JPuddlegoose

This #LGBTHistoryMonth, our @outatgreenbelt.bsky.social volunteer team are digging through our archives to share LGBTQ+ voices from the festival that still hit home. We’re kicking things off with Sarah’s recommendation. “It's so powerful to hear her ideas about what queerness adds to Christianity.”

If Trump attacks an ally to annex their territory, *then* do the Hitler comparisons finally become appropriate?

Ludicrous for the Guardian to badge 'single sex spaces' a key test facing Starmer. It's neither a key test (polling shows it's a voting issue for almost no-one) nor a test for Starmer (it falls to judges to try and work out the disgraceful Supreme Court meant). Still, gotta stir the culture war pot.

Something you might find interesting @revrachelmann.bsky.social I've heard another of Jeanette Patrick's podcasts, on the American Revolution and it's excellent

We in the #UMC wish our Jewish neighbors "Chag sameach!" this Hanukkah, which starts tonight. We also pray for comfort for all in mourning after today's antisemitic attack in Australia. May this festival help us all remember that light endures even in dark times.

Mandy Ford, Dean of Bristol Cathedral, speaks out! “Where, among our bishops, are those with the courage to act from love, who are willing to risk the breaking in of the Kingdom?“ togethercofe.org.uk/dean-of-bris...

Stone steps of church building, a small dog and a large number of people are standing at the sides. Some are holding a banner with text 'Refugees welcome'. In the centre at the top is a bigger banner with text 'God so loved the world - that means everyone'. Under the banner a man and a woman are dressed as Mary and Joseph in a nativity play, the woman is holding a baby. Next to them are two sheep and a donkey.

Steep steps going up to a church. lots of people are sitting or standing on the steps, some are holding banners with text 'Love your enemy', 'Jesus was a refugee' /Blessed are the peacemakers'. At the top of the steps are two people in costumes, two sheep and a donkey

A white leaflet with three logos at the bottom - Better Story, St Martin in the Fields and Sanctuary Foundation. Text reads (heading) - Christ in the Stranger. Saturday 13 December 2025.' underneath - And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people (all the people is underlined and in bold). For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2: 10-11

Good to be at St Martin in the Fields for 'Christ in the Stranger' this morning, an act of witness about the meaning of Christmas ahead of the afternoon event nearby. Joining with Sanctuary Foundation, Better Story and people from diverse churches across London.

#RefugeesWelcome

We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language … You do not suppose, my lady, that if all of Archimedes had been hiding in the great library of Alexandria, we would be at a loss for a corkscrew?

From Stoppard’s Arcadia:

So many people who are otherwise so committed to good things are on Substack, which is very nice to bad people, ideas, and lies. My own newsletter was launched on Ghost because the bad news about Substack isn't new.

I've never felt more ashamed of being a Labour supporter. Not even during Iraq, where at least we had cabinet members resigning in disgust. Now: just jostling for position.

If I wasn't already turning my back on the party I've backed my whole life, I would be now.

#ImmigrantsWelcome
#NotInMyName

What is it like to live surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements and under constant threat of violence? On a hilltop farm just outside Bethlehem, Daoud Nassar and his family continue to live, resist and hope. We were privileged to invite Daoud - remotely - to talk to us about it this summer.

Image: screenshot of letter in newspaper. Text reads: Bishops’ decisions on LLF process From the Revd Dr Clare Herbert Madam, — I have spent my working life in ministry in the Church of England, as parish worker, deaconess, deacon, and priest. I am now in my seventies. I can, therefore, remember, at the very start of my ministry, the cry of the late Dr Una Kroll, which she hurled from the gallery of the General Synod, when in 1978 progress towards the ordination of women to the priesthood was halted. Her cry was of rage and beseeching: “We asked for bread, and you gave us a stone.” So, I recognised the cold, hard stone in my own heart when I read this week that the House of Bishops (News, 17 October) had decided that there should be no immediate change to the current rules that bar the clergy from being in same-sex civil marriages. It is that stone in the pitof the stomach which is formed by the pain of knowing that a cry for equality has gone unheard. On 31 May, I married my partner of 35 years. Surrounded by joyful witnesses to our enduring love, my partner became my wife in a Quaker marriage ceremony. In retirement, I have become a “Quanglican”: that is, one who gladly attends Anglican services and Quaker meetings for worship. My wife is a Quaker, and, in the Religious Society of Friends, I have experienced a profound sense of freedom, affirmation, and openness such as I have never known before. My personhood and closest relationship were celebrated that day in a fullness to which I continue to respond with gratitude, joy, love, and the desire to continue serving the God who made me. We in the lesbian and gay community may choose to pick up and live with the heavy, joyless stones imposed on our heads and hearts by an unresponsive Church. But it is important to recognise that we do not have to do so in obedience to God. I have discovered the God who is a Giver of Bread.

