Haiti

Excellent post by Bishop Nick Baines on this. www.nickbaines.wordpress.com

New year thought

I have started to divide people in the public eye into 2 groups. Those who make life better, and those who make it worse. For example in the first category Radcliff and Maconie on Radio 2, and Nigel Slater the cookery writer. In the second category, well where do you start? Anyone behind Lad’s mags like Zoo for a start. Forty years of feminism  and we are still objectifying women. Any suggestions?

Nigel and Catherine

Please pray for them in the Yemen

First seminar

In my Phd I am spending most of my time getting up to speed with the literature around my period and the debates at the time. Some of the most eminent writers in my period are members of the 16th and 17th century religious history seminar in London. So to go along on Tuesday evening to my first seminar and meet the people whose scholarship I have been digesting is a huge privilege. It also helps get your mind in the right way  of thinking.

Truth

Fascinating spat between the chief drug adviser and the home Secretary. It seems that there are some kinds of truth that are politically unspeakable. I know little about drugs; too square and Christian at university and at Imperial College we all drank beer anyway! I know how certain types of addiction, such as to heroin and crack cause huge personal and social problems. However the long term effects of cannabis or ecstasy are subjects about which I know nothing. So when an expert body make statements about the level of danger of a drug I am tempted to listen. However can politicians? With a hysterical tabloid press can they risk being perceived as soft on this subject? It appears not. Another part of our public discourse rendered useless.

Joe Cole

Iam off this week for half term which meant after being thrashed at hockey on Saturday 14-2, and  that is not a misprint, and catching a quiet prayer book comunion service early on Sunday ina neighbouring parish I was able to have a lazy weekend inclusing seeing Chlesea thrash Blackburn 5-0. And we welcomed back Joe Cole, my favourite player, and he was brilliant with all the verve and invention in his play that we have missed. Iam now in the middle of reading 700 pages on 16th century catechisms and my brain hurts…

Vatican Rag 2

If you want a good reflection on all this, I suggest you look at Bishop Nick Baines blog nick.baines@wordpress.com

However a bit of me wants to express less peacable sentiments. I think a bit of  ‘speaking the truth in love’ might be appropriate…. 

1:+Rowan has been stitched up like a kipper over this. To only be given a couple of weeks notice and to be presented with a fait accompli is not the generous act of a sister church but rather a piece of opportunistic poaching. The English Catholic fantasy of bringing us all back to Rome and getting all our lovely cathedrals back is just that, a fantasy, but it is one that has damaged ecumenical relations for too long. It is also insufferably smug!

2:Already some people are beginning to speculate about financial provision for those who go, and or sharing/giving churches. Well I hope we play hardball over this. If people want to become RCs, denying their ordination and validity of their orders, well  that is up to them, but I see no reason for the Church of England to pay a penny. Again on sharing buildings; if it is in our interest to be rid of some buildings that are unsuitable for mission well there might be a case, otherwise those who go can make their own arrangements and pay for it. Incidentally how are they going to pay pensions and stipends for married clergy?

3: How are progressive Catholics going to react? 

4: The idea that the Anglican communion’s debates on sexuality contributes to the need for a safe haven for FiF clergy in Rome takes the biscuit, considering the gay sub culture in FiF.      

5: If priests convert to Rome then they must accept the papal claims. If they accept such claims why did they not go long before.

I could go on! What it comes down to is the death, and not before time, of the anglo-papalist strain in the CofE. This movement had some great priests but contained within it the seeds of its own destruction in terms of its internal contradictions. How could you follow the teaching and use the liturgy of another church which denied the validity of your orders. Such clergy now face a choice whether to go where they should have been for years or to stay. Put up or shut up, I feel!

There was always another strain in the Tractarian movement, exemplified by figures like Pusey and Keble, which stressed our continuity in the Church of England with the early church, and looked to it for inspiration and not to 19th century Rome. They emphasised Anglican thinkers like Hooker(who I cannot resist mentioning a the drop of a hat!), Andrewes, Laud and the Caroline divnes. It is this heritage which we sorely need to rediscover as many of us who are fully supportive of women’s ministry seek to give a future shape to Catholic Anglicanism. In many ways this is an opportunity for us.

Vatican Rag

Well it has been announced today that a kind of hybrid Anglican rite church will be acknowledged by the papacy. I will be amazed if many clergy actually go to Rome, but if they do, well, I think I we will cope! If they really accept the papal claims they should have gone years ago. if this speeds up women bishops I am all in favour. Now we just need Reform to go…. Not Rome, not Geneva but Canterbury.

Step backwards

Depressing news today that the legislation for women bishops is going to institutionalise discrimination. Frankly we should just do it and those who object will have to make their own minds up. In the long run I think it would be kinder than a fudge. How can we as a church talk about issues of justice when we continue in this manner? Listening to Radiohead to cheer me up. Yes, Radiohead…..

busy weekend

This was Harvest weekend and I was fairly tired after the clergy conference, though dancing to Mamma Mia was my own fault! Gift Day followed by hockey (1-1 draw) followed by Harvest Supper, followed by huge congregation, followed by 11am at Chaldon, followed by lunch for newly ordained former member of congregation after her first mass in a nearby parish. I then collapsed in front of Chelsea vs Liverpool which we deservedly won, Drogba being a right handful and making Carragher look second rate and Gerrard fairly invisible. Another ordination next Sunday afternoon and my former curate’s wedding the following weekend….