The Cute Man on the Screen

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Last Friday, the General Synod of the Church of England met in York. The meetings lasted until Tuesday this week.

Since it is usually done via Youtube, the Mhinisteir and I were able to catch up before bedtime each night.

The first thing that struck me was that very few clergy were wearing their clerical shirts. By day two, even the ABC and the ABY had ditched their clerical attire. There were scores of them in bermudas. Some ladies were in their vest tops. It appeared very disrespectful towards the dignitaries who were present. Among them were the Archbishop of Congo and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

In recent days, the weather here in the UK has been very hot but that can’t be used as an excuse. If the dignitary from the orthodox church can turn up in his full regalia day in and day out so can the ABC in his clerical shirt.

Another observation I made is that the knitter wasn’t in focus. Instead I got to see a cute man with a full head of dark curly hair. He usually appeared on the bottom right of the screen and was often dozing off! Pity he was oblivious to the fact that he was on camera. At other times, he would be looking at his mobile phone. I just assumed that he was catching up on his favourite TV programme!

It was only on the last day that I discovered that my cute man on the screen is the ABY’s new chief of staff! I look forward to seeing more of him in future Synod meetings!

The Knitter is back..

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The General Synod of the Church of England met last week from Tuesday to Thursday. Since I belong to the Church of England, I feel that it is my duty to keep abreast with what is happening in the wider Church and so forced the Mhinisteir to watch these proceedings with me in the evenings.

As I watched the proceedings, I jotted down some observations.

• The Knitter is back. I wrote about her in November 2021.
• Some of the chair were not very competent. My favourite was the Rev Zoe Heming. She was well briefed, calm and always had a smile.
• There appeared to be a lack of transparency. I got the impression that some people were “planted” to ask questions in favour of the ABC while people who asked difficult questions like Rebecca Chapman and Jayne Ozanne were “shot down”. I don’t know these two women personally and may not even share the same theological views but they asked very good and legitimate questions.
• Sadly, cheap jokes and sloppiness appeared to be the order of the day.

ABC is being naughty yet again

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It was reported in the most recent Church Times that a new Archbishop’s secretary for appointments has been found. For the uninitiated, the secretary of appointments is the one who manages the process for the appointment of bishops, deans, and other senior posts in the Church of England.

Some people within the Church of England are a little surprised by the appointment as the post which has been vacant for only about 2 months doesn’t seem to have been advertised. Furthermore they are irked by the revelation that it is an internal appointment!

Personally, I find it strange that in the Church of England, clergy have to apply for new positions; something which I am not familiar with because in Scotland the clergy receive what is known as a “call”. Meanwhile administrative positions appear to require no such applications.

I dread that what happens inside the Church mirrors the secular government!

The Archbishop and the Chief Whip

In yesterday’s Telegraph, There was a large obituary of Lord Denham: Chief Whip in the Lords throughout Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.

In his obituary, I read about a rather amusing incident that happened in Eton between him (Bertie) and John Habgood, who later went on to become the Archbishop of York.

At Eton, he sat next to John Habgood, the future Archbishop of York. When Bertie sought help in a French test, Habgood replied: “if you can’t do your own homework, you shouldn’t ask other people to do it for you.” Denham considered this a shade un-Christian.

The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 9 December 2021

Misquote

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At the recent General Synod, the Archbishop of York (ABY) was quoted as saying:

“We have a lot of labourers in the Church of England. The trouble is that the labourers are in the barn arguing what colour to paint the combine harvester. Like two bald men fighting over a comb“

In the Gospel of St Matthew, the Lord Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. I know who I believe because if the ABY is correct, there will be no need for multi parish benefices where a single parish priest is usually in charge of 3 or more parish churches!!!!

Younger & Diverse

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There was an article in last week’s Church Times about a £4.8 million Innovation Fund that has been launched by the Archbishops’ Council.

As I read the article, I quickly realised that rural churches will never be able to qualify for one because the projects must support the official Vision and Strategy for the 2020s; the priority of becoming a Church which is younger and more diverse.

In rural parishes like ours, We do not have young families moving into our villages. The problem is so acute that one of our village primary schools has already closed down.

As for diversity, rural areas tend to be quite traditional which is why the parish churches tend to be more middle of the road CofE than very high or very low.

What rural churches really need is priests of good calibre but sadly the Church of England is unwilling to fund that and prefers to waste her money away.

Who is that woman???

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The Church of England’s General Synod 2021 began on Monday with an inauguration service in Westminster Abbey yesterday. Today is the final day of the Synod. For those interested, you can follow the proceedings here.

I watched a catch up of yesterday’s proceedings before bed last night. I found it to be very interesting but I was constantly distracted by a woman who was knitting!!!! Every time she was in focus which was very often because she was seated facing the camera, she was knitting; if she wasn’t knitting she was fiddling with her mobile phone!!!! By the way, She is there again today still busy knitting!!!!

Personally, I am quite shocked by the audacity of this individual. Will she be doing that if it was Her Majesty the Queen addressing the conference??? Is the person addressing the conference unworthy of this individual’s undivided attention?? It is very sad that in this present day and age, we no longer know right from wrong. There is no longer a place for rules and regulations. We only want to do what suits us! In other words, we have become very selfish.

Sudden Influx

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For the last fortnight or so, we have have been inundated with people informing us that they are putting their names forward to be elected to represent their respective dioceses in the upcoming General Synod of the CofE to be held in November 2021. It has been really strange because there have been many emails and telephone calls on this matter! The Mhinisteir has of course had people persuading him to vote for them!

I was a little unsure as to why the sudden interest until I realised that last Friday was the closing date for the votes and more importantly there are two very important subjects that will be discussed: Save the Parish and LLF(Living in love and faith). LLF is actually the big elephant in the room; I don’t wish to comment on it because it is an extremely sensitive matter. It is best left to the experts to thrash it out. As for myself, I believe that God is much much bigger than the elephant in the room; I am going to put my trust in Him.

What about the Christians?

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I think I am right in saying that for the past fortnight both our print and broadcast media have been saturated with news on Afghanistan. I have started turning off the radio when the news comes on and skip certain pages of the newspaper! There is only so much one can take.

I think I have heard enough but one thing I have not heard about is the plight of the Christians in Afghanistan. What has happened to them? Everyone including the CofE is going on about women and girls right to education etc but no one is talking about the Christians there. They will probably be the most persecuted people even compared to the girls and women!

Surely the CofE must know this and furthermore not all countries will accept Christians as refugees.

Disappointed!

Mouth like a Highland bog, mind like a mitten!

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Sadly, this is what I think of the ABY after his latest gaffe! For the uninitiated, this is what he had said.

It is unfortunate when a senior cleric feels the need to utter such things.

By the way, The NHS was founded by Aneurin Bevan, a Welshman while the BBC World Service was founded by John Reith, a Scotsman!

ABY, please get your facts right the next time!