Say Sorry
It's always worth coming to General Synod if you want to know what's really going on. So, between debates (
Mental Health and Anglican Communion), I have to humbly report an error in my last blog. Revd JJ is still at the Lambeth Palace press office ... which rather undermines my theory about how the Archbishop of Canterbury was allowed to go on World at One and say what he did. It wasn't a depleted staff after all.
Ruth Gledhill explores this element of the whole Sharia story in her blog. I'm sorry.
Meanwhile the Press (sitting conspiritorially next door as I write this) and the Church of England are having a stand off. The Press are calling for the Archbishop to apologise - for misleading the public (
cf The Mail). The Church of England is increasingly calling for the press to apologise - for misrepresenting the Archbishop. Things are getting heated.
But it's not all about Sharia.
In fact, on the floor it's hardly had a mention. Synod has been rebelling against centralisation, stalling a move to collect funeral and wedding fees centrally and throwing out plans for dioceses to take over official ownership of parsonages. There's been a moving and amazing series of stories in the mental health debate while we're now onto the Anglican Communion. And strong attacks on gambling and government plans for regional casinos.
We've also been asked if we can trace a giraffe called Kofi Annan, referred to by John Sentamu when he reported on his trip to Kenya. A woman in the public gallery shouted out her objections to Sharia Law before being hustled out yesterday and an old fella shouted out that Sodomites shouldn't be allowed in the church before being hustled out today. Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans, who was about to speak, thanked the heckler and said he wouldn't take it personally before continuing as if nothing had happened. It's those little moments of theatre that make it worth the trip.
Labels: archbishop of canterbury, Archbishop of York, General Synod, Kenya, press, Ruth Gledhill, Sharia Law
Pancakes and Sharia Law
Phone red hot this week— first pancakes then Sharia. The World at One carrying the story – as were newspapers and radio stations throughout the known world – of the abandonment of Pancake Racing in Ripon – the ‘centuries old tradition’ (which started in 1998) - due to 'Health and Safety' and red tape; ‘Political thingummy gone mad’ as one woman put it on Look North. Once the metaphorical dust settled (there was no actual dust to settle as television pictures of empty streets attested) the phones were ringing again, this time with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments on Radio 4 and his speech that night on Sharia Law and its place if any in the British legal system.
Can’t blog for long—only on page 9 of Rowan's dense, 12 page, tightly packed and closely argued speech given at the Temple . Needless to say, it bears no relation to anything he was supposed to have said. But I have found two close connection between both pancakes and sharia -the two news stories of the week.
Connection number one I will encapsulate in a sentence. – Senior clergy should never speak to the press without consulting their press officers first, we are worth our weight in gold, Lambeth palace needs to bolster its Press office (was it a coincidence that all this happened following the departure just a week or two earlier of Jonathan Jennings the senior press officer) and I should be paid a lot more than I am!
Connection number two is a bit more interesting Let me summarise in two sentences:
Pancake racing , as a quasi religious community activity, should be granted freedom from red tape instead of having to apply every year for permission from some jumped up secular council which thinks it has rights over minority communities, in this case the Cathedral community. It should be exempt from stupid ‘vexatious’ claims for compensation if someone trips over on the cobbles of Kirkgate and allowed to operate under its own ancient rules without interference.
There – simple ain’t it! We solve two problem stories in one go. The papers can stop jumping up and down about both the Archbishop and the Political Correctness Gone Mad by recognising that the red tape they railed against at the beginning of the week (especially the Mail and Express) is the same ‘British Legal system’ they are defending over against the rights of religious minorities at the end of the week. The legal system which allows someone to sue the Cathedral and the Council if they trip over their clerical robes while running up the street tossing their pancake should just butt out, and recognise that Pancake racing is a centuries old tradition and in this case the rights of the religious community should take precedence over the local council, the high court or even the European Court of Human Rights.
This may not be a central plank of my argument on Radio Leeds at 8.05 tomorrow, but I’ll try and winkle it in somehow.
Labels: archbishop of canterbury, british law, health and safety, Pancakes, political correctness, Press Officers, Sharia Law, Temple, World at One
Troubles for the Chaplain
First there was
the Country Parish, then the Seaside Parish, there was also the
Parish in the Sun on ITV and now
the Island Parish. The popular format is generally the same. Whether it was the young Jamie Allen, moving from urban to rural ministry and infuriating the country set, the nervy Vicar of Boscastle, Christina Musser who coped with flooding and helicopters but later gave it all up, the charming condescension of Robert Ellis in his ubiquitous shorts as he ministered to the pensioners on Majorca, or now the hapless Father Guy Scott, struggling on the Scillies, we always get a warts ‘n all portrayal of life as a Vicar. Well, with the exception of Robert who, as a former Communications Officer, tried to ‘manage’ his footage with mixed success.
The common theme is of God’s work continuing despite the parish priest rather than because of him or her. I don’t mean this unkindly – well maybe I do. But so often the viewer seems to have a much clearer and broader picture of what’s going on than the Vicar. Father Guy, who I don’t know but who seems a very pleasant fellow, has two problems. First he’s stuck on an island and is therefore feeling isolated. He doesn’t get much support, it seems, from either the Diocese of Truro, other colleagues, islanders themselves, or even from his flock. And that’s probably because, second problem, he’s a man of traditional and somewhat intransigent theological and ecclesiological views, and therefore seems to see himself as a bit apart from that sort of help. If nothing else this series illustrates the shortcomings of more traditional, high church Anglicanism when coupled with a dogmatic and starchy approach to the job. It’s an approach that puts peoples backs up very quickly and certainly fails to deliver when it comes to the rich tapestry of pastoral situations one apparently find on beautiful, idyllic group of islands in the Atlantic.
This week Father Guy blesses a tree (‘I bless this tree’. Er, hang on, isn’t that God’s job?), bans parishioners on another island from holding their own, non-eucharistic service (which means they have to wait for him to get there on a boat before they are allowed to worship), creates anger by refusing to marry a couple because one is divorced and then decides not to go to the local pub, the epicentre of island life, on the grounds that he knows people’s secrets: ‘I cannot go to the Mermaid Inn and say , oh so and so’s been to see me. Guess what he said..’ (possibly the lamest excuse ever heard). No wonder his wardens are wondering if he’s up to it. Whereas Rob Ellis on his island would have stripped even more clothes off to join in on one of the racing gigs, Father Guy stands limp and lettuce like on the shore while our trusty narrator tries to get him more involved. It comes to something when the production crew have a better idea of what’s needed than the Vicar.
Oh Guy, Guy, Guy!…. Would that he was the exception that proves the rule, but when you’re in this job you know that he’s not. I think of my Mother, an active committed churchgoer, bemoaning the clergy for their often insensitive, frequently boorish, generally clumsy, and sometimes unloving attitudes and actions. She could be a hash critic but she was also very forgiving and supportive when it mattered.
I’m guessing Father Guy is not a great fan of
TV’s Pub Landlord, but like a few of his colleagues, he could do with a bit of Al Murray’s British Common Sense. And Mr Murray would add, ‘He didn’t Think it Through, did he?!’ Let’s hope he lightens up a little for everyone’s sake.
Labels: A Country parish, A Parish in the Sun, A Seaside Parish, An Island Parish, Father Guy, Pub Landlord, Revd Robert Ellis, Tiger Aspect
