Cranmer's Curate wishes the youth group a blessed Easter as he blogs off for the week, back God willing in May. Below is cc's sermon at the Easter Day Family Communion in the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge. The reading was 1 Corinthians 15v1-11.
Who here likes Wallace & Gromit, the cartoon about a man and his dog? One of my favourite episodes is the one where the man and the dog build a rocket in their garage and fly to the moon. The rocket is loaded with cream crackers because the man Wallace is a cheese-freak and he expects to find a lot of green cheese on the moon, which he does. He cuts off green bits of the moon and puts green cheesy lumps on his crackers. 'More cheese Gromit' is the famous catch-phrase as Wallace munches his way through the moon, rather loudly.
Do you think the moon is really made of green cheese? You haven’t been to the moon as far as I know, so how do you know? Why don’t you believe the moon is made of green cheese?
We know because people have been to the moon and when I was five years old I saw on our old black and white TV set a man walking on the moon. It was the 20th July 1969 and Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut, was the first man to walk on the moon. He didn’t say: 'More cheese, Bud'. He actually didn’t say anything about cheese. He said: 'One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,' I seem to remember.
And other people have also been to the moon and they didn’t find any cheese either. They walked on the moon, they felt the moon, they put bits of the moon in their knapsacks and they saw with their own eyes that it’s not made of green cheese. And then more people saw what the astronauts brought back from the moon, the moon dust and the rocks and so on, and they can confirm that it’s not made of green cheese.
We have eye-witnesses, people who can definitely say the moon is not made of green cheese.
Did Jesus rise from the dead? Did Jesus come alive again after his death on the Cross? True or false?
True because we have eye-witnesses – the Apostle Paul names the eye-witnesses who saw Jesus alive again after he rose from the dead leaving an empty tomb in Jerusalem.
First, Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends who saw Jesus alive and ate with him after he rose from the dead.
Then Jesus appeared to his 12 apostles, men like John, and Thomas and Philip. They saw him alive and ate with him.
Then the risen Jesus appeared to more than 500 of his followers at one time. More than 500 men saw him alive.
Then Jesus appeared to James, his brother who later became leader of the church in Jerusalem, and to all his messengers.
And then the risen Jesus appeared to Paul himself on the road to Damascus
We have eye-witnesses who went round telling everybody that Jesus has risen from the dead. Can we believe them?
Let me answer with another question – why would they lie? Take Paul – he was locked up, beaten up, shipwrecked, and in the end killed because and only because he was a follower of Jesus. Why would he lie?
Were they mad? Did they imagine it? We heard a little bit from what Paul wrote. Those are not the words of a madman. This is someone who is thinking clearly and arguing his case.
Just as we believe the men who went to the moon, we can believe Paul and the other eye-witnesses who saw Jesus after he rose from the dead. They weren’t lying; they weren’t mad.
So what? What difference does it make?
The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means he is Lord. He’s in charge of the whole universe and one day we’ll see him on his judgement throne. We’ll meet him either as his friend or his enemy. His friends are people who have believed in him and followed him and suffered for him. His enemies are those who couldn’t be bothered to follow him and even hated those who were following him.
Which are we going to be this Easter day, a friend of Jesus or a enemy? Very very foolish to be an enemy of Jesus when he’s in charge of the whole universe. Much much better, infinitely better to be his friend and we can be his friend when we believe that he is in charge and when we accept his forgiveness for all the wrongs we do.
Jesus did come alive again. So what? It means he is in charge of everyone, so let’s make sure we’re his friends this Easter Day and always by believing and trusting in him.
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Friday, 22 April 2011
THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS IN AN ISLAMISING UK
Wearing a cross around your neck or diplaying one in your van is not of the essence of Christianity. But the message of the cross of Christ is.
The Apostle Paul summed up the centrality of the cross in salvation when he wrote: 'For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God' (1 Corinthians 1v18 - AV).
