April Alexander ViaMedia.News Learning from history: LLF and the ordination of women
Helen King ViaMedia.News Born-Again Virginity?
Pierre Whalon God does not exist
Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Review Time
Martyn Percy Prospect Magazine Why Charles’s coronation could be a spiritual flop
Pete Broadbent Ecclesiastical Law Journal Reflections on the Workings of General Synod
[no longer behind a paywall]
Got to agree with Pete that this would be an improvement on the present soviet-style delegation of votes to Deanery Synods, designed to keep people in the pews at arms length from actual decision making. If it’s good enough for Parliament, why not for General Synod? “The House of Laity We cannot continue to justify a House of Laity which carries such a democratic deficit in its electoral base. Deanery Synods make no sense as an electoral college for the laity. Ask yourself what attention the average Annual Parochial Church Meeting gives to the choice of those who will represent… Read more »
It’s a high class piece of writing throughout from Pete. I don’t necessarily agree with all his conclusions but even where I don’t, his arguments are highly credible. It is of a considerably higher standard than almost all ‘official’ communications. An obvious component of the way towards though is to slim down Synod. Cut the number of dioceses in half or more (and the number of diocesan and suffragan bishops). That cuts lay and clergy representative numbers too since they are linked to the number of dioceses. Get rid of all ex-officio attendees. Then with fewer attending synod, those speaking… Read more »
So long as the CoE’s a state church, I agree. I expect that many on the electoral roll aren’t regular churchgoers, but if the CoE’s a church for the nation, that shouldn’t matter.
If it’s disestablished, presumably some kinda membership list with attendance records would be created: but with such a drastic change in its remit, that’d be an internal matter.
Having attended more than enough Deanery synod meetings over the years, imho it’s difficult to justify their existence or raison d’etre. Surely better to abolish them as a tier of governance – I think a proposal was made 25 years ago but never made it through GS.
The Bridge Report (after Lord Bridge, a retired Law Lord) was published in 1997 or so, but didn’t get much Synod attention at first as the Turnbull Report (after the then Bishop of Durham) ‘Working as One Body’ got priority, leading to the creation of the Archbishops’ Council, a body still trying to find its feet 23 years later! Bridge recommended deanery synods were abolished. That failed, but he also recommended a slimmer General Synod. That was achieved, but should be done again. I don’t agree with Pete Broadbent that there should be universal suffrage for the House of Laity.… Read more »
I had thought “born again virgin” as featured in Rev was a joke. Apparently not…
Professor Helen King writes The World Health Organisation’s 2018 statement on “Eliminating virginity testing” argued that “the term ‘virginity’ is a social, cultural and religious construct with neither medical nor scientific basis” and that virginity testing is a violation of human rights because “the appearance of a hymen is not a reliable indication of intercourse and there is no known examination that can prove a history of vaginal intercourse.” Unfortunately the link https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/eliminating-virginity-testing-interagency-statement/en/ no longer works and the nearest I can find is https://www.who.int/news/item/17-10-2018-united-nations-agencies-call-for-ban-on-virginity-testing where we read The term “virginity” is not a medical or scientific term. Rather, the concept of “virginity” is… Read more »
I think that this is the report that Helen King is referring to: Eliminating virginity testing. I can find both her quotes in the Overview and in the full report.
So it is, thanks! The text makes it clear that the quote is effectively a preconception, not a result, of the report. The point, of course, is that statement that someone is a virgin is a statement about what has actually happened involving them in the real world, and since those event involve physical acts involving the body, it has biological and medical correlatives. As Prof. King’s article points out there’s a huge cultural superstructure sitting on top of this physical fact. So, why be at pains to deny that those correlates are a “basis”? One reason, is in order… Read more »
Thank you for updating the web link, Peter, which I’ve now done in the article. I suspect Unreliable Narrator’s main point (other than that original concern that my only source was a student newspaper) is that my ‘argued that’ suggests this was the WHO report’s conclusion, when it was instead its starting point. But none of that changes the message that ‘virginity’ is not ‘a physical fact’ and is a good deal more complicated than some who promote it seem to realise. That is supported not only by modern medicine (which distances itself from the baggage associated with the word… Read more »
My point was that “virginity” starts from the meaning of “never having engaged in sexual intercourse”. There’s undoubtedly a cultural aspect on what “counts” as sexual intercourse, although I think a common thread is activity likely to cause pregnancy. But nonetheless, whatever is described as sexual intercourse is a physical act, and the predicate of having engaged, or not, in such an act is a physical fact: a fact about the physical history of the physical body. That fact is correlated, for women, with another physical fact, namely the condition of the hymen, hence the secondary meaning of “virginity” as… Read more »
Here I am to praise the article on King Charles coronation ceremonies potential to be a spiritual flop, and a big potential one, JIMHO. First of its all: The British Monarchy is arguably the most famous in the whole world since at least the II World War. Of course, Queen Elisabeth II was respected like an heroine for her time during and after that time on our history. King Charles Coronation will to be one of the TV events of the years with perhaps hundreds of millions of viewers live and recorded. Most of the Humanity will at least to… Read more »
Although given to provoking expletives amongst British squaddies and CIA operatives (Operation FF) alike, Farouk of Egypt & the Sudan was not without considerable grace and wit. In his Italian exile he remarked, ruefully, that there would soon be only five kings: the king of diamonds, the king of hearts, the king of clubs, the king of spades, and the king of England. However, I am not perhaps as optimistic as you or Farouk about the prospects of the British crown.
Many thanks to the thought provoking post. Regarding the British Crown? Popular enough to survive the current challenges. She has survived far larger ones!…
Genius. Genial. Merci infiniment, comme toujours.
My mother knew Farouk and always spoke well of his charm and affability.
It went on too long for me, but what a fantastic piece of writing by Pierre Whalon! I found myself nodding at many of Mr. Whalon’s suppositions. And I especially welcomed Mr. Whalon’s use of gender-neutral terms to refer to God. However, whereas Mr. Whalon takes his philosophical musings to postulate that God is without existence, I would use some of the same arguments as Mr. Whalon to argue God (pronouns: S/He, His/Her, They/Their, It) is pure existence. God is. I’ve been told that the root of the holiest Hebrew name for God: YHVH (which Jews make no attempt to… Read more »
If you are ecumenical and don’t mind hearing what a Kairite [Jew] has to say, Nehemiah Gordon has studied the pronunciation of YHWH extensively. There are several videos in YouTube – regrettably I can’t recall which is best. Apparently the pronunciation was passed orally from rabbi to apprentice in a special ceremony every 7 (I think?) years. There are also Hebrew documents he has found which do include the vowels and he believes in a specific pronunciation of the tetragramaton.
Back in 2008 the Congregation for the Discipline of Divine Worship and the Sacraments within the Roman Catholic Church issued a Directive, that in the Liturgy and public worship of the Church, there were to be no prayers, Hymns or any readings from Scripture where God was referred to as “Yahweh”. I think this is probably because the Jews have found this highly offensive in some of the liturgical actions and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, for example the use of the Jerusalem Bible where God is reffered to in the Old Testament As Yahweh and modern Worship songs… Read more »
Is “Mr. Whalon” not a bishop?
No need to worry, really. There’s far better evidence for the existence of God than for the existence of Pierre Whalon. So if it’s true that God does not exist, then, clearly Pierre Whalon doesn’t either.
More seriously, though, didn’t we go round this loop with Aquinas, and the distinction between esse, essentia, ens and quidditia?
Quidditia? Don’t start bringing JK Rowling into this or the thread will never end!
Yes. In the same way as Mr Welby is.
Or señor Bergoglio.