eChurch Blog

Caveat: It’s probably worth noting before reading this that I have been fighting a particularly virulent attack of depression of late and this inevitably colours my view of things. The good news is that the cloud is beginning to lift.

Earlier in the week sally posted “World Weary” in which she said:

It seems to me that more and more people are world weary, and that as a Church we have a real opportunity to show a different way of being, the joy and peace that knowing and being known by God through Christ can bring even in hard times.

So to the question.

Quite simply, does your faith bring you joy? I’m going to admit that at times mine doesn’t, but then again, at times it does.

It seems to me that this is an important question, as what appeal will our faith have on others, if they cannot discern joy in us? Or put another way, our faith won’t be infectious if we’re miserable gits.

So over to you.

Back in August there was literally a global response to Stacy’s post entitled: Can’t even go to the park, which I blogged about here. The post detailed an incident revolving around a gay couple engaged in a public display of affection.

Well, it transpires today, that as a result of that blog post the incident has been turned into a cartoon strip by one of her detractors. Imagine that, someone going to all the effort to turn you into a cartoon. I think that’s rather cool.

Anyway, it’s well worth hopping over for Stacy’s reaction to this.

If you’re at all interested in the recent controversy surrounding Tim Minchin’s ‘Woody Allen Jesus’ song being cut from Jonathan Ross’ Christmas Special Show, then I suggest you hop over to Thirsty Gargoyle’s blog for a rundown.

Archdruid Eileen has posted on this also and you can listen to the song here.

First Reading Malachi 3:1-4,23-24

The Lord God says this: Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made. The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by the Lord as in former days, as in the years of old.

Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day. He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!
King of the peoples
and cornerstone of the Church,
come and save man,
whom you made from the dust of the earth.
Alleluia!

Gospel Luke 1:57-66

The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.

Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. ‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘But no one in your family has that name’, and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.

I’m going to assume most of you have encountered the recent controversies relating to Tesco, which has led some in the Christian world to call for a boycott of their stores.

Firstly, Nick Lansley – Head of Research and Development at Tesco.com – posted a message on his Flickr page saying:

“I’m…campaigning against evil Christians (that’s not all Christians, just bad ones) who think that gay people should not lead happy lives and get married to their same-sex partners.”

I’ve read somewhere that Lansley made this comment a few years ago, but it has recently been removed.

Secondly, Tesco have been in hot water for reducing its support for the charity Cancer Research’s Race for Life, while deciding to sponsor Pride London, Britain’s largest gay festival.

In view of these controversies, I knocked off a quick email to Tesco asking for their response. What I have received back and reproduce below is obviously a standard response, as I didn’t make any comments, state my position, express concern, or anything like that; I simply asked for their response. And here it is:

Dear Mr James

Thank you for your email addressed to Philip Clarke, our Chief Executive regarding Tesco’s sponsorship of Pride London 2012.

I accept that you do not agree with our decision to sponsor Pride London.  Tesco is the largest private-sector employer in the UK and our workforce comes from very diverse backgrounds.  Our aim is to make them all feel welcome and valued.  We encourage those colleagues who wish to set up their own social groupings within the company, one of the most recent of which is Out at Tesco, for gay and lesbian staff.  This group asked for some support for Pride London, and we agreed to do that as part of our policy to treat all who work for us fairly.

Our support implies no moral, philosophic or political stance.  It is not an expression of Tesco’s views; it simply reflects the diversity of the people who work for us.  We support many causes and charities, whether it is raising money to fight the growing problem of dementia through our Charity of the Year, the Alzheimer’s Society, getting behind Help for Heroes, raising millions for cancer research and cancer care, or in this case promoting diversity in the workplace.  Our £30,000 donation to Pride London was a very small part of our overall charitable and community contribution which last year amounted to £64 million.

I can assure you that there is no truth to the claim that our decision to support Pride London was at the expense of our partnership with Cancer Research UK.  The two issues are not linked in any way.  In fact, our relationship with CRUK is stronger than ever, both through our support for Race for Life and in other ways.  I hope you will look out for a very exciting announcement planned for the New Year on how we and CRUK will take our partnership to a whole new level.

You have also expressed concern that comments made on the internet by a Tesco member of staff, Nick Lansley, might represent the views of Tesco itself.  I want to reassure you in the clearest possible terms that Mr Lansley’s comments and postings, made in a personal capacity, in no way reflect the views of Tesco.  Our values as a company are such that we abhor criticism of any religion, and we knew nothing about Mr Lansley’s comments and postings until they were brought to our attention.  It is not for us to dictate or limit those private views but we do not tolerate statements that insult others or their beliefs.  For that reason, when Mr Lansley was found to have posted material on his blog which insulted the religious beliefs of others, he was reminded of Tesco’s policy and the material was removed forthwith.

