Lindsay

Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal

(Sunday lectionary, I should say, having just carefully worked through the whole of Job at morning prayer.)

Mug with a cartoon of someone praying by their bed. Caption: the most sincere prayer. The speech bubble over their head says, "Dear God ... like ... WTF???!!!"

It's the whole of the Wisdom Literature being so light in the lectionary that bugs me.
We spend ages on the histories, which need such careful parsing, but hardly any time on these books that speak directly to the endless question:

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God is working today in the committed relationships of same-sex couples

🥳

The inoculation against racism (or other hatred) is building a society where most people generally do have access to the basics of what they need for a congenial life and where if, through misfortune or bad decisions or whatever, that changes, they know they will get meaningful help.

Christ’s crucified body is enfolded by the wings of a white seraph—an iconography adapted from Western depictions of the stigmatization of Saint Francis (Kriza 2016: 116)—and flanked by two red seraphs. An Orthodox commentary known as On the Ancient of Days, which survives in a late sixteenth-century manuscript, states that the three seraphs here symbolize Christ’s soul (Kriza 2024: 259)—but they surely also evoke visionary descriptions from Scripture of the throne of God (Isaiah 6; Revelation 4). Christ is represented, symbolically, twice more in the icon: as a youthful, fiery red warrior-king holding a sword that destroys the works of the devil, and as ‘a priest’ standing in ‘the power of an indestructible life … holy, blameless, unstained, ... exalted above the heavens … a Son who has been made perfect for ever’ (Hebrews 7:16, 26, 28). The thrice-depicted Christ—priest, king, sacrifice—is enthroned inside a luminous rhombus backed by a red rectangle representing the heavens spread out like a curtain (Isaiah 40:22; Tradigo 2006: 231). In the four corners are the four living creatures of the Apocalypse, who sing ‘Holy, holy, holy’ (Revelation 4:6–8) to the sacrificial yet victorious Lamb who makes peace by his own blood. Commentary by Victoria Emily Jones

I hadn't come across this icon before (thanks @thevcs.bsky.social) but it's quite awesome and my new favourite.
thevcs.org/after-order-...
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(•_•)
<) )╯Publique fundinge
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\(•_•)
( (> of the artes and humanityes
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(•_•)
<) )> doth benefit everyone!
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"The same system that is poisoning our rivers is poisoning our minds."
The @greenparty.org.uk is singing this same song.
It's time to stop drinking the cool aid.
bsky.app/profile/zack...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

"But even if you don’t have hope, it doesn’t really matter. This is about defiance. It’s about doing the right thing, fighting for democracy and for people to not be exploited," says Luke Kemp about his book, Goliath's Curse -
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

3. Is the person making this sort of allegedly accidental, nervous comment and behaviour in front of everyone equally...e.g. to bosses, people on the bus, etc. Or is it to e.g. young women in positions of far less power, when alone?

Those are key factors that a report examines. Meantime/

(Once you've removed rights from any category, they stop being rights and become privileges - and privileges are easy to lose.)

Skegness, one of your absolute finest people right here. Buy her a drink whenever you see her.

NO MORE MISTER NIGHT SKY.

UK government pulls funding for Irish peace and reconciliation project International Fund for Ireland helped lay groundwork for Belfast Agreement

This is not a good look:
"UK government pulls funding for Irish peace and reconciliation project."

www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

🙏

Link is broken?

Honestly, I don't know how DHL still get business. I don't think I've ever had a DHL delivery land first time.
Everyone else manages, but these guys are, time and again, oh, we tried to deliver and the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, so we gave up.
Grrrrrr.

If this is a winter season for the Church, we don't need to fix it, only weather it as best we can - only faithfulness is asked of us. It is not, after all, our kingdom and the glory of it is most evident in death.
Christ promises the gates of hell shall not prevail - so we know it's not doomed.
❤️🙏

😂

Even better, the 1662 prayer book, "The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life: Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving."
But, yes, it takes time...

Actual picture of the Holy Spirit saying, "Ask!"
@unvirtuousabbey.bsky.social

(The Growth Delusion by David Pilling - www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564734... - is very good on this.)

But instead we stick with a method that maximises the incentive to trash the environment and trample the poor.

This.
There are so many better ways to measure the economy, that don't include - for example - arms trade and the black market.
It could include voluntary labour, it could include environmental capital (woodland/wetland etc), it could take into account the wealth gap (the smaller the better)...

Beyond that, they won't countenance a man whose orders are valid by their exacting standards, but who has ordained women.

I remember listening to an essay that argued that protest generally only encourages people who are already on board, and rarely changes minds.
*But* there is something to be said for the importance of that encouragement.

But makes lovely exciting news to report on.

That is very sad.
There should be more lavender farms in this world.