 |
| Doorkins Magnificat Bishop Philip North |
Anglican Ink reports: "The Dean of Southwark, the Very Rev. Andrew Nunn held a Service of Thanksgiving for Doorkins Magnificat, a 12 year old tabby that made its home in the cathedral. The dean told the assembled congregation: “In more normal times, we often host memorial services for the great and the good. But I don’t think there’s ever been a service for a cat,” before interring the cat’s remains in the churchyard on 28 Oct 2020.
"Bishop North’s rebuke of Southwark’s mawkish celebration of the late tabby prompted PETA to seek justice for Doorkins. Triggered by the bishop’s insensitivity and animus towards quadriped Anglicans, PETA wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury demanding the dismissal of the northern province suffragan.
"The Church of England has not responded to the call for the bishop to be dismissed for the crime of speciesism, and Philip North appears to have gone to ground."
It is no surprise that the Rev Peter Mullen laments the Church of England.
When claiming that the cat was just as much a member of the Church of England as a person, were PETA asked to produce the cat's Baptism certificate?
ReplyDeleteOne could be forgiven for thinking that people would have much more important things with which to concern themselves, especially in the present circumstances with Covid-19 doing the rounds.
ReplyDeleteBut I also don't understand why these do-gooding busybodies are given the time of day or the attention they so obviously crave.
I quite agree with the comments above.
ReplyDeleteThe Bishop of Burnley must definitely stay.
PP. Sadly the current patterns of Churchmanship, are no place these days for the no nonsense Bishop North. Such an example of Christlikeness we rarely see in some less abled Episcopal leaders.
ReplyDeleteI could not possibly disagree more. Bishop North and his ilk have never been needed more!
DeletePP. I meant the Church has moved, in the wrong direction and need the likes of Bishop North.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it PP.
DeletePhilip North is one of the more intelligent voices among the English bishops (BBC Radio 4 doesn't invite any old whinger to present 'Though for the Day' on its flagship news output) and is one of the most energetic evangelists too; to say nothing of his pastoral commitment to the parishes and clergy of his area. But, as we are discovering, it is impossible to have a reasoned discussion in a theologically illiterate society (let alone Church) without being the target of irrational outbursts.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, as far as WATCH is concerned (an organisation that's surely long past its sell-by date) their lack of theological nuance is staggering. Bishop North has repeatedly said he is not against the ordination of women. He has even said that he thinks it is is perfectly possible for a woman to be ordained to the priesthood. He has also said that this is a step that needs to be taken by the whole Church, not just a local/national part of it. Until that can happen, he has said, he is not convinced by the arguments that say this is the right time to push ahead. That's a whole lot different to being 'anti womens' ordination' to quote a certain archdeacon in the Llandaff Diocese not in possession of a theologically nuanced brain!
Llandaff hasn't had an Archdeacon with a brain this century, much less an Archdeaconesse!
Delete@ Outside Looking In:
DeleteA perspective which makes total sense, and one which in my Anglican days I pretty much shared.
Bur I could see, in the early '90s, that it wasn't going to be enough to make me acceptable in the new order of things, which is why I departed. I haven't once regretted the decision.
Zadok: not so. Far too sweeping. Lewis Clarke, as I know well, had a top rate brain and possessed a delicious sense of humour.
DeleteARW
Lewis Clarke and Alan Davies, the latter would squirm at what's going on at the cathedral in particular and both of them would be aghast at the statue of The Church in Wales.
DeleteSorry. STATE (of The Church in Wales)
DeleteMerthyr Organist
DeleteState of the Church in Wales is evident in the latest Accounts for 2019. There are several mentions of the as yet unknown impact of covid. The phrase which jumped out at me was in the list of risks to the Church in Wales. The Report lists 19 risks in total and at the top of the list?
"The 2019 risk register has identified the following as the most significant risks:
1. Falling congregation numbers and increasing age profile leading to an accelerating decline in church attendance and
2. Falling clergy numbers"
So what cunning plan is there to mitigate these risks and is anyone on the Bench of Bishops aware how we got to this sorry situation?
Cymraes yn Lloegr
I'm sorry Merthyr Organist, which part of *this* century wasn't clear?
DeleteLewis Clarke and Alan Radcliffe Davies were in post in the latter part on the last century.
Of course they were. How silly of me. But I accept your apology. 😂
DeleteThe missing Dean of Llandaff needs to go, likewise the Bishopette but the Bishop of Burnley definitely needs to remain in post.
ReplyDeleteI rather like the idea of "Though for the Day"!
ReplyDeleteOr "Trough for the day"?
