Bigbulkyanglican

Union Jacks and the value of Scripture

I was interested today to read of the experience of the young adult owner of a local independent men's clothes shop who had come under some pressure from a PC local authority because of his insistence on selling and window displaying " union jack" clothes because they might encourage right wing tendencies within the community.

His response I think was excellent in his insistence that he was actually trying to achieve the precise reverse - by encouraging people to wear the Union Jack with pride he was ensuring that it did not become the preserve of a particular view or the "uniform" of a particular racist minority group.

I wonder whether within The Church the same issues don't arise over The Bible.

The current dispute within the Anglican Communion although ostensibly about issues of human sexuality is actually about how we understand and interpret our Holy Scriptures. The danger is that the self-styled "biblical" Christians with their own particular interpretation deny others with a different understanding or view of Scripture the space to make the Bible their own.

I suspect that the reality is that most Christian traditions don't actually treat or regard the Scriptures according to their own standard. My hunch is that those that " preach the bible" are just as guilty as those who "stand for the Holy Gospel" in the Eucharist in not living up to our own self-declared standards.

Ben Quash writes powerfully here about how we really value scripture (and there is a PDF link to the full article at the bottom of the page).

I remember debating during an Iona Retreat with one eager minister about the importance of "preaching" Scripture to the minister's task (he assumed that as Anglican I needed convincing), and I was able to remind him of the words attributed to John Knox about a preachers task in approaching Scripture which run along the lines of:

"May my heart be moved, my mind be challenged, my soul be warmed, - and my lips be sealed until the previous three have been truly earned". I guess in many Church situations the process has been reversed in many sermons, home groups and bible study groups.

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Owls and earthquakes

There was an interesting item on the radio the other day which suggested that the majority of people have a particularly creative time in the early morning (I can hear the "Larks"disagreeing) - and as an unrepentant owl I was busy writing and working on some music when the earthquake struck at a few minutes to 1am last night - just as I was thinking about going to bed.

It was a windy night so I thought the first shock was actually a heavy gust on the bay window of the study - and had just had time to process the fact that the whole house had shaken and no gust however strong could do that

Then the whole room started to move and shaking accompanied by a rumbling - as a watched a large and heavy speaker monitor tilts towards a computer monitor and the lights above the computer literally dance, and the shelf sustaining the monitor displays moves up and down in rythmn and then I realise that my office chair was moving under me.

What is really fascinating is how long the brain takes to process the realisation that this is an "earthquake".

My first move was to look out of the window to see if it was just our "house" and then to see lights going on down the street made me realise it wasn't just us -( a strangely irrational thought given the force of the movement).

Many other people I have spoken to this morning who were woken from their sleep seem to have needed the news this morning to be convinced that it had really happened rather than being a dream.

It is interesting how the brain needs the imagination to cope with the really unusual.

Reading update

I have updated what's around on the current reading at the moment - though just at the moment 
its a fleeting process!

Persistent phone callers!

Managed a record 35 minutes today with a family history geek who just would not get the message that the Parish Records are now in the Diocese Archives and the chances of finding distant relative born in 1700something are relatively small from a Church founded 100 hundred years later - and not to be discouraged offered a long account of his family history - if you know the syndrome then you may like to try this:

Love life and live Lent

Sad to report that I've been really struggling with LLLL08 - and lots of other adults in these parts are too - the suggestions are just to urban to make sense - some of us have resorted to the Kids suggestions.

So no police officers ( we only ever see them with blue lights and cars in these parts) or queues ( except traffic in Keighley), no chance to ride a bike or walk instead of using the car just too busy.

Other feedback from last years enthusiasts is also a little less entuasisatic - without being too dualistic about it it doesn't seem as spiritual this year.

However this week has got off to a better start - so yesterday I did make time to plan for a retreat - and today I have persuaded two charities that I am involved with to recycle more, and to adopt a local supply of recycled paper for the white paper stocks - so feeling a little more positive.

Who is this (2)?

Well the answers to the first round are WT Coleridge and William Blake (the real cheats simply click on the picture and looked at the JPG title).

I was just intrigued by the Blake death mask - a few weeks ago I went to the Blake exhibition at Tate Britain and was intrigued just how small some of the classic Blake pictures were, as well as at the interesting sketch-development of familiar  works - but I had not expected the man himself to look like this in facial features.

Windows XP Music

If one of the first things you did with a new Windows XP computer was to switch off all the irritating internal sounds which seranade every switch on and subsequent move or error then you might find the equally irritating - but rather clever none the less:

Windows XP music

Edwyn Collins - Home again

Last Night BBC4 broadcast the film Home Again about Edwyn Collins recovery from his stroke in 2005, which left him with little memory, and severely physically disabled.

The film did not pull its punches:

he describes and views his guitar collection and then demonstrates the almost complete loss of use of his right arm and hand -

his speech therapist focuses on teaching him to read and spell again with words like Fender and Gibson -

and most poignant of all where his wife describes the moment when she realised that he could not read ( something the doctors had forgotten to tell her and which had not dawn on her!)

It was a most extra-ordinary account of his determination and his wife and friends support which could be appreciated by anyone - but made all the more powerful if like me you had grown up musically with Edwyn and Orange Juice as a major influence.

For this creative genius to be back at work - and answering painful questions like "are you the same person?" with the same honesty and perception which had been a hallmark of his music and lyrics - is just wonderful.

Have a listen to his album Home Again

Who is this?

Fascinating display of death masks appeared on my Blog feeds today - it intrigues me how we view what people of the past look like - and how in a sense this kind of visual image has gone out of fashion or is regarded as be slightly macabre.

So who is this? Will expect that Maggie Dawn among others to name this one - that's a clue.

and this one fascinated me - being totally unlike what I expected him to look like

 

Answers in the comments please?

Lunar eclipse

Last nights lunar eclipse presented in time frame photography . . . but sadly not from a cloudy Pennine Yorkshire. Double click to image to see the full effect.