Tag Archives: Words

Some loathsome words

Posted on by
1

Exclusion – to exclude this word through an insufficiency of inclusiveness would be a heinous act of exclusion.

Inclusion – see the above in reverse.

Missional – there used to be no such word; it now exists through ecclesiastical fiat by virtue of its obligatory appearance in every pious pronouncement of today’s church. It means: “the church will die if we continue to look inward, therefore we will we have conversations about looking outward as we continue to look inward”.

Conversation – see above: meaningless Anglican prattle.

Spirit – Anglican meaning: any spirit at all as long as it is not the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

Journey – Anglican meaning: “aimless meandering”. In today’s church, being on a journey is an excuse for avoiding making the decisions necessary to becoming a Christian.

Stewardship – real meaning: “the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving”. Anglican meaning: “we want your money”.

Vision – Anglican meaning: “wishful thinking”.

Vision 2019 – wishful thinking after the Anglican Church of Canada has ceased to exist.

Raising awareness – what is wrong with “make people aware of”?

Healing dialogue – Anglican meaning: kicking a conservative in the testicles while he is being distracted by conversation (for “conversation”, see above).

People of faith – anyone who believes anything, including (sorry to use that word) atheists who believe that God doesn’t exist.

Theism in the Church of England

Posted on by
1

A “theic” is someone who is addicted to the immoderate use of tea; a tea-drunkard.

Thus, as this guide to tea drinkers’ disease warns:

The predominance of nervous symptoms is a characteristic of theism; general excitation of the functions of the nervous system may be observed; or the weakness may be noted more especially in the brain as distinguished form the spinal cord.

This, of course, explains the present plight of the Church of England: all the vicars are drowning in tea and, with their weakened brains, have abandoned one theism for another.

An irritating misquote

Posted on by
Reply

‘Till death do us part.

It is supposed to be: ‘Till death us do part, a contraction of: until death us do depart.

An older version of the final phrase is “and to obey, until death us do depart” where “depart” means “separate”. “Until death us do depart” had to be changed due to changes in the usage of “depart” in the Prayer Book of 1662. In the 1928 prayer book (not authorised) and in editions of the 1662 prayer book printed thereafter “and to obey” was retained (in the 1928 book an alternative version omitted this).

The most irritating words and phrases of 2010

Posted on by
10

From a fecund field ripe with vexation, 200 words have been plucked for your aggravation here.

Some samples:

empower and empowered
for all intensive purposes (instead of “for all intents and purposes”)
get our arms around (a project)
if you will
innovative
lay (instead of “lie”)
It’s all good.
mission critical
partner (as a verb)
sustainable
transparency
win-win for everyone
stakeholder (when not killing vampires)
mind-blowing

A few of my own:

rhetoric
disrespect (as a verb)
trajectory (when used to describe anything other than the progress of a missile)
generous pastoral response (when used to excuse a person doing something he shouldn’t)
Holy Spirit (when used to excuse a church doing something it shouldn’t)
mission shaped
missional
prophetic social justice making
continuous culture of innovation
generous culture of stewardship
pursue excellence
Emergent Village
distinctives (as a plural noun)
telling our stories
advocacy work
strive to make a difference
raise awareness
faith communities
people of faith
activist

Irritating word of the month

Posted on by
Reply

And the winner is “rhetoric”.

Why? Because its primary meaning according to the Oxford Dictionary is:

n. the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, esp. the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

A special usage is as follows:

<SPECIAL USAGE> language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content: all we have from the opposition is empty rhetoric.

I defy anyone to find a recent example where it is used to mean “effective or persuasive speaking or writing.” Instead, we find it relentlessly and tiresomely overused in its secondary meaning when the speaker or writer has no intention of addressing what was actually contained in the “rhetoric”.