Church Times ‘God was still my highest priority and my greatest love’
Vicky Beeching talks to Madeleine Davies about ‘unlearning a lifetime of shame’
Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News For the Love of God….
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Time to confront and end abusive, homophobic teaching, theology and practice
Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of words within the word
Daniel Hill Law & Religion UK The State and Marriage: Cut the Connection
Mark Vernon Church Times Why people don’t come to a worldly church
“Seekers are looking for spiritual depth and inner transformation — not anxiety and manic overwork, argues Mark Vernon”
Angela Tilby Church Times We need to talk about cathedrals
Caroline Davies The Guardian Are Church of England’s dabbing deacons and jumping bishops a leap too far?
“Informal ordination photos may be a sign of holy joy for some, but traditionalists are less than elated”
To Jayne Ozanne’s and Colin Coward’s point, doesn’t the recent spiritual-abuse CDM case provide a helpful precedent? Some people are born LGBTQ. If a licensed social worker or psychologist were to tell them that their sexuality is wrong, wouldn’t that kind of “help” be unethical and malpractice? Why should priests get away with doing anything similar?
I sadly noticed amongst the jumping Deacons, two more senior ladies who looked uncomfortable. Shame on the young Deacons, and very selfish.
As the Father said it does no credit to the church, and a steady loitering as Archbishop Ramsey once quoted in ones cassock amongst the flock is much more genuine, and meaningful.
As a retired priest aged 84, I still enjoy fun and laughter in the right place.
Fr John Emlyn
As someone who has had dealings more than plenty with the press I can tell you that it is not the subject of the picture calling the shots & actions but the photographer, so accusing the young of being selfish is simply wrong. I too noticed discomfort in one, not two, of the Readers (NOT deacons). But surely someone ordained, or licensed, will be exposed to uncomfortable moments aplenty. Either they will learn to stand up to things that are unbearable, or learn to put up with them. Jumping, or miming to do so, is a start.
Andrew Lightbown’s article is spot on theologically and casts loving affirmation of Jayne’s and Colin’s bits. Once we decide that in the eyes of God, there are no second, third, or fourth class human beings, it is game over for exclusion. Andrew also touches on the issues that prevent us from loving our neighbor as ourselves, objectification and a cornucopia of unconscious biases. When bishops “talk about us without us,” they are objectifying us. We are objects, not human beings, we are told what our place is because it obviously isn’t at the table with everyone else. We are objects,… Read more »
Re: Just Love
Of course, as Jayne, Colin and all of us know, same-sex love is good. Jesus said we should be liberal in our love – love everyone, even those who are abusive to us!
So it is good to be emotionally attached to people we are close to.
The issue which seems to be forever avoided is when it is good to bring sexuality into a relationship. Reading through the Gospels it doesn’t take long to see that, regarding the morality of sexual relationships, Jesus is more conservative than the Torah!
Jesus did not particularly love e.g. Herod, “that fox”, or some of the Pharisees (who get a rather unfair press in the Gospels). And he was certainly conservative on marriage and divorce.
Music which is ideological first and musical second makes me twitch, whether the ideology be one I agree with or one I don’t. There is much to be delighted about by Billy Bragg’s recent enthusiasm for Woody Guthrie, not least that it has quieted his teenage politics. But with that caveat, Vicky Beeching is a hugely impressive young woman whose work is vitally important; the vitriol heaped upon her by “Christians” says a lot about them which is bad, and a lot about her which is good. There are people who think of themselves as “Christian” but express that “Christianity”… Read more »
Do you follow Billy Bragg’s Twitter feed, IO? I don’t see any evidence that his politics has been quieted! And by the way, ‘Mermaid Avenue’ came out 20 years ago this week. Well, I’m nearly 60, so I guess that’s comparatively ‘recent’…!
I’m in my fifties and, similarly, anything past about 2000 is “recent”.