Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and where every parking spot is a handicapped spot;
A Church of England book published this week says they should be regarded as worshippers with “special needs” alongside the blind, the deaf, breast-feeding mothers, very short people and readers of tabloid newspapers.
Sir Winston, they were not worthy.
(h/t Bob B.)
“…bring me your weak, your stupid, your useless and your tabloid readers… everyone else has left the building.”
God called. He wants to redeem his shares in the Anglican Church and invest in Umma UK Limited. Smart money is going there.
So for years I’ve been telling people my baldness is a sign of virility. Now I supposed to tell them I’m handicapped?
Shave your head to get a head (in the parking lot).
I am truly embarrassed on my dearly departed ancestor’s (father’s side) behalf. Alas, rue Britannia.
More reason’s to shut the doors of the English Church, perhaps the last person can blow out the candles; or are candles allowed? Women who used to dress chastely in Church and wear a head covering so as not to distract, will now be breast-feeding in the pews. Like that won’t distract from the proceedings? Lord, send our roots rain.
Once you decide that the Church is something in and of itself, which is valuable and must be preserved, then this kind of salesmanship becomes inevitable. When you see stuff like that you know they’re more worried about the building fund and management pay checks than anything else. United Church of Canada is in much the same bind. Half full at Christmas and Easter, a corporal’s guard the rest of the time.
This kind of thing is what gave rise to the Quakers, the Scots Covenanters, all these Protestant sects which turned away from Big Religion. They did it because the salesmanship one expects in Walmart is unseemly in a church.
History repeating itself. Again.
Perhaps they can get Christianity’s leading greeter to do a stint at the church to get some attention. I don’t imagine St Peter is too busy these days.
What with pretty much everyone going to hell nowadays except for Muslims who go to the eternal virgin brothel in the sky where they are greeted by a pedophile pimp.
Too bad about England in any case. It used to be a great county, now it’s a freak show.
Phantom,
It’s much easier than that. If the head of your church is ambivalent about the existence of god, never mind all the actual dogma, then what does the place exist for? Add to that the very fact that Atkinson has more respect for the traditions and demands of islam than his own religion and you can see there isn’t a point to going.
If you really believe in god, go to a church who shares that belief. This is why those nutty southern baptists and mormons are still going and the united and anglicans aren’t.
There are more interesting social clubs out there to join if you aren’t going to worship a god you believe in.
I personally thing it’s pretty funny. All the best parking spots are always empty and always reserved for the handy-capped.
Well, I’m handicapped too. Not just my hay fever or an irrepressible urge to say f*** you to liberals, I’m also a climate sceptic, a catholic and a heterosexual.
You think it’s easy to bear these burdens and also have to searc around for a place to park!
It’s not like Rowan is an atheist or a doubter, after all, he is a Druid; all part of the Church’s move towards ecumenism.
Very worthy . . . . of a Monty Python Script.
Ministry of Stupid Ideas,just down the hall form Ministry of Silly Walks.
So the Church of England has an ‘Expert on Growth’ on staff. With their shrinking numbers I think they should fire the bum and hire fire breathing fundamentalist preachers. Might shake up the upper crust clergy a bit but in not too long a time all the pews will be full.
I wonder if the Anglican Church has considered returning to orthodoxy—as in belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, and in scripture, tradition, and divine revelation? Rhetorical question . . .
I left the Anglican Church because it’s lost sight of its fundamental obligation, The First Great Commandment: “Love the Lord thy God [Who’s she?!] with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength.”
Instead, jettisoning the First Commandment, the Anglican Church has indiscriminately embraced the Second Commandment, “Love thy neighbour as thyself”, with only the Zeitgeist as a foundation. The idea of “Love the sinner, hate the sin” (a concept all parents easily comprehend) has been tossed aside so that all and any (sexual, in particular) behaviours a person chooses for him/her/self (and every other combination of gender and non gender) is now, under the rubric of “inclusiveness”, A-OK.