Thank the good Lord it is still possible in the United Kingdom to preach the message of the cross on Good Friday and on any other day. But if the international director of the Barnabas Fund Dr Patrick Sookhdeo is even half right in his analysis of the creeping Islamisation of the UK, some parts of the country could become closed to the saving message of Christ crucified.
His superb booklet 'Slippery Slope: The Islamisation of the UK' raises profound issues around the future of free Christian proclamation in the UK and in particular the message that the incarnate Son of God was crucified for the sins of the world, an idea that is inimical to the Koran.
If the trends Dr Sookhdeo identifies become more deeply entrenched in UK society, the suppression of the cross would occur in Muslim-majority areas where political Islam imposing sharia law was the dominant administrative force with powers derogated to it by the UK central government. It would be questionable whether Christian churches would even be allowed to minister in those areas, thus muting the message of the cross in both the public space of local society and the private space of Christians.
But, in the light of Dr Sookhdeo's analysis, even before such a disaster befell, proclaiming the cross in some Church of England schools could become highly problematic.
On Maundy Thursday Cranmer's Curate received through the post a copy of Dr Sookhdeo's booklet. It is far from an hysterical document but some of the examples it gives are profoundly disturbing:
Dr Sookhdeo quotes the comment of a Nottingham Post reporter:
What would be the likely reaction if the local vicar came to do an assembly in such a school and proclaimed the message of Christ crucified? That message is well summed up by the Church of England's official doctrine in its 39 Articles of Religion. Article XXXI - Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross - states:
That means, children, that you cannot get right with God by being a good Hindu, a good Muslim, a good Sikh or even by being a good Christian.
To get right with God you have to put your personal trust in God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone, for He is the only One who died to pay the price for our sins.
Incumbents of parishes in which Church of England schools are located do have certain rights of visitation - certainly more rights in Voluntary Aided than Voluntary Controlled schools. But, whatever the official position, curriculum excuses could no doubt be found for not inviting a vicar back who preached the cross in the above manner in a school sporting a Hindu Shrine, set up next to a line of Islam prayer mats and facing the Sikh book of worship.
The Apostle Paul summed up the centrality of the cross in salvation when he wrote: 'For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God' (1 Corinthians 1v18 - AV).
Thank the good Lord it is still possible in the United Kingdom to preach the message of the cross on Good Friday and on any other day. But if the international director of the Barnabas Fund Dr Patrick Sookhdeo is even half right in his analysis of the creeping Islamisation of the UK, some parts of the country could become closed to the saving message of Christ crucified.
His superb booklet 'Slippery Slope: The Islamisation of the UK' raises profound issues around the future of free Christian proclamation in the UK and in particular the message that the incarnate Son of God was crucified for the sins of the world, an idea that is inimical to the Koran.
If the trends Dr Sookhdeo identifies become more deeply entrenched in UK society, the suppression of the cross would occur in Muslim-majority areas where political Islam imposing sharia law was the dominant administrative force with powers derogated to it by the UK central government. It would be questionable whether Christian churches would even be allowed to minister in those areas, thus muting the message of the cross in both the public space of local society and the private space of Christians.
But, in the light of Dr Sookhdeo's analysis, even before such a disaster befell, proclaiming the cross in some Church of England schools could become highly problematic.
On Maundy Thursday Cranmer's Curate received through the post a copy of Dr Sookhdeo's booklet. It is far from an hysterical document but some of the examples it gives are profoundly disturbing:
A Church of England school has built a multi-faith room facing Mecca as part of a programme to teach respect, tolerance and harmony. Bluecoat School, which has the largest RE resource centre in Nottingham, has also taken its ethos to 1,400 pupils at different schools across the country by offering them "interactive religious experiences".
Dr Sookhdeo quotes the comment of a Nottingham Post reporter:
When visiting a Church of England school the last thing I expected to see was a Hindu Shrine, set up next to a line of Islam prayer mats and facing the Sikh book of worship.
