eChurch Blog

Datechguy and Stacy both have blog posts conflating the practice of child sacrifice with abortion.

I made the following comment on Stacy’s blog:

I’ve often thought of abortion in terms of human sacrifice to the modern god of convenience.

In response to this Rome said:

I do not understand how abortion could be considered a sacrifice. It’s just killing. It’s not an offering to appease anything. It’s not the act of giving up for a greater good. It’s shedding a burden.

To which I said:

Rome said: “It’s just killing.”

Oh that’s OK then….

To which Rome responded:

Stuart,

Yes, it is.

I spoke to someone before posting this and was told that abortion is much more nuanced than I would imagine.

Is it?

Brilliant news coming out of the Church of England today relating to mental illness and stigma. They’re launching a new joint initiative to mark World Mental Health Day; which I blogged about here.

Before I reproduce the details, I want to highlight two excellent bloggers who also wrote about World Mental Health Day. The first is Vic the Vicar, and the second is Opinionated Vicar; who’s written a few posts on mental health issues which you can read: here, here and here.

To mark World Mental Health Day, a new joint initiative was launched at Church House, Westminster this week between the Church of England and the ‘Time to Change’ Campaign.

The C of E’s mental health group and the Revd Eva McIntyre have teamed up with Time to Change to create a pack for churches, providing ideas and resources for churches to plan worship on the theme of mental health. The pack is available for free download on the Time to Change website.

“It’s really exciting to be working with Time to Change in this important campaign,” said Eva McIntyre. “Statistics tell us that one in four people in the UK will suffer from a form of mental illness during their lives – in every 20 people in church, four are likely to have experienced some form of mental illness.

“That statistic is based just on the people who go to the GP for help, so the real figure is probably even higher. If we can take away the stigma associated with talking about mental illness, more people will feel able to access help, support and justice.

“Churches are seen as places where support and acceptance can be found, so we really need to educate ourselves about these issues, so that we don’t get it wrong when people do open up and talk about their struggles.”

To celebrate the launch on World Mental Health Day on 10 October, members of the C of E’s national Committee for Ministry by and with Deaf and Disabled People, chaired by the Bishop of Blackburn, signed the Time to Change pledge to work to end discrimination against people with mental illness.

I’ve never blogged about this here before, although, I have mentioned it on other blogs. I think I’ve avoided this as it represents a truly terrifying episode in my life; but what with the recent troubles in Egypt, it’s been playing on my mind.

Some years ago I was on the Sinai Peninsular with my family and I befriended a young Christian Copt chap (can’t remember his name) who worked in one of the shops attached to the hotel. On reflection, I should have taken more notice of the fact that when I went to the shop and we talked of matters of faith, he would put up the ‘closed’ sign and pull down the blinds.

One day, as we had became good friends, we arranged to meet that evening in a bar, after his shift in the shop. It was on the same afternoon that I happened to wander in to the shop next door. To my surprise the shop worker started talking of his Muslim faith; to which I listened patiently, and then I started talking of my own faith. It was whilst I was talking of Jesus that he became somewhat animated; I say animated, absolutely spitting furious might be a better description. He was particularly angry with what he termed as Christian aggression against Muslims and their support of Israel.

I quickly made my excuses and left.

Later in the evening I went to the bar to await my Copt friend who never showed. Instead – and rather chillingly – I saw the Muslim shop worker enter the bar with a small group, and he simply stood at the front door and pointed towards me before they took their seats. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I instinctively knew something was very wrong.

I quickly left the bar and hurried off back to my hotel room.

Shortly after arriving in my room I noticed noises outside my hotel room door; it didn’t take long to work out that somebody was attempting to gain entrance. I stood behind the door in my pants, holding a bedside lamp as my only weapon and ready to fight for my life. The whispered Arabic voices behind the door became ever more agitated as the card swipe they were using kept failing and they repeatedly shook the door.

Eventually, the sounds died down as to my relief they left.

I hadn’t locked my hotel door from the inside that night. They should have been able to simply turn the handle and walk in; but by the grace of God the door was indeed bolted on the inside.

I spent the next couple of days feeling extremely vulnerable as there’s no dialling 999 to get help. In fact, there’s nobody to turn to.

It transpired that my Copt friend had been advised by the Muslim shop guy next door, to get on the bus and go home rather than meet me in the bar. The guy in the shop next door had obviously been listening in on our conversations.

A while after I left Egypt, Islamic extremists blew the hotel next door to smithereens.

