The God Castaway

  I never thought I would be less enthusiastic about going to London. Heading South for a another session of gay bashing, legal papers, amendments to amendments, pastoral guidelines to pastoral guidance, more canons than Edinburgh Castle, so many questions about sex it's probably put the Bishop of London off a Mills and Boon novel indefinitely if not forever.  I quite fancy a standing order of my own, I'd like to get up and scream at everybody, stop this complete and utter nonsense right now, 'your letting yourself down, your letting your church down, your even letting Jesus Christ down.  As General Synod disappears so far up its own bottom discussing matters of  genital activity, with threats and counter threats of what might happen if homosexual relationships are celebrated in the church of England. The battle lines are drawn, Middle Class, Conservative Evangelical men (mostly) smartly dressed, will speak convincingly about the need to treat every noun, verb and adjective

  It’s A Competitive Church A Bishop said to me not too long ago, ‘Get off Twitter for a bit, it will do you a load of good. I gave it up weeks ago and it’s been fabulous'.  Good advice perhaps but advice I declined and maybe in hindsight I should have done as he suggested, even it was just until the events of Holy Week’ had passed. I’ve never been the most confident of people and certainly not the most confident of priests and sadly over the last few days my confidence was wobbled by the wonderful and exuberant images from online ministries. Churches bursting at the seams, kids everywhere, flowers seemingly direct from Interflora’s finest florists in every crevice. I of course don’t begrudge such blossom and blooms, but as old mother inadequacy radiated once more from my brain cells, I felt a mixture of dissatisfaction and sadness by our own expressions of Easter and wondering what the future holds for churches like mine and priests like me. I don’t think my melancholy comes

I should have been on Retreat today.. I should have be on retreat today, I had penciled in two days and one night in a travel lodge on the M6 near Penrith to restore my spiritual wellbeing and engage in a bit of me and God time. Alas my mate Chris,  who was coming with me had a late night disagreement with a Covid test and bailed out on me last minute. This happened, just as I had celebrated Burnley football club taking a well deserved three nil lead against Hull City under the floodlights of a very wet stadium in the very depths of East Yorkshire.   It was only my second away trip of the year, my first being to the cold concrete cacophony of the  rather soulless DW stadium of Wigan Athletic where Burnley rattled in five goals,  just the two more than I was treated to last night at the home of the Tigers. As someone who doesn't identify as a football antagonist I found the seat chosen for me and my daughter to be uncomfortably close to Hull City's most badly behaved school chil

  Disagreeing well Acts  A Case for Mutual Flourishing from a    Liberal Catholic. When Paul and Barnabas had a major argument and debate with them , the church appointed Paul and Barnabas and some others from among them to go up to meet with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this point of disagreement. Acts 15:2 There was such a sharp disagreement that they parted company, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus. Acts 15:39 But they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive. Acts 25:19 So being in disagreement with one another , they began to leave [after] Paul made one statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through the prophet Isaiah to your fathers. Acts 28:25   As a member of general Synod, it’s fair to suggest the 2023 February sitting of Synod was a bruising encounter with over eight hours of discussion regarding the subject of, gay ma

Synod February 2023 has been a bruising encounter, not least helped by dropping the 'Hub by Premier' mug on my foot, in the 7th floor bolt hole that held the same level of charm as one or two of the synod reps in my company at Synod this week. The timetable of events suggested and proved correct, that the main thrust of conversation was going to be about well, thrusting, bonking, making love, fornicating, a bit of ooh la la all in the eyes of God.  Of course It didn't say that on the paper but the simple matter of saying yes or no to blessing a same sex couple was far too 'straight' forward. It was always going to be penetrated by matters between right and wrong, and which side of the argument you slipped into.  Often it felt it was more about appropriate behavior under the covers of a Habitat eiderdown, rather than blessing gay people who wanted to spend the rest of their lives together without the whole congregation getting involved. As I lay semi-naked in my room

  I mean I'm not even gay, so why should I care? I'm married to a woman who you should know as Mrs. Frost. She's a lady (trust me I've checked) with three grown up children all of which belong to us. When I'm not vicaring, I'm Burnleying, or tellying or Patterdale Terrier walkinging. In my first full year of being a member of General Synod, representing clergy, my Synod inbox has only ever received one email, one flipping email form the Rev's that I represent in the Blackburn Diocese, I ask myself is this apathy, anarchy, or even representative of the dosh that's been spent on, train tickets, hotel fees, full English breakfasts and endless supplies of self serve tea bags with wooden sticks? Why should I bother if we affirm a gay relationship? I don't think my pension is reliant on it, I don't think it will ensure my humongous parish share is fulfilled and it certainly won't solve the issue of a leaky tap or a grieving widow. When I was in my