What would be the likely reaction if the local vicar came to do an assembly in such a school and proclaimed the message of Christ crucified? That message is well summed up by the Church of England's official doctrine in its 39 Articles of Religion. Article XXXI - Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross - states:
The Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone.
That means, children, that you cannot get right with God by being a good Hindu, a good Muslim, a good Sikh or even by being a good Christian.
To get right with God you have to put your personal trust in God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone, for He is the only One who died to pay the price for our sins.
Incumbents of parishes in which Church of England schools are located do have certain rights of visitation - certainly more rights in Voluntary Aided than Voluntary Controlled schools. But, whatever the official position, curriculum excuses could no doubt be found for not inviting a vicar back who preached the cross in the above manner in a school sporting a Hindu Shrine, set up next to a line of Islam prayer mats and facing the Sikh book of worship.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
LE CARRE'S LATEST - BRILLIANT BUT INCREDIBLE
Our Kind of Traitor (Viking, 2010) is certainly better than Le Carre's previous three novels - A Most Wanted Man (2008), The Mission Song (2006), and Absolute Friends (2003). Carre-istas might well argue that it is his best since The Constant Gardener (2001), his last novel to be made into a film.
A brilliant read though Le Carre's latest is, the young couple drawn into a British secret service attempt to bring a Russian money-launderer turned informant to the UK - an Oxbridge don and his barrister girl-friend - are arguably not very credible.
Cranmer's Curate may be being overly cynical about Britons born in the late 1970s. But such do-gooders according to Judaeo-Christian values, who are under 35 and have not expressly converted to the biblical worldview, are surely an anachronism in the 'whatever' society of post-Christian Britain.
It almost seems as if Le Carre, born in 1931, is projecting some of the Christian-motivated philanthropic zeal he encountered in his formative years in the 1940s and 1950s onto a Noughties couple whose slender shoulders cannot sustain it.
Yes, there is zeal in post-modern Britain, but it is of the politically-correct kind that insists on my right to be whatever as long as it is not Christian.
Two products of the post-1960s, Me Society who get altruistically involved in helping Dima, his pious wife and subjugated children to escape the life-threatening corruption of his Russian gangster sub-culture are surely too good to be true.
The book is certainly pessimistic about the moral condition of the British State - its ambiguous ending is suggestive of a possible collusion between City and Whitehall vested interests and the Russian mob to bump Dima off.
But such pessimism contrasts sharply with his optimism about the moral state of Perry and Gail who act redemptively.
The concept of redemption actually belongs to the culture shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, which celebrates the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction which the Lord Jesus Christ made once and for all upon the Cross for the sins of the whole world.
That was the liturgy of the Britain of Le Carre's youth, now banished from the putrefying civilisation of his old age.
A brilliant read though Le Carre's latest is, the young couple drawn into a British secret service attempt to bring a Russian money-launderer turned informant to the UK - an Oxbridge don and his barrister girl-friend - are arguably not very credible.
Cranmer's Curate may be being overly cynical about Britons born in the late 1970s. But such do-gooders according to Judaeo-Christian values, who are under 35 and have not expressly converted to the biblical worldview, are surely an anachronism in the 'whatever' society of post-Christian Britain.
It almost seems as if Le Carre, born in 1931, is projecting some of the Christian-motivated philanthropic zeal he encountered in his formative years in the 1940s and 1950s onto a Noughties couple whose slender shoulders cannot sustain it.
Yes, there is zeal in post-modern Britain, but it is of the politically-correct kind that insists on my right to be whatever as long as it is not Christian.
Two products of the post-1960s, Me Society who get altruistically involved in helping Dima, his pious wife and subjugated children to escape the life-threatening corruption of his Russian gangster sub-culture are surely too good to be true.
The book is certainly pessimistic about the moral condition of the British State - its ambiguous ending is suggestive of a possible collusion between City and Whitehall vested interests and the Russian mob to bump Dima off.
