Friday, April 28, 2017

Portfolio of interests?

Good news for the Diocese of Llandaff, after a bit of a saga [about which I will NOT publish comments], it has been resolved by the Anglican Church of Wales that June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury, will be its next Bishop. The announcement is here.

Now I do not like pouring cold water on the cheerful celebrations of such an event but my convictions on matters of principles and important truths shall not be tarnished.

This is the last part of the announcement:

"Her interests include the arts and football.  A lifelong supporter of Manchester City, she is looking forward to adding rugby to her portfolio of interests."

Rugby is NOT, I repeat, NOT something that can be added to a portfolio of interests. By all means dislike rugby, show no interest in it, have no understanding of the great game. Blanch at the thought of what goes on the scrum. Refuse your sons and daughters any participation in the game, steering them towards gentler pastimes such as football. Do anything you like against the game of rugby.

But do not add it to your portfolio of interests.

Rugby is passion not interest. It is bedrock to culture in places like Wales and New Zealand. It is a matter of DNA in the body and of legend in the body politic. It is not something you add to your interests because you have a new job in rugbyland.

Oh, and all this grizzling on my part is nothing compared to the grizzles I and many others in Anglican Land are having about the latest absurdity of the Church of England/Anglican Mother to Us All. Cranmer nails it here. Really!?

What is the point of having a C of E national press officer if he or she cannot stop these nonsenses before they reach the media. Once there they are difficult to explain away ...

15 comments:

Father Ron said...

Dr. Peter Carrell said"

"Oh, and all this grizzling on my part is nothing compared to the grizzles I and many others in Anglican Land are having about the latest absurdity of the Church of England/Anglican Mother to Us All. Cranmer nails it here. Really!?"

Unlike you, Peter, I was born, baptized and Confirmed into the Church of England so do not share your bias against that Institution, which, by the way, paved the way to both your esteemed father and yourself to become ministers in its provincial diaspora.

Whatever we ex-Colonial's think about the Church of England - despite the irrelevance in today's Church of its founding '39 Artifacts' - it's still the spiritual birthplace of some of us in ACANZP - as is witnessed by my own Anglo-Catholic roots, which are not distinctively Kiwi, but still a significant tribute to the historic Church IN England's catholicity.

Peter Carrell said...

Hi Ron
I cherish the CofE in its majority faithfulness to the gospel, to catholic and evangelical Christianity and so forth.
I have lived and worshipped regularly in England and rejoice in those experiences and in many experiences of appreciated CofE visitors to ACANZP.
I have no time for the follies of the CofE, nor indeed much time for the follies of ACANZP!!

Simon said...

These slightly unnerving photos appear to be of a cathedral in a largely rural county hosting a celebration of a local agricultural speciality. It's not hard to find photos online of cathedral clergy within our own province dressed up to bless people's pets, or indeed less than a couple of weeks ago, dressed up as the Easter bunny. What's the difference?

BrianR said...

"It's not hard to find photos online of cathedral clergy within our own province dressed up to bless people's pets, or indeed less than a couple of weeks ago, dressed up as the Easter bunny."

"I'm sorry, Vicar, there was a mistake - we asked for a Rabbi, not a Rabbit.'

Anonymous said...

Peter, odd and even disturbing things do happen in Anglican churches from time to time. National battle flags are waved about. Crucifixes appear where bare crosses were usual. Some of them have female corpora. Indeed, bodies sometimes dance in chancels, transepts, and aisles. Solitary souls wander through labyrinths. Eucharists are stitched together from songs by U2. Smudges from African traditional religions are used. Surahs from the Quran are recited. Modified Muslim prayer services are recited, as are Jewish Passover haggadot. And now, asparagus is solemnly exalted. Plainly if ironically, Anglicans who define their tradition liturgically nevertheless have a tradition of (or at least a constituency for) transgressive liturgy.

Could you, or any of your erudite readers, point me toward some recent explanations of that tradition from within it? Plainly-- I do not know why this is so-- we too seldom discuss the expressed intentions, wise or foolish, of the prayers of the prayers themselves. Instead, we debate press reports and blog posts, often forwarded from sources hostile to them. The former may be important to do; the latter is surely important to avoid.

Bowman Walton

Andrew Reid said...

Hi Peter,

It could be worse. The new bishop of Llandaff could be a passionate supporter of the Melbourne Rebels, like me. Psalms of lament and Job getting a regular read through.

Andrew

Father Ron said...

