{"id":6652,"date":"2009-12-10T15:10:43","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T20:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=6652"},"modified":"2009-12-10T15:10:43","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T20:10:43","slug":"rev-greta-vosper-and-the-evolution-of-the-babel-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/rev-greta-vosper-and-the-evolution-of-the-babel-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Rev. Gretta Vosper and the evolution of the Babel Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gretta Vosper likes discussing The Evolution of Religion<\/a> and is the minister of West Hill United Church<\/a>, a church which is so inclusive and diverse<\/a> that it is desperately seeking someone who would not be welcome, so that it can find a way to entice them in; I am writing this from a hiding place in my basement, trying to look inconspicuous.<\/p>\n

The inclusiveness of West Hill United doesn’t just extend to sexual diversity, it extends to every kind of diversity one can imagine.<\/p>\n

“As soon as we recognize a group there that is not identified as being welcome, we will change that,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inclusive though it might be, the West Hill United Church doesn\u2019t actually have much room to include God; in fact, just in case he shows up by mistake, to encourage his rapid departure no-one talks about him:<\/p>\n

In order to not have any confusion about what “God” means when said at a service, it was decided not to use the word at all, because each individual sitting in the pews could have a different belief about who or what God is to them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms. Vosper doesn\u2019t have much time for \u201ctruth\u201d preferring, instead to be \u201copen\u201d<\/a>; after all, what is truth<\/a>?<\/em><\/p>\n

The concept of truth is an elusive one.\u00a0 As we open ourselves to exploring it, we always find that, just when we think we know it, something else needs to be explored.\u00a0 But one of the \u201ctruths\u201d about the truth is that we need to be completely open to whatever it may be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She doesn\u2019t believe in God<\/a>, but may believe in god, depending what you mean by \u201cgod\u201d, which is a bit confusing \u2013 depending on what you mean by \u201cis\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ms Vosper is the author of \u201cWith or Without God<\/em>\u201d, a title she came up with after attending a U2 concert. The book\u2019s sub-heading proclaims that the way we live is more important that what we believe <\/em>– which appears to be a statement of belief that, if true, could be disproved by living as if it were not true.<\/p>\n

Ms. Vosper\u2019s theology is difficult to pin down, but this sums it up adequately:<\/p>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dcncPpQ8loA]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gretta Vosper likes discussing The Evolution of Religion and is the minister of West Hill United Church, a church which is so inclusive and diverse that it is desperately seeking someone who would not be welcome, so that it can … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[2278],"class_list":["post-6652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-church","tag-united-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}