But such pessimism contrasts sharply with his optimism about the moral state of Perry and Gail who act redemptively.
The concept of redemption actually belongs to the culture shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, which celebrates the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction which the Lord Jesus Christ made once and for all upon the Cross for the sins of the whole world.
That was the liturgy of the Britain of Le Carre's youth, now banished from the putrefying civilisation of his old age.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
BEN & GLORIA KWASHI ON BBC RADIO SHEFIELD
It was not easy for Ben and Gloria Kwashi to do an interview for the BBC. The 'six-of-one-and-half-a-dozen-of-the-other' Western media template in its coverage of the violence in Jos has added to the distress of the Christian community in Nigeria and the Kwashis had a particularly bad experience with the BBC.
The reality on the ground is that Christians have been largely quiescent in the face of Islamist attacks and have heeded the calls from their leaders such as the Kwashis not to take revenge. And in that godly approach no one can dispute the fact that the Kwashis are leading by example.
There are inevitably pressures and tensions within the Christian community in Jos with some arguing that Christians subject to attacks have the right to defend themselves in the teeth of failures by the security forces to keep order.
But overwhelmingly such retaliation as there has been has not been by Christians. As Ben explained in his interview with Ed Thornton of the Church Times, not every non-Muslim in Jos is a Christian.
Ben's interview with BBC Radio Sheffield, pre-recorded during his and Gloria's visit to the UK, was broadcast this morning on the Sarah Major Sunday breakfast show (at the beginning of the second hour). Gloria's interview is due to be broadcast next Sunday. Both interviews can be accessed here for seven days after broadcast.
Sarah did a great job putting the Kwashis at their ease and prompting them to tell their amazing story - thankfully the BBC's local coverage is not as dominated by the virulent political correctness of its national and international journalism.
Cranmer's Curate was in the studio during the interviews and what a powerful testimony to the living Christ they were from two Christian people walking in the way of the Cross.
The reality on the ground is that Christians have been largely quiescent in the face of Islamist attacks and have heeded the calls from their leaders such as the Kwashis not to take revenge. And in that godly approach no one can dispute the fact that the Kwashis are leading by example.
There are inevitably pressures and tensions within the Christian community in Jos with some arguing that Christians subject to attacks have the right to defend themselves in the teeth of failures by the security forces to keep order.
But overwhelmingly such retaliation as there has been has not been by Christians. As Ben explained in his interview with Ed Thornton of the Church Times, not every non-Muslim in Jos is a Christian.
Ben's interview with BBC Radio Sheffield, pre-recorded during his and Gloria's visit to the UK, was broadcast this morning on the Sarah Major Sunday breakfast show (at the beginning of the second hour). Gloria's interview is due to be broadcast next Sunday. Both interviews can be accessed here for seven days after broadcast.
Sarah did a great job putting the Kwashis at their ease and prompting them to tell their amazing story - thankfully the BBC's local coverage is not as dominated by the virulent political correctness of its national and international journalism.
Cranmer's Curate was in the studio during the interviews and what a powerful testimony to the living Christ they were from two Christian people walking in the way of the Cross.
Friday, 15 April 2011
BOOST FOR SMALL CHURCH FROM NIGERIA
This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in this week's Church of England Newspaper:
The suffering and growing Church of Jesus Christ in Africa was represented by Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria, and his remarkable wife Gloria, who spent three days in a South Yorkshire parish and the result was tremendous blessing.
They visited Oughtibridge, a commuter village on the north-west outskirts of Sheffield, before this week’s New Word Alive conference in north Wales to cement a recently-formed link between the Parish Church of the Ascension and St Luke’s Cathedral Church in Jos. Canon Christopher Sugden, Anglican Mainstream executive secretary, arranged the link on behalf of our church when he visited Jos just before Christmas.
At a church family meal on Saturday night, the Kwashis described both the explosive church growth they have witnessed in the Plateau State of Nigeria and the Islamist attacks they have experienced.