The new Bishoo of Llandaff is, as we have been informed on weblogs, supportive of the community in the Church that Peter will not now allow us to discuss on this site - unless, perhaps, she disavows her inclusive agenda. Llandaff might become more liberal that the C.o.W. Presiding Bishop had hoped. Certainly a Woman Bishop is - though in this case a diversion from something more dangerous - a step in the right direction.

BrianR said...

The usual Sunday attendance of the Church in Wales is c. 29,000 (as of 2014). This equates to under 1% of the population of the Principality. The average age of attenders is about 60. Like Tec and the Scottish Episcopal Church (uSa c. 15000), the Church in Wales will be largely gone in ten years time.

Father Ron said...

Very interesting information Brian. In the light of this, can you tell us what is the turn up rate in your own Anglican (?) parish, and the proportion of people under 21? This might tell us where you are coming from in your suppositions.

Father Ron said...

Ibn my new 'portfolio' of interests, Peter, I looked in on the latest news from Taonga.

Surprised to find that one-time Dean of Christchurch, Peter Beck, is now 'Dean of Taranaki, appointed, just short of his 70th birthday to oversee the resurrection of the pro-Cathedral in New Plymouth.

However, having been appointed Chaplain to the 'Order of Saint Lazarus' in 2013, no doubt our erstwhile colleague will - in yet another of his post-retirement incarnations be able to bear witness to Resurrection in Taranaki.

BrianR said...

"Very interesting information Brian. In the light of this, can you tell us what is the turn up rate in your own Anglican (?) parish, and the proportion of people under 21? This might tell us where you are coming from in your suppositions."

8 am - depends on season but currently averaging 18-20 per week. The great majority are over 50.

10.30 am - c. 200, of whom c. 45 under 16s (lots of toddlers)

6.30 pm - depends on university terms but currently c. 80, of whom c. 40 are students (I think). The evening service has been better attended in the past, but students have always been a 'floating constituency'. The service also serves as a 'testing ground' for young people to develop their abilities in leading worship and prayer ministry.

We don't have the biggest draw for university students in this town - an Assembly of God has many African students and 2 or 3 independent evangelical churches may have more as well.
Our focus is on families, with dedicated (in both senses of the word) children's and youth workers. There is also a fortnightly men's prayer breakfast that draws 20-25.

We look 'successful' but part of this impression comes from comparison with the other parishes which are all liberal catholic (with one Anglo-Catholic exception), and average 70 in attendance and probably 60+ in age. The demographics don't look good when the congregants are long past child-bearing.

This is the face of Britain in the next ten years: wave after wave of Anglican and Methodist churches will close as their elderly congregants die off or cannot sustain the burden - while more and more mosques will open, perhaps in these abandoned buildings. Meanwhile, liberal bishops have started 'making nice' with the future.

Father Ron said...

Thanks, Brian, for the information on your own parish - which seems a mixture of Evangelical and charismatic ethos. Presumably, you feel this mix holds the future for the survival of the Church of England in the average University town, which is one area of catchment for young people. Congratulations on your success!

BrianR said...

Well, I don't talk about 'success', nor do I claim any credit (even if that attitude were not antithetical to the Gospel). I am constantly aware that 'evangelical' culture is often skin-deep and without deep theology and a deep devotional life we will be like the seed that germinates rapidly but then dries out in the sun of cultural hostility - of which there is a very, very great deal, driven variously by cultural Marxists of the left but also the atheist Nietzschen Ayn-Randists of the right and Islamists pirouetting among them, but mainly by materialism, secularism and individualism - including mind-numbing digital 'entertainment'. The irony of a 'good life', as John Wesley ruefully noted when he observed the moral and social uplift that his preaching produced, is that it can lead to its own undoing when we resign to making our (comfortable) home on earth instead of in God.
In the end it comes down to demography. Indigenous westerners are aging and not reproducing as well as losing their religion. So they are looking for immigration to produce the children they refused to have. Therein lies the crisis of our times. The future belongs to those who will show up for it.

BrianR said...

Meanwhile, here's one "sport" I won't be adding to my "portfolio of interests". Yes, New Zealand leads the way ....
in looking very, very silly.
But for how long? Gender is just a social construct in any case and has no basis whatsoever in biology, brains, chromosomes, muscles etc etc.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/90607448/Aussie-not-happy-after-transgender-weightlifter-Laurel-Hubbard-achieves-New-Zealand-sporting-first

Anonymous said...

Who, Andrew, are the Melbourne Rebels? Do they play football or rugby?

Bowman Walton