It goes without saying that I am somewhat more cautious in speaking of my faith in Islamic lands.

Imagine what it’s like for our Egyptian Christian Copt brothers and sisters to be constantly living under this sort of intimidation and fear. There’s no flying off to their safe and secure county at the end of the week.

It would seem these proposed changes to the General Medical Council’s guidance, may have been prompted by the recent case involving Dr Richard Scott:

Pulse magazine reported last week that the General Medical Council is planning to ‘harden’ its guidance on religion in practice.

The document Good Medical Practice (2006) is the core guidance to doctors and describes what is expected of all doctors registered with the GMC. Although the guidance is addressed to doctors, it is also intended to let the public know what they can expect from their doctors.

The GMC says that it is reviewing Good Medical Practice ‘to make sure it is up to date and fit for its many purposes’.

A formal consultation will be launched later this month and will lead to publication of a new edition of the guidance in 2012.

The new draft guidance has added a duty for GPs to consider ‘patients’ religious, spiritual and cultural history’ when assessing patients.

The regulator also plans to tighten up anti-discrimination guidance on doctors expressing personal views, including religious beliefs, in consultations.

Its previous guidance had stated: ‘You must not unfairly discriminate by allowing your personal views to affect adversely your professional relationship with patients.’ Its new version removes the word ‘adversely’, requiring GPs to challenge their colleagues’ behaviour if there is any effect to the professional relationship.

Once ‘Good Medical Practice’ has been modified it is expected that the GMC will then move to modify its supplementary guidance ‘Personal Belief and Medical Practice’ which goes into these matters in far greater detail.

[.....]

The GMC’s suggested new approach will not just make things more challenging for Christian doctors but will have implications for any doctor of any faith (or none) who expresses a personal belief that he or she feels might help (about anything) to a patient. This has the potential to lead to many more complaints against doctors and many more cases for the GMC to examine. The regulator could be walking a very delicate path indeed.

I suspect it will not just be Christian doctors who will be awaiting the draft guidance with much interest and examining its wording very carefully.

SOURCE

So much for the holistic approach.

Well, this is all going rather well isn’t it folks. Apparently the only places of Christian worship are now on military bases:

There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

[....]

In recent times, freedom of religion has declined in Afghanistan, according to the State Department.

“The government’s level of respect for religious freedom in law and in practice declined during the reporting period, particularly for Christian groups and individuals,” reads the State Department report.

“Negative societal opinions and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Muslim converts to Christianity,” said the report. ”The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom.”

Most Christians in the country refuse to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship,” said the State Department.

….read all

Is there possibly a pattern emerging? We invade a country and the Christian population flees or goes underground? Could there be a correlation perhaps?

Over the last few weeks I have been on the receiving end of some rather abusive Ad hominem comments, relating to my annulment procedure, and the delays in my reception in to the Catholic Church.

I’d like to make some clarifications to clear up some of the misunderstandings.

The first thing to say is that this annulment is not in fact my own. I have been married once to my present wife and have never been divorced. My wife had a previous brief marriage when she was a teenager; which ended due to violence.

The second point I’d like to make is that from a pastoral position we could have been received in to the Church before now; however, I made the decision to await the annulment, so as to do this formally and correctly. It didn’t seem fitting to me and I wanted to do this properly.

One of the primary reasons for being attracted to Catholicism, is the very fact that the Church has fixed rules and regulations for governance in accordance with the words of our Lord, that are not prone to be blown around by every wind of zeitgeist.

To then opt for pastoral discretion in my own particular case, would for me personally, in some ways, undermine the reasoning of my initial attraction to the Catholic Church.

I hope  this clears up some confusion.

My wife and I are thoroughly looking forward to our marriage convalidation within the Catholic Church. And of course our confirmation and reception. As well as taking the Sacraments. Can’t wait, and it’s worth the wait.

The proposed “creationist” free school – Everyday Champions School – sponsored by Everyday Champions Church in Newark, Nottinghamshire, has been rejected by the Department for Education (DfE).

You can see my previous guest blog post written by Michael Roberts - M.A. (Oxon), Vicar in the Diocese of Blackburn – here.

Today – October 10th – is World Mental Health Day.

As some of you know mental illness is something close to my mind heart and so I’d like to do my little bit to remember this day, and encourage you faithful praying types to remember the mentally ill today.