In 1987, when Archbishop Ben was a vicar, his church and house were burned down. In 2006, in the wake of the Danish cartoon furore, Gloria was savagely attacked in their home and had to have surgery in the United States to restore her eyesight. In 2007 Archbishop Ben himself was threatened with death by intruders into their home who fortunately did not carry out their stated intent but did steal valuables and caused considerable damage.
The Kwashis' residence is a care home and school for 50 children, supervised by Gloria. A further 150 children are also educated in the compound. An enterprise of this scale in an Archbishop's residence is made all the more challenging by the need to provide special care for the children who are HIV-positive.
Christian grace under pressure is a compelling witness to the living Christ anywhere in the world. On the Friday of their visit the Kwashis did a pre-recorded interview for BBC Radio Sheffield’s Sunday breakfast programme in which they testified powerfully to the love of Christ. Asked how they coped with the suffering they have experienced, they simply expressed their desire to be a blessing to others in the place in which God has called them to be Christ’s witnesses.
Such Christian integrity impacted powerfully on the Oughtibridge congregation to whom Archbishop Ben preached on Sunday. Gloria was wonderfully bedecked in her Mothers’ Union dress and headdress. His text was the raising of Lazarus in John 11, one of the Lectionary readings for last Sunday.
His sermon about the raising of a dead man by the power of the living Christ resonated powerfully in a ‘middle of the road’ Anglican parish church.
When my wife and I arrived in Oughtibridge in 2000, the middle of the road was where the parish church perceived itself to be. Though eschewing incense and reserved sacrament, it cherished its candles and coloured altar cloths. It also prided itself on not being ‘happy clappy’.
However, I soon discovered as vicar that the middle of the road is a dangerous place to be when you are a hedgehog. The Oughtibridge congregation had declined during the 1980s and 1990s in common with many such churches. Ours was virtually the only family in the regular congregation when we arrived. Indeed on Christmas Day in 1999, during the inter-regnum, there had been no children in the parish church, a feat of which Oliver Cromwell would have been proud or perhaps not if Sunday had fallen on December 25th during his Puritan Protectorate.
The church was unsustainable back in 2000 – it did not pay its way in terms of parish share and still does not, though the congregation by God’s grace has grown younger and there is an agreed agenda on PCC to increase our contribution to the cost of our ministry. But the politically incorrect reality is that without significantly more Christian men of working age, the church will struggle to become a sustainable and viable parish church.
Oughtibridge churchwarden, Mrs Helen Kean, who joined the church in 2004 through bringing her daughter for baptism, describes the spiritual benefits of the Kwashis' visit: "As a church family we have been encouraged enormously by both Ben and Gloria's true commitment and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Through much suffering and pain they stand firm in what they believe and what Jesus has taught us through the Gospels. We are so very excited about this link that the Lord has provided us with and we look forward to praying for and supporting our brothers and sisters in Jos."
The hymn after Archbishop Ben’s sermon was Charles Wesley’s ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise’. My English reserve almost failed me when we sang: "He speaks and listening to His voice, new life the dead receive, the mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe."
Perhaps it would have been more appropriate on this occasion if the stiff upper lip had broken its line.
The suffering and growing Church of Jesus Christ in Africa was represented by Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria, and his remarkable wife Gloria, who spent three days in a South Yorkshire parish and the result was tremendous blessing.
They visited Oughtibridge, a commuter village on the north-west outskirts of Sheffield, before this week’s New Word Alive conference in north Wales to cement a recently-formed link between the Parish Church of the Ascension and St Luke’s Cathedral Church in Jos. Canon Christopher Sugden, Anglican Mainstream executive secretary, arranged the link on behalf of our church when he visited Jos just before Christmas.
At a church family meal on Saturday night, the Kwashis described both the explosive church growth they have witnessed in the Plateau State of Nigeria and the Islamist attacks they have experienced.
