Karen Burke wrires in a Comment is free column in The Guardian about The death of Methodism? Not quite. The Methodist Church might change, or even merge with the CofE. But Methodists don’t need an insitution to be who they are.
Robert Colquhoun writes in the Times about Men, sex, and the Church. Images of a passive Jesus do not encourage red-blooded males to go to Church, but where can men find an authentic model of male Christianity?
Theo Hobson writes in a Comment is free column in The Guardian about An illiberal establishment. For bishops to say that establishment keeps Christianity in the public square is a self-serving betrayal of the gospel.
Ripon Cathedral is hosting a series of lectures on Religion and Politics – The Role of the Church in Contemporary Society during 2010. James Jones, the bishop of Liverpool, gave the first of these this week with the title ‘My Kingdom is not of this world’ – Really?
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about Lent, death, Room 101, and wads of cash.
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali writes in the Telegraph about Promoting life rather than death. It is absolutely right for us to feel compassion for those who have a terminal or an incurable illness and for their near and dear ones who wish to relieve them of this burden, even if this means the death of the one who is ill.
And finally Jonathan Bartley looks ahead to later in the year in a Comment is free column with That papal Thought for the Day pitch. Pope Benedict may fill BBC Radio 4’s religion slot when he visits this year. What will he be able to get past the producers?
I hoped to find something useful in Robert Colquhoun’s article. The title should have warned me. Sex, sex sex and an adolescent purity craze…. is that really all that contemporary Christianity is about? I despair!
I thought Theo Hobson’s piece was very punchy. Particularly this: ‘Liberal Christians do not want Christianity to disappear from the public square; we want it to get a better hearing there. We want to communicate it to our unbelieving peers. And while bishops retain their pre-modern privilege, and keep the smell of Christendom alive, this is all but impossible: liberal people are confirmed in their rejection of this religion. Christianity must learn a new way of existing in the public square. And the first step is to renounce its old claim to own the place.’ The last sentence is especially… Read more »
Robert Colquhoon’s article in The Times about the need for a role model for the Christian male, I find rather sexist. Obviously, his male ego requires something different from Saint Paul’s *In Christ, there is neither male nor female* understanding of the Christian philosophy of human complementarity. The fact that John Paul II was what he might call ‘a real man’ should have no bearing on his ability to disciple Christians, who are all equal in the sight of God. The writer’s obvious fear of being thought *different* from his macho-male colleagues is the sort of attitude that keeps women… Read more »
“It is a shame that the lecture is so dominated by discussion of ancient times, for the really interesting questions about church and state relate to modernity. The essential question is this: should Christianity accept the thrust of liberal ideology, and reform itself away from the Constantinian model? The Church of England has a long history of evading the question:” – Theo Hobson, Guardian article – This extract from Theo Hobson’s take on the words of the Bishop of Durham ought to conjure up some urgent conversation among the Bishops of the Church about the need of reform – away… Read more »
RE: Robert Colhoun’s article one wants to exclaim: Modernity: Thy Name is Brute!
It’s the enormous 19th century change in the Social Roles of Genders (of which there yet was imagined only one ;=) that makes the male persuation of the 20th Century wanting to be ruff, un-feeling, and in all contrary to the Role of Woman.
A Therapy of Revulsion.
“I remember, as a (male) Franciscan Novice,” – Fr. Ron Smith Well, now it’s easy for me to understand why I so greatly appreciate you, Ron. As you may know, the new Bishop of Long Island in TEC, my diocese, is also a former Franciscan, as well as a former RC priest. And, while I was never a Franciscan, I am a graduate of St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and was educated by Franciscan Brothers. I still have a great affinity for all things Franciscan, Anglican or Roman, and somehow feel that if we were willing to drop the contrivances… Read more »
Surely Colquhoon is answered by James Jones – engagement is the positive way.
Let’s see, Jesus of Nazareth traveled the countryside for 3 years, without benefit of Jeep or Land Rover, offering comfort and healing. He boldly condemned the religious authorities of the day (at least for those who had ears to hear), he comforted the afflicted, afflicted the comfortable, proclaimed a new approach to worshiping and communing with God, denounced the rigid literaltism and orthodoxies of his day, conversed with Roman governors, shook up the Temple square, and willingly suffered torture and death for what he believed in. Yes, Mr. Colquhoon, Jesus of Nazareth was a real effeminate wimp, all right. Now… Read more »
Even having read him, I’m still rather glad that Robert C says he has finally found his way … … trouble is, he wants his peculiar-personal sense of a Real Manly Way to dig in deeper among us. Worse, he will justify urging us with those very flat earthisms that serviced the used and abused men are men and women-children are not dominance theories. RC wants his unquestioned male dominance legacy bought off, traditionally, by recrowning that sort of male as king, even in church life? RC urges a closed category, Real Men, just when the true modern empirical evidence… Read more »
Colquhoun: “I learnt that men are called to be the initiators of human love. A man’s body has ‘stamped’ into it the call to initiate relationships.”
And on the Eighth Day, God (the Father) created the erection? O_o
Oy Vey. Suddenly having another flash of solidarity with Mary Daly (RIP—may she Rage In Power!): “When God is Male, Man is God.”
What JCF said!
Just got around to reading Colquhoun and at first thought it was a joke – you know, a 21st c. sendup of 19th c promotion of a Manly Man’s Rugged Christianity. But now I see he’s in fact serious in believing that only men may initiate human love because their equipment in on the outside. I bet he thinks masturbation is a sinful spilling precious human seed. I wonder if he thinks only men experience sexual pleasure? I say, put him in a time machine and send him back to, oh, 1879, and he’ll be a happy man. Then again,… Read more »
Cynthia, there is a saying in the hills, the bigger the truck, the smaller the p—-.
Colquhoun’s piece made me think of the song “Thank God I’m a Man” from *Shock Treatment* and I couldn’t stop laughing at it.
We have met the enemy and it are silly.
“This isn’t to say that Methodists do not cherish their institutions and structures; it simply means that Methodists are prepared to change and evolve in order to respond to the challenges of the 21st century.” – Karen Burke, The Guardian – Not a bad philosophy really! Perhaps we Anglicans around the world would do well to listen to this Methodist wisdom. We, too, need to ‘rattle our dags’ (as the aussies might say) and get into gear with the needs of the Gospel in the 21st Century. Then, we might become a worthy partner in the Gospel with the Methodists.… Read more »