Another remarkable man

Another remarkable man and Anglican, Malcolm Boyd,  who is also a priest ( oh my goodness you lay people have it easy) died this week.

Boyd was 93. He was one of those wonderful thinkers who was able to challenge the community of faith to "look/live outside   the square". That is,  to think creatively. (a full newspaper eulogy in The LA Times is here)

Part of the article tells us quite a lot 

" Boyd was elected president of PEN, an advocacy group for writers' freedom of speech. He started living with Mark Thompson, who was a senior editor for the Advocate, a national gay and lesbian newspaper. At the time, it was generally expected that gay Episcopal clergy remain celibate.

Twenty years later in 2004, when Boyd and Thompson renewed their vows in a church ceremony, the majority of Episcopalians had approved of gay marriage at a national conference. Boyd's anniversary service was held at the Episcopal Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles with five bishops among the guests and Bishop Jon Bruno presiding.

Boyd and Thompson married in July 2013, after Proposition 8 was overturned and same-sex unions resumed in California.

“Malcolm lives on in our hearts and minds through the wise words and courageous example he has shared with us through the years,” Bruno, bishop of the six-county diocese, said Friday in a statement. “We pray in thanksgiving for Malcolm’s life and ministry, for his tireless advocacy for civil rights, and for his faithful devotion to Jesus who now welcomes him to eternal life and comforts us in our sense of loss.” 

In his later years, Boyd was writer-in-residence at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul. He also worked as a chaplain for AIDS patients and helped to establish a gay history archive at USC.

He continued to write. In a 2014 Huffington Post column, he asked, in his down-to-earth style, for a chat with Pope Francis about religious discrimination against gay people.

"Is this asking too much?" he wrote. "Pope Francis, are you on board?

"I'd like to spend a reflective evening with you, send out for a pizza from a great place near the Vatican, open a bottle of Chianti, put our feet up, relax, and share thoughts and aspirations."

RIP another good priest.

A nice dilemma

If you've been to the funny, but lovely, little town of Bath then you will have been to the square wherein the Abbey is located (it is the major feature of the town).  There is a curious article in Church Times (here) about Evensong having to be cancelled because the activity outside  the Abbey was too loud.
It reminded me of one of the profoundest religious experiences I ever had in Paris (here sorry the picture has disappeared if you need one ...here you go)
My dilemma is this:
What is more authentic; the people who sit on the steps of the Basilica ( a truly amazing place...no doubt), or the people who are inside at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night.
I must admit I went in and I was overwhelmed that the 400 or so people who were there at the dead of night were probably not going to turn up on Sunday morning; many of them clearly gay and Bohemian. What ever either of those terms might mean in today's world!
Isn't this the dilemma for Bath ( and indeed the Church where I work)? Is Evensong or busking the more authentic expression of life?
I think I know the answer. It is not always comfortable...or if you were in Paris confortable !