Today is Valentine’s Day. Kelvin Holdsworth has 10 Tips on How to Date a Priest.
Brian Orme ChurchLeaders.com 10 Dangerous Myths About Church Growth
Giles Fraser The Guardian I regret that the devil is being made redundant. He’ll be much missed
Christopher Howse The Telegraph A throne like a church spire
A conversation about Time with Br Geoffrey Tristram and the Rt Rev Nick Knisely: Eternity is Real
“Today is Valentine’s Day”. Tut, tut. Today is *Saint* Valentine’s Day, please.
“The Devil” is one of those things about which I am content to live in paradox. On the one hand: OF COURSE there’s no such thing as “The Devil”. Evil is something arises from human freewill, but no human is entirely Evil, and Evil has no independent personal existence outside of human (im)moral choice. And then on the other hand…. “Deliver us from the Evil One”: it has a certain resonance, doesn’t it? A comfort that we could be kept safe from Evil, Personified? And what then, of the thread, below (re Stephen Fry and theodicy), that points to all… Read more »
“It’s a simulated drowning.” — Giles Fraser
Well, in my experience, there’s simulated and then there’s SIMULATED.
In certain Protestant Christian churches where I’ve witnesses full-immersion baptisms, I’ve often wondered whether the pastor was ever tempted to hold the baptised under “just” a little longer, the better to ensure the baptised’s entry into Heaven in a state of purity and grace.
peterpi, best to avoid “Deacon Dick Cheney” in that case… :-X
“Today is *Saint* Valentine’s Day, please.” — Very Good — so easily overlooked and remedied. A good way to remind each other that there’s more to love than red hearts, roses and lingerie. It seemed right to me this year following January 1st, to happily wish people a ‘Happy Christian New Year’. In a day where we are constantly reminded in the name of diversity to remember the Chinese New Year, The Jewish New Year and Muslim New Year (among others) and with the more common use of CE over AD it is a good way to start a conversation… Read more »
Perhaps the C. of E. should consider whether to baptize the child of parents, neither of whom have the grounding to understand the language of the liturgy and the scriptures. Baptism on demand is one reason for its weakness.