So a new Archbishop is announced.
On the face of it a good appointment, clearly a man who has been fast tracked through the system, and why not?
Having spent most of my career elevating the concept of biting the hand that feeds to a fine art, I can't complain that I was cul de sac'ed rather than fast tracked, but at least I wasn't sacked, at least not by the church.
Interesting that for a man with a reputation for getting his way in negotiations his opening gambit: Yes to Women Bishop's; No to gay marriages, seems like a pretty clear statement of the who, when and what ...... that will shape and possibly continue to vex his time in office.
I was a curate in Bolton in 1972 when the campaign to Ordain women to the priesthood began to gather force.
My Vicar at the time was vehemently opposed, but he was also a company man, so he voted for.
I asked why?
Oh, he responded, by the time it happens, I'll be retired.
Well now that I'm retired I guess I share that kind of reflection not so much about the Ordination of Women of which I have generally been in favour or of the Ordination of Women as Bishop's which seems logical or indeed the the offering of a sacramental blessing to people in same sex relationships which seems to be an expression of love and justice, which is surely the churches stock in trade?
After all it is part of the big society that we were promised and have never quite glimpsed.
No, my sense of get me out of here, I'm retired, is about the larger question of quite where the Church is heading?
Congregations continue to age and it comes to something when, as pensioners, the indoor critic and I can actually lower the demographic in a congregation when we attend (at least some, but more than before) churches.
So where is it all heading and where will it head under the leadership of a new Archbishop?
My suspicion is that sadly, despite Alpha Courses and the new West Kensington, Evangelical fervour that is gripping the Metropolitan Church, the decline of the church will continue and the curve will stretch into the future as a form of euclidean space in which there will be discontinuity with the past because the story is no longer compelling, a convergence of opinion that the story is no longer true and a profound sense that the story is no longer of value in understanding the human condition.
So the new Archbishop, like the boy in the poem, will be left to stand on the burning deck, hoping against hope that the wind changes direction.
Or maybe he will find himself reciting Matthew Arnold's Poem: Dover Beach:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
and naked shingles of the world.
Meanwhile I can only hope that the Church Commissioners continue to invest their pension funds wisely.
On the face of it a good appointment, clearly a man who has been fast tracked through the system, and why not?
Having spent most of my career elevating the concept of biting the hand that feeds to a fine art, I can't complain that I was cul de sac'ed rather than fast tracked, but at least I wasn't sacked, at least not by the church.
Interesting that for a man with a reputation for getting his way in negotiations his opening gambit: Yes to Women Bishop's; No to gay marriages, seems like a pretty clear statement of the who, when and what ...... that will shape and possibly continue to vex his time in office.
I was a curate in Bolton in 1972 when the campaign to Ordain women to the priesthood began to gather force.
My Vicar at the time was vehemently opposed, but he was also a company man, so he voted for.
I asked why?
Oh, he responded, by the time it happens, I'll be retired.
Well now that I'm retired I guess I share that kind of reflection not so much about the Ordination of Women of which I have generally been in favour or of the Ordination of Women as Bishop's which seems logical or indeed the the offering of a sacramental blessing to people in same sex relationships which seems to be an expression of love and justice, which is surely the churches stock in trade?
After all it is part of the big society that we were promised and have never quite glimpsed.
No, my sense of get me out of here, I'm retired, is about the larger question of quite where the Church is heading?
Congregations continue to age and it comes to something when, as pensioners, the indoor critic and I can actually lower the demographic in a congregation when we attend (at least some, but more than before) churches.
So where is it all heading and where will it head under the leadership of a new Archbishop?
My suspicion is that sadly, despite Alpha Courses and the new West Kensington, Evangelical fervour that is gripping the Metropolitan Church, the decline of the church will continue and the curve will stretch into the future as a form of euclidean space in which there will be discontinuity with the past because the story is no longer compelling, a convergence of opinion that the story is no longer true and a profound sense that the story is no longer of value in understanding the human condition.
So the new Archbishop, like the boy in the poem, will be left to stand on the burning deck, hoping against hope that the wind changes direction.
Or maybe he will find himself reciting Matthew Arnold's Poem: Dover Beach:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
and naked shingles of the world.
Meanwhile I can only hope that the Church Commissioners continue to invest their pension funds wisely.
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