What is in Kelvin's Head?

Predictions 2023 – How did I do?

31/12/2023

1 Generative artificial intelligence will become significantly disruptive of many sectors this year. Education practices will change quickly as a result of this but education will be but one of many areas of life to be affected.

Happening all around us (even to people who can’t see it happening around them) – prediction fulfilled.

2 No progress for those seeking marriage equality in the Church of England. There will be a lot of talk about moving towards some form of official blessings for same-sex couples which would have the effect of thwarting those seeking actual equality, making it more difficult to achieve. Further division amongst pro-gay activists in the Church of England.

Happening exactly as predicted. The recent developments following the LLF project make equality more even further away – prediction fulfilled.

3 Indyref 2 will not happen on 19 October 2023 as Nicola Sturgeon had hoped, which is a shame for those seeking to separate Scotland from the rest of the UK as the autumn will be the high water mark for the Indepedence movement. It will be downhill into the next General Election after that.

Happenning but not quite as I expected. Indryref didn’t happen but Indy polls are indeed riding high. However I didn’t see the mess the SNP would get itself into along the way. Prediction Fulfilled.

4 Trump and Biden will both declare that they intend to run for the US presidency in 2024 and American politics will continue to be all about Donald Trump.

Exactly as I said – prediction fulfilled.

5 Covid recovery remains bumpy, particularly through supply-chain problems due to mismanagement of Covid in China.

Pretty much as I said – we’ve largely forgotten the supply chain issues that continued from the end of last year into the new year and the spring. Prediction mostly fulfilled.

6 No conclusive end to the war in Ukraine this year.

Alas. Prediction fulfilled

7 Governments in Westminster and Holyrood will announce some kind of “new deal” for the National Heath Service.

Holyrood here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/programme-government-2023-24/pages/5/

Westminster: Pay – here https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/14/government-accepts-recommendations-from-nhs-pay-review-bodies/
Westminster: Medicines here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/landmark-deal-to-boost-nations-health-and-save-nhs-14-billion

Prediction fulfilled.

8 – UK Government will not succeed in blocking Scottish Gender Recognition Reform.

I remain surprised that the Scottish Governnent gave up on this. Prediction not fulfilled.

9 Liam McArthur’s bill in the Scottish Parliamant to allow doctors to participate in the killing of terminally ill patients will fail to receive parliamentary approval but will receive more support than similar proposals have before.

Bill hasn’t received approval but hasn’t gone to a vote either. Large levels of support in the media. Prediction partially fulfilled.

10 Changes announced to the UK honours system, perhaps at the time of the Coronation, to remove references to empire. OBE becomes Order of British Excellence.

Not happened yet. Prediction not fulfilled.

Result – about 7 1/2 out of 10 this year I think. Not bad.

7 responses to “Sermon preached on 1 July 2012”

Ryan

02/07/2012

Excellent stuff! It’s worth noting I think that overt antisemitic caricatures, rather than being left in the 20s, were very much a feature of ”The Passion of the Christ”, much beloved of certain fundamentalist/evangelicals, whereas the Christ-analogy Bingo approach to the Jewish Scriptures popular in some quarters certainly supports a reductive misunderstanding of the Jewish religion (and so people?)

Reply
Eric Stodadart

02/07/2012

Indeed, an excellent sermon although there’s no getting away from Jesus-a-good-Jew being critical of some aspects of some of the various streams of Judaism of his time. His comment on one particular way of tithing is a case in point.
Having said that, Kelvin’s Jewish scholar is spot on. Whilst we might learn about others by considering their friends perhaps we understand others more when we look at those whom they feel the need to denounce. In evangelical preaching I have perpetrated in the past ‘Judiasm’ was a convenient container into which I could drop criticisms of ’empty ritual’ or ‘salvation by works’ that my congregation probably could understand as coded references to Roman Catholic and liberal Protestant piety, respectively.
Projecting fears and taboos onto characters in a narrative is bad enough but, of course, real people are caught up in the out workings of such stereotypes. More positively, I think that figuring out who, for us, are ‘the baddies’ in the biblical texts – and on what grounds – is a salutary exercise. For me, that probably means starting with S. Paul. Not that I see him as one of the baddies but reflecting on what I might be projecting on to what I think are his theological off-days would likely be useful.

Reply
Suz Cate

02/07/2012

Important message, artfully delivered. Thank you. I’ve been reading Jesus the Jew by Geza Vermes–an excellent resource for considering your second question.

Reply
Eamonn

02/07/2012

Oh, dear, Kelvin! I shan’t ever be able to recycle the sermon I preached yesterday, after reading yours. Thanks for sharing this deeper insight (said he ruefully).

Reply
Marion

03/07/2012

Surely there’s also something important here about recognising that none of us is prejudice free – we just see our own targets as valid. The only way I’ve learned to manage anti-semitism within the church (and the scriptures) is to explore the underlying fear and to recognise that we all live with fear and insecurities. Having been on the receiving end of racial prejudice, I know how easy it is to dismiss it as ignorance – and of course, on one level, that is true. But we are all ignorant about how it is to live in someone else’s skin. I found it more difficult to deal with the people who told me ‘some of our best friends are Jews’ than it was to deal with the people who hurled insults. It seems to me that Jesus the Jew challenges us to recognise our fears and to allow the possibility of transformation if we can find the courage to acknowledge our true selves. Maybe a starting place is to recognise that difference is OK – or more than OK; through recognising difference we have the potential to learn and grow.

Reply
Craig Nelson

05/07/2012

I feel Pharisees in particular get a very bad press from the New Testament which may not be fully warranted.

Reply
Rosie Bates

09/07/2012

Wow, heard Matthew’s version of this Gospel at Mass this evening and I am still gasping and wondering. Thanks for new vision and allowing the scholarly woman to touch you and ‘blow your mind’. My previous sermons are well and truly dumped and I repent of them. Drained is love in making full, bound in setting others free…. came to mind and so much more to be thankful for. I had a Jewish doctor in London in the 70’s who was rather angry with me when I wished to continue with a life threatening pregnancy. He persevered with this stubborn scared young Christian (one who understands why some would decide otherwise) and when he came to visit each day after the birth of John he totally ignored me and sat rocking in prayer beside the miracle in the crib. He and his lovely wife honoured us with their presence at John’s Baptism – a first step into another place of worship for them as they approached their seventies. We continue to journey together now that they are in the fullness of The Kingdom. I was so fortunate and my dear Doc who was known to me as ‘Uncle Eric’ is still very much part of our family. He always ended his surgery with an important appointment – His wife confided in me that it was to watch Eastenders! which he found therapeutic – so do I as the Gospel message is always popping up in the midst of horrors and so are the babies!

Reply