DeleteDaftness entirely pervades contemporary British Anglicanism, rather like the strands of the dry rot fungus which sometimes pervade the wood of old damp buildings; their occasional and dramatic fungal growths suddenly demonstrating their hidden presence. As with the deceased Southwark cat.
ReplyDeleteWhy people like Bishop North decide to persist within an institution which has decisively turned its back on the things that they stand for entirely baffles me. I'm reminded of von Metterich, a diplomat and politician who for years served as Austrian chancellor in the early 19th century. In his memoirs, dating from 1880, he mournfully concluded that he had devoted 'my life to prop up the mouldering edifice'. It seems to me that Bishop North is engaged on something rather similar.
I see it rather as keeping the faith and caring in prayer at least for those priests and deacons who try to do the same.
DeleteI well recall combing through the issues after the C of E's general synod decided that ordination of women to the priesthood should go ahead; I was living in England, not Wales, at that time.
DeleteMy difficulty really focused when I contemplated the actual practicalities in terms of outcome which would flow from the decision. I remember imagining a deanary synod meeting in the aftermath of the ordination of women where it was proposed that a newly ordained woman should celebrate the opening Eucharist. What would I do?
The options appeared to be:
(1) to accept the decision, as a priest whom I knew was advocating at that time. He'd been an opponent, but took the line that the Church had taken the decision, and we should all seek to accept it as the will of God. My difficulty there was my belief that in core matters of faith and order no local part of the Church Catholic is free unilaterally to do what the Church Catholic doesn't do.
(2) Carry on, but be either a vocal or a muted dissentient. In the context of a deanery synod Eucharist that would mean either:
(a) Simply refusing to attend a Eucharist where a woman was the celebrant. The difficulty there was reconciling a boycott with what Fr Lionel Thornton beautifully termed 'the common life in the Body of Christ'.
(b) To attend but refuse to communicate. Same difficulty, to which I had to add the fact that the act of receiving communion isn't the sole element in participating in the Eucharist.
(c) To kick up a militant stink about it in the hope that the idea of a woman celebrant would, for that occasion at least, be quietly abandoned. Again, the same difficulty about the nature of the common life in the Body of Christ was obvious. And clearly, in any case, I'd be fighting a rearguard operation which had no hope of turning back the tide of the decision.
It seemed to me that continuing in Anglicanism was simply - at least for me - not a tolerable option, because if I 'kept the faith' I could see that there was no way in which I could simultaneously 'maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace'. As I saw it, both were non-negotiable imperatives, so I left the Anglican communion.
Me too John and from what I've seen of the ensuing chaos neither of us is missing anything at all.
Delete@ Exodus:
DeleteMy impression is similar to your own. Back in the day I remember discussing my decision with my local bishop. His line was 'can't we all somehow rub along together in love, thus - hopefully! - transcending our differences?'
As he was a conservative evangelical but at the more liberal end of that spectrum, I asked him how he thought that he himself would react when the next convulsion, already just visible on the Anglican ecclesiastical horizon, dawned: the campaign for the Anglican church to recognize and ultimately solemnize same-sex marriages. Which would inevitably, I thought, lead to same-sex marriages among the clergy.
He replied that this indeed would be a step too far for him, but that fortunately he reckoned that he'd be retired before that could come to pass! He was a lovely man and genuinely spiritual, but even so I thought that his response, to put it gently, lacked substance!
It's all come to pass. And meanwhile, other than in a few particular parishes which are mostly gathered charismatic conservative evangelical congregations and increasingly seem to function as a 'church within the church', the bulk of Anglican parishes appear to be ever increasingly in steady decline.
So no regrets, given how events have evolved.
How catty can WATCH get?
ReplyDeleteMore bitchy than catty.
DeleteSpeaking on behalf of CATCH (Cats and The Church) I think that this is an essential first step towards the due recognition of my species in the life and ministry of the Church. And as for the so-called bishop of Burnley, it is clear that he has the heart of a dog.
ReplyDeleteReplying for and on behalf of the species that has lived in penury for centuries and been very happy with our lot in the Church, you Johnny-come-lately types with your new fangled plans for dragging us into the zeitgeist can paws for thought and scram. We like things just as they are and instead of spoiling our Church, where we've done things this way for centuries, why don't you go and start your own Catastrophe instead?
DeleteWe Bats In The Church Belfry want nothing to do with CATCH either!
DeleteDon't worry, you tasty little mice. When we cats are ordained there'll be a Code of Practice - just like the one they have in the Church in Wales. We won't have to eat you all at once. We'll be allowed to keep some of you for supper. Yum, Yum.
Delete