Richard Chartres doesn’t let a royal wedding go to waste

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The bishop of London used his sermon for the inevitable Anglican eco-cobblers:

We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.

On a related note, I think Rowan forgot to comb his hair; and don’t get me started on those eyebrows:

 

Atheist chaplains for the military

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From here:

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — In the military, there are more than 3,000 chaplains who minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of active duty troops, regardless of their faiths. The vast majority are Christians, a few are Jews or Muslims, one is a Buddhist. A Hindu, possibly even a Wiccan may join their ranks soon.

But an atheist?

Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in the military.

The atheist chaplains will, no doubt, console their faithful with the reassurance that if they are killed in battle, a great black nothingness awaits them. Don’t worry about losing a limb because worms will eat your mortal remains anyway, attached or not; and the framers of the just war theory based their ideas on a belief in God, so if they were wrong about God, there is no such thing as a just war and you might as well desert.

A real morale booster.

A less beastly way to talk about animals

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An Anglican priest, Reverend Andrew Linzey, edits the Journal of Animal Ethics which has just published an article scolding humans for referring to animals by derogatory names.

My dog tells me that he is relieved that at least one Anglican priest has his priorities straight.

A call for a new “animal language” has been made by some of the world’s leading animal ethicists who say words like “pests” and “vermin” send out the wrong message and even our most common terms such as ”pets” and “wild animals” need updating.

The editors of a new Journal of Animal Ethics (JAE) published this month by the University of Illinois Press say derogatory words like “pests” and “vermin” should be dropped altogether and “pets” replaced by “companion animals”, while “wild animals” should be termed “free living or free ranging animals”.

“Despite its prevalence, “pets” is surely a derogatory term both of the animals concerned and their human carers. Again the word “owners”, whilst technically correct in law, harks back to a previous age when animals were regarded as just that: property, machines or things to use without moral constraint …  In addition, we invite authors to use the words “free-living”, “free-ranging” or “free-roaming” rather than “wild animals”… For most, “wildness” is synonymous with uncivilized, unrestrained, barbarous existence. There is an obvious prejudgment here that should be avoided.”

“Our existing language about animals is the language of past thought – and the crucial point is that the past is littered with derogatory terminology: “brutes”, “beasts”, “bestial”, “critters”, “sub-humans”, and the like. We shall not be able to think clearly unless we discipline ourselves to use less than partial adjectives in our exploration of animals and our moral relations with them,” they argue.

TEC doesn’t want to include James McGreevey

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From here:

The Episcopal Church denied priesthood to former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, according to The New York Post. McGreevey may be famously remembered for resigning from his governor post in 2004 after coming out as a “gay American” and a series of gay flings despite his marriage to then-wife Dina Matos McGreevey.

A statement regarding his rejection for priesthood has not been formally announced or commented on by the Episcopal Church, but The Post cites the Episcopal Diocese of Newark explaining, “It was not being gay but for being a jackass.” The Episcopal church welcomes gay and lesbian priests and has since the organization lifted the ban in 2009.…..

Now living as an openly gay man, McGreevey resides with his partner, Mark O’Donnell, in New Jersey where they share a mansion, according to NBC News

This is surprising since McGreevey has the all the qualifications that TEC values: he had gay flings while being married to a woman; he came out; he lives with his gay partner; and he’s even a jackass. He sounds like bishop material to me.

The Epistle of Hitchens to the Atheists

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From here:

Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons of this for many years to come, but for now I have found my trust better placed in two things: the skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstitition [sic]. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency.

…. And don’t keep the faith.

But, of course, Hitchens is keeping the faith:

Faith that a dying organism can bolster the immunity of a randomly assembled conglomeration of molecules – otherwise known as comrades – to a belief in the transcendence which alone offers a remedy for the despair inherent in mortality.

Faith that he, Hitchens is right, that his mind, body, rationality, faculties and voice are subject to no other forces than the material.

Faith that the reasoning abilities he is so proud of, even though they are nothing but the flotsam of a chaotic universe, are, for a mysterious reason known only to himself, more trustworthy than those of Mother Teresa – a creation of the same primordial pandemonium – someone who has earned Hitchens’ undisguised scorn.

Faith that a trust in nothingness is somehow nobler than trust in a Creator.

Faith that the best efforts of medical science to prolong the time that a person struts and frets his hour upon the stage is of consequence when set against eternity.

A wonderful illustration of Psalm 14:1.

 

 

The delusion of secular objectivity

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From here:

Lord Patten of Barnes, the former Cabinet minister and a practising Catholic, said that he felt he was regarded as “peculiar” over his faith.

His comments come amid a deepening battle over the freedom of religious belief, which last week saw a Christian electrician threatened with the sack for displaying a cross in his van.

Lord Patten, a Conservative peer who will take control of the BBC Trust next month, is the highest-profile political figure to enter the debate over what is seen as a creeping attempt to remove Christianity from public life.

But his comments angered secularists, who last night expressed concern that his faith could affect his ability to remain objective in making decisions.

Unfortunately for secularists, the only possibility there is for objectivity in making decisions is if a Mind exists that is higher than the human mind.

Otherwise all decisions are, at best, by definition subjective and at worst, meaningless mechanistic by-products of an indifferent universe, making the concern expressed by the secularists, by their own measure, of no account and Lord Patten eminently suited to his new position.

April 23rd: Today in History

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On April 23rd 2004, Montreal archbishop Andrew Hutchison was elected as Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Hutchison said he personally favours church blessings for same-sex couples but remained open regarding how he would vote on the issue.

I’ve no idea how Hutchison eventually voted but if he voted against, he did so against his conscience; if he voted for, he did so against the Bible.

And we wonder why the Anglican Church of Canada is in trouble.

St. Mary's vs. Good Vibrations

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From here:Add an Image

AN Anglican priest is furious that a sex shop will open today, Easter Saturday, opposite his church.

Reverend Nick Wallace wants the Good Vibrations adult shop on South Rd, Clovelly Park, closed.

“I’m absolutely outraged,” Reverend Wallace said.

“We at St Mary’s feel as if we’ve been ignored and treated with contempt by not being consulted about this shop which faces directly across from our heritage cemetery and place of worship.”

The adult store, which was previously occupied by a paint shop, is within the boundary of Marion Council, but the church is within Mitcham Council’s area.

Perhaps the church should look at this as an opportunity: parade around the “adult” (that term always amuses me, since there could scarcely be a more childish view of sex than that of pornography) shop carrying placards warning the patrons of the deleterious effects of smut on their sex lives. Hand out tracts containing the four spiritual laws. Photograph people entering the store and publish the images on the church website with the offer to buy prints. Send the choir into the store to sing hymns.

The possibilities are endless.