Martin Sewell Archbishop Cranmer Emotional abuse in the Church: Bishops need psychological help
Justin Welby Church Times Good news — without coercion
“How should Christians evangelise people of other religions?”
Pat Ashworth Church Times The future of Christian ministry is collaborative
“Are we seeing the end of the individual vocation?”
David Ison Church Times The looking-glass world of the judgemental
“It is wrong to use St Paul’s teachings to deny LGBT people the sacrament of communion”
[also available at Via.Media.News]
I firmly believe we should not evangelize anyone of another religion. Each person finds his way to God in his own way.
There is much of what the Archbishop of Canterbury says that is right, obviously right. Yet I am left wondering if he understands what he is writing. He talks about privilege and colonialism, particularly in relation to him as a white person. But it sits very uneasily with me that he seems blissfully ignorant of the fact that were he female – let alone gay or with a trans history – he could never have become Archbishop of Canterbury. I confess I find his ignorance arrogant, even offensive, because an intelligent man in his position of authority shouldn’t be ignorant… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more, Kate. I think there might be some unconscious bias at work in the unconscious bias training…
Archbishop Welby makes excellent points, but nonetheless, when talking about all those Muslim converts, to me, he comes across as seeming to “value people solely for their conversion potential”. Decades ago, I was homeless and I wandered into a church that happened to be open late at night and asked for assistance. It turned out the congregation had recently purchased the building I had wandered into, members were engaged in the task of moving in, and their treasury was tapped. But one of their members offered to put me up for the night and make me a meal. We then… Read more »
Seriously… smelt is formed like learnt, spelt, spilt and spoilt. Compare knelt, burnt, wept and slept which are less abrasive to a North American ear.
Merriam-Webster gives “smelt” as an acceptable past-tense for “smell,” although it lists “smelled” as the first choice.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/smell
“smelt” has at least three meaning: (1) as the past or past participle of “smell”, (2) in mining to melt down ore, and (3) a little fish.
I believe it is a case of divided by common language, as in USA it would be “smelled”, but in UK “smelt” can acceptably be used as past tense verb.
It usually depends on the size of the dictionary consulted…
How refreshing on TA that we are discussing something so uncontroversial. I have always known and used “smelled”. English is a wonderful language; I think most English people would say “knelt” rather than “kneeled”, “burnt toast” but “burned at the stake”, and yes, I think “wept” and “slept” are shared usage. One could go on ad infinitum. But our US cousins should be aware that there are probably as many variations in language usage within different parts of the UK. But, more importantly, thank you Peter Gross for sharing your experience of a genuinely warm Christian response when you were… Read more »
I want to commend Martin Sewell’s refreshingly perceptive piece on the Cranmer blog. There’s a lot of truth there.
re Dean David Ison’s excellent contribution; I always admit to my own unworthiness to receive the Body and Blood of Christ by using the words of the Liturgy: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed”. None of us is ever ‘worthy’ of God’s redeeming love. We are simply called to receive it by sacred tradition.