In 1987, when Archbishop Ben was a vicar, his church and house were burned down. In 2006, in the wake of the Danish cartoon furore, Gloria was savagely attacked in their home and had to have surgery in the United States to restore her eyesight. In 2007 Archbishop Ben himself was threatened with death by intruders into their home who fortunately did not carry out their stated intent but did steal valuables and caused considerable damage.
The Kwashis' residence is a care home and school for 50 children, supervised by Gloria. A further 150 children are also educated in the compound. An enterprise of this scale in an Archbishop's residence is made all the more challenging by the need to provide special care for the children who are HIV-positive.
Christian grace under pressure is a compelling witness to the living Christ anywhere in the world. On the Friday of their visit the Kwashis did a pre-recorded interview for BBC Radio Sheffield’s Sunday breakfast programme in which they testified powerfully to the love of Christ. Asked how they coped with the suffering they have experienced, they simply expressed their desire to be a blessing to others in the place in which God has called them to be Christ’s witnesses.
Such Christian integrity impacted powerfully on the Oughtibridge congregation to whom Archbishop Ben preached on Sunday. Gloria was wonderfully bedecked in her Mothers’ Union dress and headdress. His text was the raising of Lazarus in John 11, one of the Lectionary readings for last Sunday.
His sermon about the raising of a dead man by the power of the living Christ resonated powerfully in a ‘middle of the road’ Anglican parish church.
When my wife and I arrived in Oughtibridge in 2000, the middle of the road was where the parish church perceived itself to be. Though eschewing incense and reserved sacrament, it cherished its candles and coloured altar cloths. It also prided itself on not being ‘happy clappy’.
However, I soon discovered as vicar that the middle of the road is a dangerous place to be when you are a hedgehog. The Oughtibridge congregation had declined during the 1980s and 1990s in common with many such churches. Ours was virtually the only family in the regular congregation when we arrived. Indeed on Christmas Day in 1999, during the inter-regnum, there had been no children in the parish church, a feat of which Oliver Cromwell would have been proud or perhaps not if Sunday had fallen on December 25th during his Puritan Protectorate.
The church was unsustainable back in 2000 – it did not pay its way in terms of parish share and still does not, though the congregation by God’s grace has grown younger and there is an agreed agenda on PCC to increase our contribution to the cost of our ministry. But the politically incorrect reality is that without significantly more Christian men of working age, the church will struggle to become a sustainable and viable parish church.
Oughtibridge churchwarden, Mrs Helen Kean, who joined the church in 2004 through bringing her daughter for baptism, describes the spiritual benefits of the Kwashis' visit: "As a church family we have been encouraged enormously by both Ben and Gloria's true commitment and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Through much suffering and pain they stand firm in what they believe and what Jesus has taught us through the Gospels. We are so very excited about this link that the Lord has provided us with and we look forward to praying for and supporting our brothers and sisters in Jos."
The hymn after Archbishop Ben’s sermon was Charles Wesley’s ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise’. My English reserve almost failed me when we sang: "He speaks and listening to His voice, new life the dead receive, the mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe."
Perhaps it would have been more appropriate on this occasion if the stiff upper lip had broken its line.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
HONEST POLICEMAN RAISES SPECTRE OF UK CLOSED TO THE GOSPEL
Could Britain eventually become closed to the gospel? Though the future of Christianity in the UK was not in his purview, an honest policeman's exposure of a police force riddled with political correctness raises just that spectre.
Inspector Gadget's article in the Daily Mail - How political correctness is crippling my police force - should be of grave concern to all gospel-hearted Christians who long to see lost souls in our nation saved for eternity:
A diversity stunt too far - one involving gross disloyalty to the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for Christian democratic freedom - first motivated this honest policeman to speak out, as he explains on his blog:
If the arm of the State responsible for enforcing law and order gets possessed by an anti-Christian ideology, which is what political correctness fundamentally is, then Christianity becomes criminalised. The gospel stands in the way of the force of a perverted law under which a drug-crazed thug is perceived as a minor nuisance whereas an elderly lady who offends against sacrosanct diversity is treated as a serious threat.