There’s a good article in the Independent which is worth a read. But I think the best blog post so far today is over on PsychCentral; they’re also running a “Blog Party” in support of the day and gathering together – and constantly updating – all of the blog posts that have contributed to the day.

Feel free to share anything related to this, or your own mental health experiences.

The BBC is reporting that Archbishop Dr Williams is due to meet President Mugabe later today.

The ABC has – in my opinion – been ballsy and forthright; here’s a snippet from his sermon:

Because this is part of our problem. It is not only that some refuse the invitation of God to share his abundant love and generosity. It is all too easy for us human beings to try and block that love and prevent it from reaching others. You know very well, dear brothers and sisters, what it means to have doors locked in your faces by those who claim the name of Christians and Anglicans. You know how those who by their greed and violence have refused the grace of God try to silence your worship and frustrate your witness in the churches and schools and hospitals of this country. But you also know what Jesus’ parable teaches us so powerfully – that the will of God to invite people to his feast is so strong that it can triumph even over these mindless and Godless assaults. Just as the Risen Jesus breaks through the locked doors of fear and suspicion, so he continues to call you and empower you in spite of all efforts to defeat you. And in the Revelation to John, the Lord proclaims that he has set before us an open door that no-one can shut. It is the door of his promise, the door of his mercy, the door into the feast of his Kingdom.

In your faith and endurance, you have kept your eyes on that open door when the doors of your own churches have been shut against you. You have discovered that it is not the buildings that make a true church but the spiritual foundations on which your lives are built. And as we together give thanks for the open door that God puts before us, we may even find the strength to say to our enemies and persecutors, ‘The door is open for you! Accept what God offers and turn away from the death-dealing folly of violence.’

[.....]

Of course, to say this is at once to recognize that it was just this natural wealth that provoked the greed of colonists and imperialists in the past. No European can say these things without being aware of what one of my predecessors, Michael Ramsey, once said about ‘the debt we owe to Africa’ after generations of white rule. For a long period in this country, an anxious ruling class clung on to the power they had seized at the expense of the indigenous people and ignored their rights and their hopes for dignity and political freedom. How tragic that this should be replaced by another kind of lawlessness, where so many live in daily fear of attack if they fail to comply with what the powerful require of them. As we together give thanks for the gifts of nature that God has given us and the gifts of solidarity and the gift of freedom from foreign exploitation, can we stand together to say to all our political leaders and rulers, ‘Listen! Not only to the voice of those who suffer but to the voice of God himself, grieving over the way we ruin his creation, the voice of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, longing for his people to open their hearts to justice and peace and mercy.’

This Eucharist is the sign of God’s purpose for all of us; it is a feast in which all are fed with Christ’s new life, in which there is no distinction of race, tribe or party. In this community there can be no place for violence or for retaliation: we stand together, sinners in need of grace, proclaiming to the world that there is room at God’s table for all people equally. What the Church has to say to the society around it, whether here or in Britain, is not to advance a political programme but to point to the fact of this new creation, this fellowship of justice and joy, this universal feast. It is on the basis of this vision that we urge all people to say no to violence, especially as the next election approaches in this country; to discover that deep reverence for each person that absolutely forbids us from treating them as if their welfare did not matter, from abusing and attacking them.

Good for the ABC. I think he has taken a bold and courageous step in going to Zimbabwe and seeking a meeting with Mugabe. He certainly can’t be accused of not rolling up his sleeves and getting stuck in. As for those that say a meeting with Mugabe would give him a platform and legitimacy; I simply don’t agree. I think the ABC will be just as bold and forthright to his face.

I’m with Bishop Nick Baines on this one:

Is Dr Williams an irrelevance? Or is he a brave man who, trusting in the God who is on the side of the oppressed, is walking into the lion’s den in order to demonstrate that however loud the roar, the lion’s teeth are blunt and will one day soon fall out? His attempt to meet Mugabe might fail; his plea for justice might be to no avail; he might even be humiliated by the despot. But, by being there he will have shown the regime its moral nakedness and challenged its legitimacy. The cry for justice and mercy will not ultimately be silenced.

Amen.

Richard Millett had the stomach to attend this meeting and has all of the thoroughly depressing details.

Others that have reported on this are: CIFWatch, TheJC and Rosh Pina Project.

The worst aspect of all of this, is that it’s hosted in a Church; giving their hatred an air of Christian legitimacy.

I hope Dr Calvin Smith tears Stephen Sizer a new backside in their forthcoming debate.

UPDATE: David Hallam – Methodist Preacher – has now posted on this.