Mark Hewerdine

Burn down the Church Machine

I was waiting for Giles Fraser's perspective to land! A bit of a curates egg 'good in parts' !
I do agree with his choice for the next ABC and his call to put the parish church at the heart of everything.

unherd.com/2024/11/burn...

"the Church can no longer afford to ignore or dismiss trans life because it has a stake in these discussions that goes far beyond simply winning a culture war First, we trans people are also members of the Church. That is to say, we are the Church - and a Church that remains alienated from us is a Church that is alienated from itself. Second, if Christ brings liberation from sin, and if that sin manifests in the various injustices that characterise our fallen societies, then a Church that feeds the injustices perpetrated against trans people around the wold is one that is on the side of sin, rather than that of Christ. This remains the case even if the Church is only so aligned by accident, or unknowingly. Surely enough time has passed for such ignorance to be culpable. Finally, as the Body of Christ in the world, the Church must share in the "joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties" of our age. To dismiss or ignore trans life would be to treat it as though it does not deserve attention in this. It would be to treat trans people as though we are less important than whatever else is being achieved through that negation - be it a sense of security within the Church, or the political expediency of having an easy-to-deal-with foe in the culture wars. And in this, it would be a failure on the Church's part to live up to its fundamental nature as the Body of Christ, in whom God did not come to reassure religious authorities, nor simply to engage in politics, but to dwell among us."

I mean it when I say that Dr Nicolete Burbach is doing some of the most important queer theology of our time.

Weekly newsletter by email in two parishes, weekly notice sheet printed and emailed at the other

"But I don't need to know how your brain works".
A common comment, when autistic people talk about the need to explain that we're autistic.
Mmm.
Let's explain a bit of everyday life. Thread.
I am invited into a meeting with e.g. 7 people whose brains function in 'typical' ways/

"If you're under 25 your brain isn't fully developed, so you can't be trusted to make informed decisions"

I'm seeing this a LOT lately, especially today thanks to the Cass review. And it's utter guff, based on hearsay, misunderstandings of neuroscience, or wilful ignorance.
Why? I'll tell you

/1

Thanks for asking :-)

They do. I’m surviving rather than thriving but things are getting slowly better

Just used the word “expedited” in an email which is a first. Let’s see if it worked… (for those who know/care, it’s about a building faculty). Rock n roll life. 🤘🏻

Today my 15yr old wandered into my room singing a song by Pavement. So folks, I’m afraid I’m the winner of Parenting this year. 🥇

My son just said “nicely aged wheels of Parmesan cheese” and I fear he’s going to start looking for more middle class parents to raise him now 😂🤣

I came relate 😂

It’s just like going to Tesco for milk and coming out with bars of chocolate. Honest.

Wrong approach for forgiveness Jesus’s words on the cross have been misunderstood, argues Stephen Cherry

So this was a perfect, needed-for-me piece to pop up on my Google Alerts tonight.

It's beautiful, and some lovely trauma-informed theology.

Honored to be cited.

And- it's been an evening. Was nice to hear that my book had an impact.

I saw a quote recently along the lines of “forgiveness is a gift that can be offered, but repentance is needed for the gift to be accepted and forgiveness to be complete.” I’m still pondering it.

Pop into the guitar shop to buy strings, come out with a fretless bass…we’ve all been there, right?

I’m reading American Pastoral and wondering: is Philip Roth really a genius or just a creepy narcissist? I guess he may be both a great writer and also an arse…

GIF of large man pointing at stomach shouting “get in my belly” in Scottish accent

Being a Christian and a capitalist requires way more theological creativity than being Christian and LGBTQ-affirming IMO

When you’re practising a worship song with your son ready for church and you realise it’s basically, rhythmically and chord-wise, Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye…

You and me both…

I'm never going to recover from learning this

‘No one will understand these new Overground line names!’
Guys, we’ve got a Northern line that goes furthest south, District, Met and Central lines named after companies that went extinct 90+ years ago, a Circle that’s a spiral, a Bakerloo that started as a newspaper joke. We’ll probably manage.

That’s another word I can’t spell! Along with “embarrassing”

I just had to google “how do you spell higgledy-piggledy?” How’s your day going?

Resisted the urge to say “wow; that as a pretty perfectly symmetrical cross I did on your forehead!” to a parishioner. Totally winning at priesting today.

Maybe General Synod needs to introduce spectacular musical half time shows to lift the mood?

I swear they have two super bowls a year. Doesn’t seem very long since the last one.

Now I’m thinking about all the MCU films that annoy me. So many: Love and Thunder, Antman and the Wasp, Doctor Strange(s); I even get bored of some of the Spider-Man ones … I’m obviously not a Good Fan.

I think it’s because: a) I care about the characters b) they’re funny but not in a “look at me, aren’t I funny?” way c) they’re not overlong d) CGI is good, scripts are decent. e) cats.