How ironic the Inspector's revelation of a PC police service is. The British police force was established in a society that was rapidly re-moralising in the slipstream of the 18th century evangelical revival.
Now far from enforcing 'thou shalt do no murder' and 'thou shalt not steal', Robert Peel's creation is enforcing 'thou shalt not be Islamophobic' and 'thou shalt not be homophobic'.
The enforcers of the new morality may call themselves a 'service', but servants of the Lord Jesus Christ who offend against the PC Commandments would be naive to expect them to be anything other than a force - the force of the Beast.
Inspector Gadget's article in the Daily Mail - How political correctness is crippling my police force - should be of grave concern to all gospel-hearted Christians who long to see lost souls in our nation saved for eternity:
My internal office phone directory lists no fewer than 32 officers with ‘diversity’ in their job title, all of them working nine-to-five in desk-bound jobs, while we slog it out on the front line. I was half-hoping that, given their irrelevance to the battle against crime, they might be made redundant in the public-sector cuts, but that was far too optimistic.
Diversity is sacrosanct, its commissars are protected and its influence is all dominant.
So in our training, for instance, just one day a year is devoted to practical instruction in officer safety, dealing with procedures such as correct use of handcuffs, Tasers and batons, or how to put a violent suspect in a van or cell.
Yet the effort devoted to diversity is far greater. We have to carry out two days of diversity training a year at headquarters, another day at our divisions, go through an eight-hour ‘e-learning’ package on our computers and, in our annual performance appraisal forms, show that we have accomplished three separate objectives ‘to raise diversity awareness’.
In addition, during weekly individual meetings with our supervisor, we have to explain what we have done to promote cultural diversity.
A diversity stunt too far - one involving gross disloyalty to the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for Christian democratic freedom - first motivated this honest policeman to speak out, as he explains on his blog:
The day and hour in 2006 that I was told that we could no longer provide uniformed police officers for our local Remembrance Day parade but that we would be attending an Eastern religion’s festival on a neighbouring Division simply to show ‘community engagement’, I decided that the truth has to be told.
If the arm of the State responsible for enforcing law and order gets possessed by an anti-Christian ideology, which is what political correctness fundamentally is, then Christianity becomes criminalised. The gospel stands in the way of the force of a perverted law under which a drug-crazed thug is perceived as a minor nuisance whereas an elderly lady who offends against sacrosanct diversity is treated as a serious threat.
How ironic the Inspector's revelation of a PC police service is. The British police force was established in a society that was rapidly re-moralising in the slipstream of the 18th century evangelical revival.
Now far from enforcing 'thou shalt do no murder' and 'thou shalt not steal', Robert Peel's creation is enforcing 'thou shalt not be Islamophobic' and 'thou shalt not be homophobic'.
The enforcers of the new morality may call themselves a 'service', but servants of the Lord Jesus Christ who offend against the PC Commandments would be naive to expect them to be anything other than a force - the force of the Beast.
Friday, 8 April 2011
A DISSENTING REFORM BISHOP IS A RUNNER
Steve raises an important question under February's post Gongs, Marginalisation, Reform and Fishing Platforms:
This is actually not the unanswerable litany of reasons why a Reform man could not be a bishop that it might sound.
A reform bishop would not be legally required himself to do 1). 2). 3). or even 7).
4). 5). and 6). would be extremely difficult were it not for the fact that there is a tradition of theological dissent in the Church of England. It was precisely that Anglican feature that allowed those practices to be introduced into the Church of England in the 19th and 20th centuries and eventually to become ensconced.
There is nothing to stop a Reform bishop from expressing disagreement with 4). 5). and 6). on biblical grounds and indeed on the ground that they are not commended by the Book of Common Prayer, the 39 Articles or the Ordinal.