Powerful letter from Clare Herbert in today's Church Times

About 10 years ago the lid blew off my water butt and landed upsidedown in the garden during a storm. By morning it was filled with rain - and sparrows! It's still there, a handy bath for resident and visiting birds whose activties never cease to delight and entertain me.

New report: Life in the world’s most polluted town - The origins of lead contamination in Kabwe, its impacts on children, and the case for corporate accountability Four mothers tell their stories alongside the medical, legal and moral case for corporate accountability by Anglo American in a new report about lead contamination in Kabwe, Zambia, by Action for Sout...

New report: "Life in the world’s most polluted town" covering the huge lead contamination in #Kabwe, Zambia, its terrible impacts on children and the case for corporate accountability

By @actsa-uk.bsky.social
#pollution
1/3
actsa.org/new-report-l...

'It's going to break my heart' - woman faces eviction from Ghosts estate Baschea Walsh says she feels

This is absolutely vile. I get that Ghosts fans bring West Horsley Place a LOT of tourism, but this is disgusting. To evict a 70 year old woman who's lived there 20 years for a holiday cottage for fans?? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yesterday I had the honour of being on the team for this fantastic annual event. By, with and for disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people. Every participant extending the love, courtesy, accessibility & generosity that our faith asks of each of us. Utterly wonderful. #CanTheseBonesLive

These freaks keep getting on TV talking about opposing antifa and how they believe antifa wants to destroy them, and not a single person in mainstream media has asked or commented on what is the opposite of antifascism and who is threatened by antifascists

As Toby Young points out, Black people are over-represented in advertising. He somehow forgot to mention they are over-represented in poverty, unemployment and homelessness statistics too.

Imagine the Labour Party leader calling out racism & fascism, explaining how 14 years of Tory cuts impacted on integration, and the need to properly tax multi-millionaires and billionaires, in the way that the Green Party leader Zack Polanski did on Question Time last night.

Yes. Just imagine that.

Concern expressed after Israelis imprison Layan Nasir The 25-year old Anglican Palestinian was convicted, in absentia, last month

Layan Nasir, a 25-year Anglican Palestinian, was taken into Israeli custody on Thursday, although she had previously been told that her seven-and-a-half month sentence would not start until November.

If anyone doubted that the BBC is deliberately not covering the Russian/Reform bribery scandal, those doubts should have been removed by Fiona Bruce interrupting to prevent it being discussed on BBC Question time last night. #BBCQT

Oregon National Guard general said that if they were deployed, his troops would be instructed to protect the protesters, not ICE.

Huge thanks to @krysiawally.bsky.social , @jpuddlegoose.bsky.social & Bernice Hardie for sharing their work in faith communities for disability inclusion & social justice at @learningmet.bsky.social. Great to host such interesting speakers on a topic we don’t talk about enough in #DisabilityStudies.

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Can These Bones Live? Disability, wilderness, hope and God Exploring experience of wilderness & how hope grows. With talks, workshops, groups, art, theology, liturgy. Hybrid event - on site & online

Here's this year's @livingedgeconf.bsky.social, as mentioned in today's wonderful seminar hosted by @naomijacobs.bsky.social . There are still a few spaces left, both onsite and online.
cantheseboneslive.eventbrite.co.uk

Thanks Naomi! It was a real pleasure to be there - and great to hear from the wondeful speakers. Despite talking about it, I forgot to post a link to the @livingedgeconf.bsky.social! I'll add it below...

My Bangladeshi 🇧🇩 born friend with whom I talk about cricket & rugby in the pub told me that he was abused in traffic today by someone with not much grammar and told to ‘get back on his boat’
He has lived here since he was 8 years old and is a valued local accountant 😔
Only White people can stop this

Speakers: @krysiawally.bsky.social on research into autistic people's experiences of mosques & churches; Bernice Hardie on WAVE, a community #WithNotFor people with learning disabilities; @jpuddlegoose.bsky.social on neurodivergent & disabled-led work in the Church of England #AutRes #Disability 2/2

I'm excited to be chairing an online symposium on Religions, Faith Communities & Disability on 8th Oct 12-2, as part of Manchester Metropolitan's Learning Disabilities and Autism Research Group seminar series. Speakers and topics in the next post... Details and sign-up link at tinyurl.com/3pdjmn4d 🧵

I would refer us also to the fast-growing research evidence into ABA causing trauma & 'behaviour'. But as long as teams have a belief' that the child has had a lovely childhood with great interventions, and is just choosing to behaving badly, it's fine to drug them into submission.

Is it?