ,

3 responses to “Six Points for Preachers”

  1. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    I think I would add: if it does not matter to you, yourself, then don’t imagine it is likely to matter to anybody else. Find, if you can, the point where your concerns and the concerns of the text cross. Better to say a very little that matters, than a lot which really does not.

    Also: read (to yourself, before you start) the whole passage you are going to speak on and read what comes before and after. You do not have to agree with it. You do have to enter into dialogue with it. Supine agreement of Scripture is not (in my opinion) required. Taking it seriously, is.

    Reply
  2. Dent-de-Lion » The Messenger

    […] Dent-de-Lion by admin Posted on November 2, 2012  Six Points for Preachers […]

    Reply
  3. Melissa Holloway Avatar
    Melissa Holloway

    I’ve noticed how uncomfortable preachers are with the word ‘love’. Discounting the times in is used in a pre-set theological phrase like ‘love of Christ’ as sort of a plug in, I rarely hear it in sermons.

    Its a reason to be Episcopalian – if the preacher avoids love, you can always hear it – or see it- or taste it – in the Eucharist.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Previous Posts

  • Sermon – 6 February 2005

    The gospel reading that we have this morning tells us a great deal about the relationship that Christians are coming to have in the world. At one time, it could be assumed that the world was basically a Christian kind of place and that everyone in it was a person of faith, to a greater…

  • Off to Dundee now

    Off to Dundee today for a Chaplaincy awayday.Having been racing around the country quite a bit this week, I would much prefer to stay here and catch up o­n things.My meeting at the Anglican Communion Office in London along with leaders from other Inclusive Church groups was an interesting o­ne o­n Tuesday. I'm sure that…

  • Sermon – 30 January 2005

    I want us to meditate on the first of the readings this morning (Micah 6:1-8) and you might want to keep that text in front of you whilst I am talking. ?Hear what the Lord says:? Do we believe that we can hear what the Lord says? How easy it is to think that what…

  • To Dunblane

    To Dunblane this afternoon to meet with Bishop Bruce, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. I'm helping to convene this meeting which hopefully will include a discussion of a policy document that I have been working o­n this week – A Scottish Response to the Windsor Report.The document itself can be seen o­nline at…