• Public Opinion and Same-Sex Marriage – John Curtice

    A while ago we had a real treat at St Mary’s. Prof John Curtice gave a talk about public opinion and same-sex marriage. It was one of those forums which was very special for those who were there. There simply isn’t anyone who knows how to read and interpret public opinion as John can and it was great to see him in action.

    It was also one of the first forum meetings which I videoed. Unfortunately, the talk that John gave was fantastic but the audio on the video was terrible. Lots of people tried to listen but some were quite disappointed. For that reason, I was delighted that John agreed to give a similar, though slightly updated, talk to the diocesan synod that we held here in the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway on 1 March 2014. Once again, John was gracious enough to allow it to be videoed and this time the audio is tip-top, thanks to Kennedy Fraser’s work on the sound-desk.

    This can be posted freely. I suspect that it may help far more people in the church get their heads around where public opinion lies on this question than were at the synod the other week. Do share and use on other blogs and diocesan websites. And take a look – it is well worth putting aside half an hour to watch.

    Now the question for the day, is – in what ways does public opinion matter when the churches make their minds up about same-sex marriage?

5 responses to “20111224 Midnight Mass – Sermon”

  1. Christmas Sermons…

    Today’s Church Times has reports of several Christmas Day sermons: ‘Atomised’ Britain is urged to seek God’s forgiveness. The full texts of some are available online. Archbishop of Canterbury Archbishop of Wales Bishop of Salisbury Bishop of St A…

  2. william Avatar
    william

    “Christ is born and all shall be well” – sounds very like Jeremiah’s “peace, peace”, but there was not peace.
    Substance is all important, whether it’s in the content of sermons or websites.
    Throughout His life, and especially in His communication with the religious Jesus took great care to communicate substantially lest at the end many should come to Him, saying Lord, Lord and He would then have to say – I don’t know you.
    Crowded churches or busy websites in themselves are nothing, as we all know – so let’s not encourage folks to busy themselves with such digressions.
    But there are ways in which we should be busying ourselves – Jesus had a lot to say about that – including our presence for worship and even the content of websites!

    1. kelvin Avatar

      > Jesus had a lot to say about …. even the content of websites!

      Oh no he didn’t!

      1. william Avatar
        william

        Kelvin, your understanding of scripture is amazingly narrow, even literalistic – at times!!

        1. kelvin Avatar

          That may well be so.

          However, I do understand irony.

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