However, behaviours like mine, because I question so much Anglican apostasy (e.g., abortion, non-traditional marriage, lack of serious spiritual formation . . .) are definitely NOT included in those behaviours that must be included. How’s that for hypocrisy and a double standard?
The Anglican Church is a member in good standing of the Therapeutic Society: victimhood is the order of the day and is to be sternly rejected—unless the victim is an orthodox Christian. The indignities and marginalization my orthodoxy induced in the “inclusive, tolerant” liberals who are now running the Anglican Church—into the ground—made it very clear to me that I was not welcome—at least not as God made me. So I left.
I’m now a Roman Catholic, a church that is going strong. It’s not into fads and it has high expectations of its members. Whatever its faults, the RC Church teaches and nurtures a mature faith, not a spoiled toddler one, where “Mommy Church” indulges every whim.
God bless the Anglican Church (AC): there are, by God’s grace, many faithful Christians remaining there. However, the AC barely tolerates them and, as they leave (die or go elsewhere), the AC tries one juvenile gimmick after another to refill the pews. And then the church is surprised that those who might pop by are neither very committed, nor very Christian—a mirror, in fact, of what this once fine institution has become.
I believe it was G. K. Chesterton who said, “[S]he who marries the Zeitgeist will soon be a widow.” Well, the widow’s the Anglican Church and, until it decides to “return unto the Lord . . . God”, it will stay one, no matter how much it dresses itself up and invites passersby in for a dance. Kyrie eleison.
Joe,
“So the Church of England has an ‘Expert on Growth’ on staff. With their shrinking numbers I think they should fire the bum and hire fire breathing fundamentalist preachers. Might shake up the upper crust clergy a bit but in not too long a time all the pews will be full.”
This is another way of saying you don’t need an expert on growth, you need an expert on god.
I’m an athiest. There is no reason for me to go to an anglican church. The problem is that if you believe in god there is still no reason to go to an anglican church.
For their church to survive, you have to have people who are smart enough to figure out their mission statement and act accordingly.
‘the wider community’
That is damn near as good as “life challenged individuals” when talking about the dead.
Some pew spaces and chairs are embarrassingly inadequate for what is known in church circles as ‘the wider community’
How about some consideration for the ‘boney-assed community’? Let’s make those pews softer.
My ears ring, my eyes are blurry, and I can’t remember anything.
Where do I sit?
At the local pub?
Fred writes: “Very worthy . . . . of a Monty Python Script.”
Actually, I thought I was reading one of the late, great Michael Wharton’s “Peter Simple” columns. Wharton’s right-on Anglican vicar, the Reverend Spacely-Trellis, whose favourite phrase was “We are all to blame.”, has not only come alive, but he has become the face and voice of the Church of England. It is no longer possible to satirize this organization.
Someone wants to turn the US into a similar freak show. The fundamentalist Christians, Muslim, atheists and other faiths are growing as they actually believe in something (rightly or wrongly). The mainstream western churches have largely become Marxist social clubs that no longer believe in anything and their memberships and attendance show it.
You see, all the UK needs is more mosques. Big room, lots of carpet, no annoying need for alternate seating arrangements, or musical distastes. Simple no?
Should have thought of this centuries ago, dummies.
Great summary, lookout, about the state of Anglicanism these days, from the perspective of this Anglican apostate, anyway.
jlc @11:02: “I’m also a climate sceptic, a catholic and a heterosexual.”
Sounds like a good t-shirt statement. Add in “Christian Zionist” and it would be a sure recipe for exploding heads all over the left-o-sphere.
Churchinaity with a Hollywood Jesus.
They should try preaching the gospel of Yeshua the Son of God. Not the words of Marx or Fabian socialists.
Churches like this are called by the Messiah Himself Laodiceaians. The final & apostate Church. The one in which Jesus is without, not in the congregation.
JMO
Beer in Churchfor fathers day
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5587035/Church-blesses-fathers-with-beer.html
wearing a bhurka must be considered a handicap.
actually ,the whole religion might be considered a handicap.