We know that being the UK’s leading retailer carries unique responsibilities.  We have a responsibility to show leadership, as we do on issues like climate change and helping to develop our people’s skills.  We also have a responsibility to listen carefully to our many and diverse customers and stakeholders, respect their views and seek to balance their opinions in the decisions we make.  This is not always easy, particularly on issues where opinions can differ markedly.  Whatever the issue, it is never our intention deliberately to inflame or polarise opinion or to make an already contentious debate more contentious.

We are very aware that a well-intended action designed simply to support some of our colleagues in Tesco has unintentionally created some misunderstanding and mistrust.  We would never set out to do this, and we are sorry for it.  We will continue to support our colleagues in the Out at Tesco network as we do in our other diversity forums.  Most of our charitable and community support is however focused on delivering practical benefits, rather than on funding awareness-raising events.  We will therefore discuss with Out at Tesco how we can support them in future years in ways that will not include sponsoring events.  We hope this will enable us to be true to our belief that everyone is welcome at Tesco without polarising opinion.

We very much accept that, however well-intentioned we are, we do not always get everything right for everyone.  I do hope, however, that the explanation gives you some reassurance about how seriously we take the views of all our stakeholders, and the value we attach to tolerance and inclusion.  I hope also that it begins to restore your confidence that Tesco does try to do the right thing and does indeed listen to your feedback.

Kind regards

Lesley McRae
Customer Service Executive

First Reading 1 Samuel 1:24-28

When Hannah had weaned the infant Samuel, she took him up with her together with a three-year old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the temple of the Lord at Shiloh; and the child was with them. They slaughtered the bull and the child’s mother came to Eli. She said, ‘If you please, my lord. As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. This is the child I prayed for, and the Lord granted me what I asked him. Now I make him over to the Lord for the whole of his life. He is made over to the Lord.’

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

King of the peoples
and cornerstone of the Church,
come and save man,
whom you made from the dust of the earth.

Alleluia!

Gospel Luke 1:46-56 

I’ve been reading reports that the domain name vatican.xxx has been purchased by an ‘anonymous’ buyer.

Frankly, if true, then this is very incompetent on the part of the Vatican as many other organisations have been preemptively acquiring and registering versions of the new .xxx domain to prevent abuse, but now it may be too late for the Catholic Church.

We know who is holding the domain (ICM Registry), but not who purchased it.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Vatican radio:

“This domain is not available because it has been acquired by someone else, but not the Vatican.”

This is super news folks.

On Monday, for the first time in more than a decade, the U.N. General Assembly condemned religious intolerance without urging states to outlaw “defamation of religion”.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) – comprising 57 Islamic nations – have been trying for years to introduce a ‘Defemation of Religion” UN resolution. This would have only favoured Islam, violated free speech, and ushered in a dangerous global blasphemy law.

I think we have all seen how blasphemy laws are used in some Islamic nations to terrify, subjugate, imprison, and in some cases, murder religious minority groups.

I’ve blogged about the “defamation of religions” many times in the past; most recently: here, here and here.

The resolution approved on Monday declares that “discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief constitutes a violation of human rights.” It also expressed concern about the incitement to religious hatred and the failure of some states “to combat this burgeoning trend.”

The General Assembly adopted the resolution by consensus without a vote. The versions passed in previous years had enjoyed increasingly less support in assembly votes due to Western and Latin American opposition to the “defamation” idea. The resolution barely received a majority of yes votes in 2010.

The New York-based rights group Human Rights First welcomed the resolution prior to its adoption, describing the new version as “a decisive break from the polarizing focus in the past on defamation of religions.”

“Governments should now focus on concrete measures to fight religiously motivated violence, discrimination and other forms of intolerance, while recognizing the importance of freedom of expression,” Human Rights First’s Tad Stahnke said.

Earlier this year Western countries and their Latin American allies joined Muslim and African states in backing a new approach that switched the focus from protecting beliefs to protecting believers. That new approach led to Monday’s resolution.

….read all

First Reading Song of Songs 2:8-14

I hear my Beloved.
See how he comes
leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My Beloved is like a gazelle,
like a young stag.
See where he stands
behind our wall.
He looks in at the window,
he peers through the lattice.
My Beloved lifts up his voice,
he says to me,
‘Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
For see, winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth.
The season of glad songs has come,
the cooing of the turtledove is heard
in our land.
The fig tree is forming its first figs
and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance.
Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock,
in the coverts of the cliff,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful.’

Gospel Acclamation 

Alleluia, alleluia!
Emmanuel,
our king and lawgiver,
come and save us,
Lord our God.
Alleluia!

Gospel Luke 1:39-45

Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

First reading Isaiah 7:10-14 

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’

Then Isaiah said:

‘Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of my God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel,
a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

Gospel Acclamation 

Alleluia,alleluia!
Key of David, who open the gates of the eternal kingdom,
come to liberate from prison
the captive who lives in darkness.
Alleluia!

Gospel Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.