Sunday 7 December 2014

My goodness and my new hero

Today I was cheered by someone interjecting into a sermon
"I am really angry....I didn't come to church to hear about politics"
(I had been suggesting we could better spend our energies educating the children of refugees rather than incarcerating them)
she continued "and I want you to stop!"

You mean someone was actually listening!

Even more cheered by the brave CC who then also interjected :

"Keep on going!"

But what would he know,
after all he has given up a lucrative money-raking career to advocate for indigenous people

It's good to be in a church where there is diverse opinion. (And I said that in my response today....we are not in the business of shutting each up!)

It would also be wrong for me to keep quiet, when I should speak out.

I was told on the way out of Church )by the interjector's spouse) that the Archbishop of Canterbury never speaks about politics.
So it was interesting to hear on the news Archbishop Justin "steps into austerity row with radical report"

Let me make it clear I have been no Justin Welby fan....but he's getting his act together. And I will be writing to him tonight!

I had also noted that Margaret Thatcher hated Bp David Jenkins, not because he was a radical theologian but because he spoke out as Bishop of Durham about the rape of NE England by the South in the name of economic rationalism [this is the same Thatcher who said 'there is no such thing as society'...... that of course absolves you from caring for your neighbour...if you don't have any neighbours.   because there is no society!]

She also hated and ridiculed  that saint, Abp Robert Runcie,  because he alone spoke out against the insidious violence that Britain inflicted on the Argentinians...in order to bolster their own waning political ambitions. (read Runcie's powerful deathbed reflection here)

Can I reiterate what Archbshop Justin said in the Daily Mail (itself only slightly less right wing than Andrew Bolt) today
I have seen the hunger that stalks our country... it shocks me more than Africa: Stop wasting food and feed the poor, says THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY



2 comments:

Miss Lavinia said...

This was discussed briefly over lunch. Go you good things!

Margaret said...

“it’s not a matter of the Church binding its vision to
the agenda of this or that party, not a matter of the
Church creating a political party to embody its vision
and its priorities. Much more, it’s a matter of the
Christian gospel motivating a grass-roots politics
and activism of generosity and mutuality”
Faith in the Public Square: Rowan Williams