What's the Story in Dalamory » Christianity

Lesley’s Challenge

freda — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 09:36:50 +0000

Revd Lesley is celebrating 100,000 visits milestone on her blog, and she issues a challenge that we all help spread the love by sharing 4 interesting things about ourselves and then link to 4 favourite blogs. I don’t usually join in with these suggestions, but as Lesley is one of my favourite bloggers – she says things the way they are – I thought it would be a chance to introduce her to others as well.

Interesting things about me: – a hard one but here goes

I once danced on the table at a 50th birthday party – and I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol (or drugs!)
On a memorable occasion, just before a wedding on the top of a hill, the wind blew the marriage lines away. Fortunately, I was able to run after them….. robes flying in the gale. Oh yes, and I caught them.
My best friend when I was in primary school emigrated to Australia. Now I can’t even remember her name, but then I felt as if my world had come to an end.
My English Gran told me to call her Auntie, and I was a bit scared of her.

Four bloggers I like to visit: the caveat is that I enjoy all the blogs I read, so these four are important for other reasons.

Friko’s Blog frikosmusings.blogspot.com because her writing is of such a consistently high standard; she challenges me and makes me think.
Kelvin’s Blog thurible.net because he keeps me up to date with all things Anglican as well as the Scottish Episcopal Church. He says things the way he sees them, and often makes me laugh.
Sara’s Blog www.saralovesdogs.blogspot.com because I have gradually fallen in love with her and her dogs. She is so patient and has such fun with her Shelties and posts lots of photos and videos.
Time Goes By, Ronni Bennet’s blog for all things on ageing and living well.

Common-sense Wisdom

freda — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:04:35 +0000

During my journeys through cyberspace I came across this link for an article in the Huffington Post. I had never encountered Rabbi Shmuley Boteach before, so I looked up his website and was impressed with his common-sense approach to life as a person of faith. His article on homophobia in America is well worth reading, because it introduces hope and a way to stop churches, synagogues and society from pulling themselves apart.

The Rabbi shares some scriptures, puts the usually quoted verses into context and contends the following:

As an orthodox Rabbi who reveres the Bible I do not deny the Biblical prohibition on male same-sex relationships. Rather, I simply place it in context. There are 613 commanments in the Torah. One is to refrain from gay sex. Another is for men and women to marry and have children. So when Jewish gay couples come to me for counselling and tell me they have never been attracted to members of the opposite sex in their entire lives and are desperately alone, I tell them, “You have 611 commandments left. That should keep you busy. Now, go create a kosher home with a mezuzah scroll on the door. Turn off the TV on the Sabbath and share your challah with many guests. Pray to G-d the prescribed three times a day for you are His beloved children. He desires you and seeks you out.”

Rabbi Boteach finishes his article by sharing his views on the differences between moral and religious sin. For me, he makes a compelling case for tolerance; he also shows us a way whereby we can love one another, whatever………… and isn’t that the way we all want to be loved and accepted?

A Church in Crisis? or a Stitch up?

freda — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:51:10 +0000

Last night’s TV documentary was billed in the paper thus:

Reporter Reevel Anderson evaluates the benefits of the Church of Scotland and considers whether diminishing congregations are indications of the Kirk’s waning contemporary relevance.

Yet, early in the day I received an email from the Church’s media unit, it said:

Tonight on BBC One Scotland at 10.35pm there will be a half-hour documentary about the 450^th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation and the future of the Church of Scotland. Whilst no one in the communications office has seen the finished programme, we helped to facilitate interviews and filming at various locations including Orkney’s St Magnus’ Cathedral, Luss Parish Church on the banks of Loch Lomondand St George’s Tron in Glasgow.

Quite a difference in spin. I was too tired to do the programme justice last night, so recorded it to watch with coffee this morning. Oh dear – I don’t know if it was deliberately slanted editing or a fair reflection of most of those interviewed, but it came across in a mainly negative way.

The CofS has been in existence for 450 years and personally I would have thought that at the very least that fact could be celebrated. Instead, there were various attempts to talk about the historical legacy of the Church in Scotland today. For example they did mention that, the CofS is still the biggest employer in social care in Scotland today. Interestingly that is well known – indeed it was quoted to me when I was at a meeting for Learning Disability services in Oban this week. But this was stated as if it was a spin-off or irrelevance. As a Parish Minister I spent time visiting people who had been helped by the social care side of the church and I know that it matters that one of its core values is the Christian injunction to care for the weak and vulnerable in society.

The Minister from Luss, Loch Lomond was more upbeat and he spoke movingly about the internet ministry of his church. Good on him is what I say. It is true that overall numbers (bxxs-on-pews) throughout the national church have gone down in terms of adherents but the good news stories were not given air-time. In some churches there is vibrant growth.

A church where I was working had a special anniversary for the year 2000 and we were the subject of an in-house documentary. A team of three people spent 3 days with us – filming the area and interviewing people. I was given 9 videos as a memento; they amounted to 27hrs of recording time, which ended up as 10 minutes of finished movie. (Incidentally it was very positive and wisely edited thankfully!) I merely point out that there could have been much that was good news and encouraging in footage that was simply abandoned. I know that much from home movie editing as well.

