Gay weddings to be held in St.Featherbrain's church!

The Liberal Democrat minister for "equality", Lynne Featherstone, is pushing ahead with so-called religious gay weddings. Seeing as most of those campaigning for this novelty are either atheists or agnostics or revisionists, I'd say this was an attack on Christianity rather than a measure of that euphemism of equality.

Ms Featherstone, bless her, knows nothing about the Church. She is Jewish and a liberal. That makes her rather inadequate to pontificate on this matter. The only religious bodies to get excited about this are the Quakers and the Liberal Jewish synagogues. I've nothing against them offering whatever the wish to offer. What I do object to is Ms Featherstone trying to find a way to force the Church to adopt secular notions. The sacrament of Holy Matrimony is a holy estate between a man and a woman. What the state does is one thing. We may agree or disagree. She should leave well alone on matters of doctrine of which she apparently knows very little. Strange noises? Sounds like she consulted her boiler!

Archbishop of Canterbury has been 'abducted by aliens' says bishop

Bishop Gene Robinson doesn't do himself any favours by being rather rude about Rowan Williams. He seems to think that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been "abducted by aliens" simply by trying to profess the Faith. What is alien for the Church is for the sacraments to be undermined by those who, for whatever reason, cannot maintain the discipline of faith. Those that keep to the historic understanding of the Church's traditions are attacked and belittled. Gene Robinson may have quite an honest belief but his beliefs are not those of the whole church by any stretch of the imagination. That is the point, surely.

This story appeared in the Daily Mail which also reports that the archbishop of Canterbury "has warned of shortages of vicars due to clergy moving to Rome". Most who are moving at the moment are not vicars, but as I've said before, the secular media uses the term "vicar" for any cleric regardless of the actual position.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331530/Archbishop-Canterbury-abducted-aliens-says-bishop-battle-gay-clergy.html#ixzz161sDo700

Papal Visit 2010

I think the Papal visit went very well. The Pope is obviously seen by many as a holy and spiritual man. Yesterday's mass at Cofton Park was well attended despite the gainsayers. All in all a positive outcome. The Pope can reflect on a visit that has secured a sound basis for further reflection within the Christian community of these islands of Britain.

Yesterday was the beatification of John Henry Newman. As Newman replied on his elevation to cardinal "What a turn up!" he may well have said the same thing about becoming blessed. Newman did have a sense of humour. I well remember an Anglican monk saying that to be a pastor or a religious it was essential to have a sense of humour. The best priests I know have exactly this. Not a frivolous froth of religiosity but a deep sense of belief and the ability to share this. Newman is seen as a convert as much as a cardinal of Rome. In many ways he never relinquished his Anglican roots. Was he one of the first modern Anglican Catholics ideally suited for anglicanorum coetibus? Those of us contemplating the Holy Father's offer of a spiritual home are wondering whether we will be absorbed or accommodated. It is now perfectly plain that there is room in the Catholic Church for a variety of flavours. Pope Benedict generously acknowledges that the Anglican patrimony is perfectly consistent with the Catholic Faith (for those, of course, keeping to traditional beliefs!). But Benedict is not a young pope and a successor may have different ideas.

The question is whether Anglicans can be Anglican Catholics or whether we will be gradually absorbed and our heritage expunged. Certainly more questions, with answers yet to come.

As the woman vicar said to the bishop!

For those who say the Church should get modern I suppose adultery and infidelity are not what they are thinking of. The real world has both in spadefuls it seems. It is therefore very sad when such things encroach on the lives of Church members and clergy. Not that those of us in the Church are less capable of falling short. Far from it.

In the Church in Wales, the Right Rev. Carl Cooper resigned as Bishop of St David's yesterday. He had apparently been having an affair with a married woman who was also the bishop's chaplain and communications officer. The Daily Mail erroneously described her as a vicar, but then all priests in the Anglican Church are vicars to the popular press, even if they are curates, chaplains, rectors, assistant priests or priests-in-charge.

This is a sad state of affairs, literally. What I find difficult is that both sides seem more attuned with the ways of the world rather than trying to reconcile their actions with their faith. With the modern approach to a more laissez faire version of Anglicanism, the "moving out" and "splitting up" comes before trying to maintain marriage vows.

The New Testament (1 Timothy 3:2, 12) says, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach. . . ." Not all live up to that and one should never judge, but giving in quite so easily seems to me to suggest a lack of willingness to try again.

Not a gay day for Anglicans

The worldwide Anglican Church is in a state of crisis over homosexuality. The trouble is that the Christian message is being polarised and turned into a "what's best for me" situation. It is also the case, as with the Episcopal Church in the USA, that people have become Anglicans but have brought their own agendas with them.

Traditionally Anglicans have taught that they preach not a new faith but the faith "Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est - That which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all". Unhappily, new ideas and beliefs have tugged on the comprehensive nature of Anglicanism.

The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is about Christian living. Whatever is said in the world, this sacrament does not embrace genitally-based homosexual relationships and by its nature cannot do so. There are only two ways of living out the Christian life. Celibacy and Matrimony. However, we all fall short, some more than others. Our lives are seduced by temptations all around us. Those not living up to the Christian ideal should not be castigated or denounced.

It is therefore a little sad that the Archbishop of Canterbury has had to step in to defuse the rising tensions over the issue. He quite rightly deplores the threats made against Rev Colin Coward, director of Changing Attitude, describing them as the "latest round of unchristian bullying". During the Second World War the saying "Careless talk costs lives" was used. Similarly, careless talk costs Christian integrity!

In Australia, the Reverend Richard Lane has denounced a judge for calling himself a Christian Anglican whilst living in an openly gay relationship and warned as a "messenger, watchman and steward of the Lord in the Anglican Church of Australia", he faced God's judgment. Well, all I'd say is that we all face God's judgement. However, the Australian judge, Mr. Justice Kirby, made an assertion on ABC Radio late last year that the Anglican and Catholic archbishops of Sydney, Peter Jensen and George Pell, had, via religious instruction, made it hard for people to adopt a more tolerant attitude to gays. This is his opinion, but the teaching of the Catholic Faith should always preach tolerance whilst not abiding sinful activity.

I would hope that clerics like Richard Lane temper their language. It is one thing to practice the traditional sacramental teaching of the Church. It is quite another to pose as being God's chosen over other people.