What's Wrong With This Picture?

This very John Majoresque idyll of cricket, countryside and arteficial rainclouds will be part of the Olympic opening ceremony. The only bit of actual UK countryside being recreated is Glastonbury Tor, top right. Driving past it today, it still had the church tower on top that has graced it for centuries. Danny Boyle's version has substituted this for a tree. To be honest it now looks more like Wyndham Hill in Yeovil. I'm not a great fan of obsolete bits of church building, but surely the Tor tower is what makes it distinctive, and links to the religious heritage (both real and mythical) which makes Glastonbury so distinctive?

Looks like fun though. There's some close ups in this BBC report.

CofE Response to Marriage Consultation

The CofE has published its response to the government consultation on changing the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. The consultation closes on Thursday.

the response begins: (the proposed changes) would alter the intrinsic nature of marriage as the union of a man and a woman, as enshrined in human institutions throughout history. Marriage benefits society in many ways, not only by promoting mutuality and fidelity, but also by acknowledging an underlying biological complementarity which, for many, includes the possibility of procreation.

We have supported various legal changes in recent years to remove unjustified discrimination and create greater legal rights for same sex couples and we welcome that fact that previous legal and material inequities between heterosexual and same-sex partnerships have now been satisfactorily addressed. To change the nature of marriage for everyone will be divisive and deliver no obvious legal gains given the rights already conferred by civil partnerships. We also believe that imposing for essentially ideological reasons a new meaning on a term as familiar and fundamental as marriage would be deeply unwise.

full response here, 13 pages worth. Press release here

Bishop Tim Stevens, quoted by the BBC: "I think the difficulty we have here is the substitution of equality for uniformity, that is to say that there can be no distinction at all between men and women," he said.

"From a standing start within three months to arrive at a fully considered, weighed and articulated redefinition of a fundamental social institution which has been thought about in one particular way for centuries... to change all that on the basis of a consultation like this seems to be at the very least unwise and ill considered."

There are several headlines that suggest that the main issue is whether the CofE will need to be disestablished. That's completely beside the point, and isn't one of the main arguments in the submission. This isn't about the CofE keeping any special status, though changes to that status might be a consequence of changes in the definition of marriage.
 
I guess I'm contributing to all the chatter about this today, when I'd much rather the CofE was focusing on other issues, but Clegg and Cameron did ask what we thought. And it's important to get this right, rather than make a fundamental social change in a very short time-frame to appease a few LibDem backbenchers.

The consultation itself is about mechanics, not about principle: This consultation is about how we best remove the ban on same-sex couples having a civil marriage, not on whether this should or should not  happen says the Home Office consultation page. Which would, if they wanted to, enable the government to dismiss the entire CofE response on a technicality. The language used ('ban') and the way the whole thing is set up shows that the government doesn't actually want a public debate on this.

Loaded, lads and the degrading of women

Excellent post at God and Politics, on the slow awakening of a Loaded editor to the realities of pornography. I won't be posting anything today, except to recommend that you read Gillan's excellent piece, which also references a campaign for New Look to withdraw some appalling t-shirts.

Ebuzzing top religion blogs, June 2012

Alongside the normal 'yes buts' of any ranking system (see last month) Ebuzzing is also struggling to cope with Bloggers switch from .com to .co.uk for UK blogs. but for those of you who like lists, here's the top few:

1. the Freethinker
2. Krish Kandiah
3. Islam in Europe
4. Thinking Anglicans
5. Echurch blog
6. The BIGBible Project
7. Peter Saunders - Christian Medical Comment
8. The 'Anglican' 'Mainstream' new aggregator
9. The Cartoon Blog  the marvellous Dave Walker is currently publishing a series of former Church Times cartoons, hence the bounce
10. Welcome to the top 10 Vicky Beeching, worship leader.

It being the 6th month, here are some 'randomly' selected others -
16. Bishop Alan (last month it was Bishop Nick Baines at 15, wonder who'll be 17 in July? #patternemerging
26 Bartholemews Notes on Religion
36 Emerging UMC  United Methodist website, mission perspective.
46 A Reader in Writing (those with good memories will remember this was 75 last month. See what a link from my blog will do for you?...)
55 Per Crucem ad Lucem well, exactly. Really worth a look.
65 Dean Roberts a 'worshipping welshman'. If he's still worshipping today, I'll take my hat off to him. Though a wetsuit might be more use.
75 Distinct Reflections some good posts on discipleship at the moment, concise and punchy.
85 Apples of Gold
95 Digging a Lot. I do like this one.

Full list here.

update: oops, sorry, someone's pointed out that I've slipped from 6's to 5's, apologies, you'll get a link later in the week.

Silence

Silence is something that people today avoid or even fear … Our busy culture prevents us being still.

Daunting as it may be, we all need silence. When we enter regularly into silence, we start to see things with greater clarity. And especially, I come to know myself and I come in touch with that part of myself which is the deepest part: my soul.

Silence is the gateway to the soul and the soul is the gateway to God.

(Abbot Christopher Jamison)

New Online Library of Mission Research Papers

Yet more blessings upon the Sheffield Centre, who have gone live with an online library of research papers on mission, fresh expressions, emerging church and church planting.

The SCOLER library holds MA and PhD theses, and if you've done one on a relevant topic, it can be uploaded and added in. The portal links to abstracts of each thesis, and the full text where available. I'm already intrigued by Mark Rylands' 'Mission Shaped Cathedral'.

Praying for Weather

My main current preoccupation is Sundays weather, as we've got a big bash planned for the Jubilee, and having space around the local community hall as well as inside it will be really helpful. Especially as we have no idea how many are coming!

Theological/pastoral problem: praying for less rain here will, all other things being equal, mean more rain somewhere else, unless the front miraculously retreats to the Atlantic. What kind of weather systems result from different groups of people effectively praying against each other? Does God actually answer prayers for weather?

I know God is trying to teach me to trust him more, and there have been several things in the last week which should have made the penny drop. It will be fine, even if the weather isn't. It just might get a bit crowded, that's all.

Please ignore this post

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there, I did warn you. And no, I'm not going to explain.