So what am I trying to say? I am now retired and attend a church that is a part of a group of five little churches in the Scottish Highlands. Only this week I read some verses in the Bible where the church in Thessalonia was being encouraged because the members were growing in faith and love for each other and the vulnerable. It feels like that is happening with us, thanks to our hard-working, faithful Minister, energetic church leaders and caring helpers. That is real, it is happening now. Somehow I want to let people know that the CofS is at a critical stage because it is finding new ways to be church and to love and care for the people of Scotland and beyond.

Haven’t done a sermon for a while. Will that do God?

Jeremiah friend or foe?

freda — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:58:25 +0000

One of the senior members of my last church once asked me what I thought of Jeremiah; I have to confess that I mumbled about the prophet being one of doom, gloom and misery. The other day I found myself thinking of this occasion when I was reading a few verses from Jeremiah 7 in my daily readings. The commentator was talking about God promising to be with us in the midst of everyday lives, and went on to say that it was no use going to church unless we also stood up for justice and looked after people in need.

Sadly, it is often true that people drift away from churches because they don’t see the relevance of the worship to contemporary issues or even worse, because someone has been difficult or bad to them. In rural areas it is often the case that people gather together out of a sense of community, yet in many places that gathering of people is becoming older and older. That’s not true everywhere, of course, there are some churches where people of all ages gather for worship and fun and to be encouraged in faith. It is these so called “successful” congregations that are studied by those worried about the decline in church attendances.

I’m not sure why I started this today……. it kind of sounds like the start of a sermon. Confession time here: I rarely read online sermons unless I know the preacher, but occasionally a good first line grabs my attention. My thoughts this past week have been very much on how others see or understand God. Mainly that is because I have been listening to an audio version of The Shack, by William P Young. I first blogged about it here in 2008. It is a book that people seem to either love or hate, and how people feel does not split according to their tendency to follow one type of theology or another.

Standing up for justice in a blog which is by its nature open source, is not always easy. Many bloggers are much braver than I am. As explained previously, I tend to worry about giving offence. It is a disease that comes insidiously to clergy, who have to worry about the need to be prophetic like Jeremiah, and to balance that with the inevitability of annoying those who contribute to the coffers of the church. That is why The Shack is so refreshing, it stands theology on end and makes the reader think about heart and mind and what really matters. The three persons of God (ie the doctrine of the Trinity) is dealt with in an innovative and refreshing way, and difficult issues like evil, suffering and death are addressed head on.

As it is nearly 2yrs since I first discovered the book I would be interested in hearing what others think.

A lifetime as a woman

freda — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:04:48 +0000

A bit obvious you might think – A lifetime as a woman – of course that is what it is. I am not going to get into a discussion of transgender issues, don’t know enough about it. But I do know about being a woman and what it means – from being born during WWII, growing up in the 50s, being married in the 60s, being a mother of four, becoming a mature student in the 80s, a Minister in the Church of Scotland in the 90s, and a retiree in the 21st century. That qualifies me to speak about certain things. So though this rant comes with a slight apology to my Church of England friends, I cannot stay silent any longer.

In the CofS women have had equal rights in terms of ordination to the Eldership and the Ministry since 1968. However, I recognise that in practice this is not always the case. For example there are still parts of Scotland where women are not accepted, despite Church Law. Those of us in ministry were well aware that there were parts of Scotland where being appointed to a parish were not possible because of local prejudice. Here is where my willingness to accept another’s point of view could spoil my argument, for I can see that some people support a narrow point of view which truly believes that scripture is against equality for women, at least in terms of ordination. And this despite the fact that for many years it has been a question asked about at Selection Procedures. The idea being to make sure that new ministers accepted the legal position of the CofS.

This being the position, I have watched and listened to the debates on the place of women in the Church of England over the years. I always thought it was a mistake that the women themselves accepted a secondclass priesthood right from the start of their ordination. It was written into the canons that people were perfectly entitled to stay clear of any bishop who dared to ordain women. As I understand it, Flying Bishops could be brought in from other dioceses, these being bishops who had not soiled their hands by ordaining women.

Today, in the General Synod of the Church of England, the matter of whether women can be admitted to the episcopacy is to be further debated. As I said, I had never thought it to be any of my business. But I am so, so angry that my sisters are being denied equality and the opportunity to serve God and the church. It matters to me because we live in the United Kingdom, and the CofE is an established church in England, the major part of the UK in terms of population.

All I can do is to pray for grace. Not for me to blindly accept injustice, but for others to reflect upon why it is that religion is so downright offensive. We can do little about other countries. But I still feel very much a part of the UK and want to continue to be proud of our laws of state and a national religion that promotes justice, equality and an ability to allow other religions to exist in what is supposed to be a Christian country.

Of course the other alternative is that we become a secular state and stop pretending.

The right kind of primates

freda — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:14:23 +0000

Had to share this post from My Manner of Life – especially the video. Try and look at it if you can. It’s well worth it on what may have been a hard Sunday for some.

What's the Story in Dalamory » Christianity

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