Frankly, much of the Church has been mad for decades. There has been a general infantilisation at work. It is not so long since the archbishops of Canterbury and York put their names to a Lent booklet distributed to all the parishes. They wrote the foreword to three guides: one for The Family; one for Adults and Youth and the other for Kids.
These glossy booklets feature Mr Men-style cartoons which we must suppose represent the general public. Achingly politically correct, with all races represented ”“ but no fat people or smokers ”“ and dumbing down beyond the farthest reaches of infantilisation, the booklets urge us to: “Do fun things together. Create a space in your home… a corner of a room… an understairs cupboard… make a prayer den using furniture and blankets… gather some objects that are fun to touch, feel and smell: a piece of velvet, feathers, a tray of sand, lavender bags or pine cones.”
And what are we supposed to do in the prayer den? “Take in some pebbles, shells or feathers…” presumably to demonstrate impeccable ecumenical relations with primitive animists and tree-huggers. And prayers are indeed supplied: “Dear God, make wrong things right… ” But this is not praying to God, only the sentimental wish-fulfilment of appealing to Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy. We are even educated as to the correct manual acts to perform while making this desolate prayer: “Shake your finger from side to side for ‘wrong’ and then do thumbs up for ‘right’.” You feel there should be a caution not to do this near a window in case the neighbours see you and phone for the men in white coats.
Read it all (from the long queue of should-have-already-been-posted material)
[blockquote] “Of course, as always in the Church of England these days, the sheer blithering inanities only faintly disguise the right-on political hard sell: “Email or write to your MP about a global poverty issueâ€; “Buy a Fairtrade Easter eggâ€. But what if you understand that so called Fairtrade does nothing to help the poor, and that what is required is free trade instead?” [/blockquote]
How harsh!
[blockquote] “In our church of St Michael’s Cornhill , for instance, we have seen the congregation increase tenfold in the last 13 years. And this is because the people of St Michael’s are not typical of the grinning apparatchiks who rule the Church with a trendy Lefty agenda to rival anything produced by the BBC. These are people who have a passion for theology, who use at all services the matchless King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer, and who have no inclination to subscribe to the Noddy liturgies and bad news Bibles of the theological and literary philistines in the synod and on the Liturgical Commission.” [/blockquote]
A similar recipe seems to be working in America…
I get the impression that Peter Mullen would be an affable person to have lunch with in the George and Vulture.
Sounds excellent, where is the George and Vulture?
(I know a few pubs in that area, but there are rather a lot of them!)
I understyand he was dismissed from the ministry for adultery with a parishioner, but has somehow found his way back.