Culture

Fresh Expressions of Funeral

August 12, 2010

I have begun raising this with various people, but it seems to me that the current mainstream funeral provision in the UK is misconceived. There are, I think, a significant number of people who have some fairly inchoate beliefs, and a larger number who are well aware that within their family grouping there are religious [...]

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This image of heaven must go

August 10, 2010

Despite Rob Kashow’s comment, it’s not so much that I find addressing the question of pets in heaven to be a “waste of time” as that a) I find it difficult to deal with the level of evangelical seriousness with which the original poster dealt with it and b) I am increasingly impatient with the [...]

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Naughty U2 story (don’t read if you’re easily offended!)

August 4, 2010

In my previous post, I promised you a Bono story – possibly apocryphal – but too good not to pass on U2 were doing a concert in Glasgow, and Bono got the whole crowd to be silent. In the silence he started a slow rhythmic clapping, hands above his head. After a little while he [...]

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Going god shopping in the worship mall

August 4, 2010

I’ve been reading The Worship Mall by Bryan Spinks (SPCK / Alcuin Club 2010). It’s unusual in that it’s a book by a bonafide academic liturgist about the stuff people – many of whom would claim not to be doing liturgy at all – actually get up to, especially when they’re being “non-traditional”. A short [...]

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The advance of rational civilisation?

July 27, 2010
Chedworth.jpg

I visited Chedworth Roman villa today, nestled in the Cotswold countryside. Among other things there is a what is assumed to be a nymphaeum there, although I wasn’t clear what the evidence was that this shrine built round a natural spring was dedicated to nymphs rather than some particular deity. As you can see from [...]

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Hard to blame this one on the gay West, Nigeria

June 21, 2010

We’ve become so accustomed to Nigerian bishops blaming the ills of the world on gay Americans getting partnered, mitred or both that it’s almost refreshing to come across a story where that would be hard to spin as the cause of all social evil. PM News Nigeria is reporting on the bishop who has been [...]

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Doctor Who’s opening Pandorica: not quite a chest-burster

June 20, 2010
stonehenge.jpg

This is not a review; only a reaction, but it does contains spoliers below the picture, so be warned. There are some fantastic moments in the first part of the season finale to the Doctor’s fifth proper season since rebooting. The two best were making old enemies chilling again, instead of simply warming the cockles [...]

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The queering of celibacy

June 5, 2010

(This post is one of a sporadic series on the Church of England’s Thirty-nine Articles) Those who sometimes compare the 39 Articles to a confession of faith overlook the practical and non-confessional nature of some like the thirty-second, to say nothing of the rather large lacunae that should belong to such a confession. This 32nd [...]

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New deathstyle magazine: lifestyle is so passé

May 18, 2010

Keen to make money out of other people’s loss? Well, it’s an accusation that’s been levelled at lawyers, clergy, funeral companies and more in the past, but now along comes the advertising opportunity of a deathtime: Eulogy, a monthly magazine targeting the about to be or just recently bereaved. “There’s a huge opportunity for a [...]

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Doubting the value of a rhetorical LGBT collective

May 18, 2010

I seem to have read more stories and posts than usual lately which throw the LGBT abbreviation around – presumably in part because yesterday was IDAHO – the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. (I have no idea why Transphobia should be represented by the letter O – the oddity of the acronym and memories [...]

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