Curate’s egg

A Christmassy Thought for the Day this morning.  Dundee at 7 am just wasn’t for me since I am fighting flu.  Added to that .. one of my pleasures in life is doing live radio with the second hand and doing the time exACTly.  Which wasn’t helped when the second hand did the first lap just fine but stalled on the uphill path in the second minute.  Obviously felt pretty much like I did.

I’ve been interested in the establishment/disestablishment debate today.  A complex issue for another day, no doubt.  But I am always interested in the extent to which establishment makes the C of E seem bigger and more substantial than it is – and the amount of institutional energy which goes into sustaining that.  It reminds me of the delightful comment of Donald Caird, former Archbishop of Dublin, who commented that the church seemed exhausted because it was always walking on tip toe – trying to be bigger than it really was.  But I also noted comments today from Bishop James Jones of Liverpool who pointed to what I think is one of the real glories of the C of E – that in deprived areas of Liverpool and the other big cities of England other public institutions have gone away – but the church, its clergy and people remain.

4 comments

  1. Yes as good as my Mac days when I lived in Northern Ireland. It always offered ‘ulcer’ as an alternative for ‘Ulster’

  2. The American cheekily inquired, “So you aren’t a Whiskypalian then?” 😉

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    [I use Firefox 3 and the helpful spell checker suggests “Episcopalian” as a correction to “Whiskypalian” with “Whimsicality” and “Whiskery” being the only other suggestions offered. Seriously!]

  3. Quite right. No 3 at Blogstead says Hot Toddy is the thing but I’ve never been into the whiskey. And the interwoven-ness of the door bell arrangements here still means that No 2 answers when you ring No 3.

  4. Fighting flu? Not a good idea. Go to bed with a book and a hot drink and let it have its wicked way for a day or two!

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