Indeed, in the case of 6). Article 28 states unequivocally:
Ah, but what about the now entrenched position of women presbyters? Surely it would be impossible for a Reform bishop to act on his dissent by refusing to ordain women to the presbyterate or appoint them as incumbents.
Really?
It would be revealing to see a Reform diocesan bishop giving that a try.
How, in your opinion, would your average potential Reform bishop cope with any of the following?
(1) Wearing Eucharistic vestments (plus or minus mitre).
(2) Celebrating the Eucharist with unleavened bread.
(3) Celebrating the Eucharist with the use of incense.
(4) Having responsibility for the spiritual oversight of a parish which does any or all of the above.
(5) Having responsibility for the spiritual oversight of a parish with a woman vicar.
(6) Giving or withholding permission for the reservation of the Sacrament. [You may or may not know that reservation has been found at law in the C of E's ecclesiastical courts to be legal.]
(7) Leading the full range of the C of E's authorised services, including every authorised eucharistic prayer in Common Worship Order One.
Everything I have enumerated here is definitely legal in the Church of England, and I believe that the reason there are not more Reform-type bishops is that there is a perception that such men would make real nuisances of themselves over some or all of the above. You, as a Reform man, will know better than I, who am not, how far this perception is justified; but I would find it very difficult to argue against those who think it is.
I'd be most interested to hear what you think.
This is actually not the unanswerable litany of reasons why a Reform man could not be a bishop that it might sound.
A reform bishop would not be legally required himself to do 1). 2). 3). or even 7).
4). 5). and 6). would be extremely difficult were it not for the fact that there is a tradition of theological dissent in the Church of England. It was precisely that Anglican feature that allowed those practices to be introduced into the Church of England in the 19th and 20th centuries and eventually to become ensconced.
There is nothing to stop a Reform bishop from expressing disagreement with 4). 5). and 6). on biblical grounds and indeed on the ground that they are not commended by the Book of Common Prayer, the 39 Articles or the Ordinal.
Indeed, in the case of 6). Article 28 states unequivocally:
The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.
Ah, but what about the now entrenched position of women presbyters? Surely it would be impossible for a Reform bishop to act on his dissent by refusing to ordain women to the presbyterate or appoint them as incumbents.
Really?
It would be revealing to see a Reform diocesan bishop giving that a try.
Monday, 4 April 2011
HOW MUCH ARE POLICE PURSUING HONOUR CRIMES AGAINST MUSLIM CONVERTS TO CHRIST?
Evangelisation of Muslims in the United Kingdom is by God's grace occurring and Muslims are converting to Christ. Cranmer's Curate has written to former Home Secretary David Waddington - a courageous champion of orthodox Christianity in Parliament - about the protection of Muslim converts from honour crimes:
Dear Lord Waddington, Homophobic incidents are being assiduously followed up by the police. Equality and diversity departments have been rigorous in ensuing that. But what about honour crimes against Muslims who convert to Christ? How assiduous are the police in following up reported crimes of violence against converts to Christ?
In short, is politically-correct ideology leading the police to prioritise resources toward combating homophobia and to soft-pedal on religious freedom?
Yours sincerely,
Julian Mann
This piece by Cranmer's Curate about an unbiblical image of male headship appeared in Friday's Church of England Newspaper.
This piece about the Reform regional consultations appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline.
Dear Lord Waddington, Homophobic incidents are being assiduously followed up by the police. Equality and diversity departments have been rigorous in ensuing that. But what about honour crimes against Muslims who convert to Christ? How assiduous are the police in following up reported crimes of violence against converts to Christ?
In short, is politically-correct ideology leading the police to prioritise resources toward combating homophobia and to soft-pedal on religious freedom?
Yours sincerely,
Julian Mann
This piece by Cranmer's Curate about an unbiblical image of male headship appeared in Friday's Church of England Newspaper.
This piece about the Reform regional consultations appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
