While Kathryn was grieving over the Ruth Gledhill piece in the Times blaming declining church numbers on wishy washy clergy I was at a funeral which brought out much of the best in the church and its people - a village community just south of London, a packed church for one of its own, a combination of the best of BCP and Common Worship, Bunyan (..and the trumpets sounded for him on the other side...) King James and NIV, and a sense of continuity most palpable in the short, slow, cold walk through the grey back lanes to the village graveyard , and the familiar, shocking words at the graveside.
For me this was deeply real, utterly authentic, and a far cry from some of the anodyne things we do in the name of inclusiveness - but in the end does it matter what we do as long as it enables God's voice to be heard or his face to be glimpsed?
Off for a residential weekend tomorrow, including the opportunity to get up at 2 and 6 am as part of a 24 hour cycle of the Benedictine Office (we'll see about that :-/ ). Apart from three assignments to hand in, the major preparatory trauma for a good evangelical has been needing to borrow an alb, to add an air of authenticity to the proceedings.... I really haven't got my head around the idea of even a cassock yet.....
Just you wait Mary....I've had to wear a cope on several occasions here. I'm a dumpy 5'4" and felt rather like the proverbial prawn on the wrong chess board ;-)
Posted by: Kathryn | March 11, 2005 at 09:56 AM