Thoughts from elsewhere

On church amnesia:

"..the church tells a different story than our world does. This ought not to come as a surprise, since the Jesus we follow embodied an immeasurably different story than did the world of his day.

But it’s when the church forgets who she is-when she forgets what her story is-that the church misses the whole point of this following Jesus thing. It’s then that the church starts to listen and buy into the stories that are told around it; stories like the myth of redemptive violence, or the story of unlimited consumption of resources, or the story of homeland safety and security at all costs, or the story of self-concern over the concern of those on the edge of society. Maybe it’s as simple as the story of “the best bang for your buck”-a story told without narrating anything about the condition of the production or the producers of our goods. The stories told around us are legion and often very attractive. When the church forgets to do its church thing, it loses its way." (from Patrick McManus, worth reading the whole article, a reflection on how IKEA is marketing itself on Sunday mornings, at Start the Week)

The Bishop of Huntingdon, no less, reflects on The Hours latest release, and what it says about art, life and the current mood:

The time is now when everything’s falling apart
The slow rehearsal soon will be gone for ever
These days, these days, these days are all we have

...It’s so redolent of the mood of the moment. Everything seems doomed. There’s nothing to believe in. But we need to believe in something or lose our minds. We don’t know where we’re going. But somehow we need to pull together to get there.

Elsewhere Mark Meynell comments on AN Wilsons amazing turnaround in his religious views, though it is based on a story in the Daily Mail, so probably isn't true, but you never know.

Having been away for the whole Susan Boyle on Britains Got Talent thing, it's interesting to see some of the lyrics - William Crawley notes that it's a redemption song "I dreamed that God would be forgiving" taken from one of the most powerful portrayals of the gospel in art and literature, Les Miserables. After releasing Hallelujah as a Christmas single, and now this, you wonder if something strange is happening to Simon Cowell.

Finally the Church Mouse is doing us all a service (perhaps) by keeping a list of all the clergy on Twitter. Not to be confused with Two Church Mice (John & Olive Dranes newish mission blog), the Church Mouse offers a briefer and less right wing alternative to Cranmer in term of comment and analysis on faith and public life. He/she/it even has a regular 'best of the blogs' roundup every Friday.