Sunday 8 April 2018

Spiritual But Not Religious

And so another of our "Spiritual But Not Religious" weekends has ended with the delegates demanding their money back.

We really thought this was a winner. Everybody's getting into this "Spiritual But not Religious" idea. Even the BBC.  I mean, what an attractive idea. No hierarchy. No rules, Nobody to tell you what God wants from you. In fact, no worries about whether God, gods or even Great Cthulu exist. Just get out, feel good, and sense your own meaning in a time of mindfulness, meditation or a gin and tonic the size of an aquarium.

Least, I suppose the giant G&T counts as being "Spiritual Bit Not Religious". Although, to be fair, if it's a regular one at 5 pm you could argue that's being pretty religious.

Anyway. Back to our weekend course. They're saying it was a shambles. That we hadn't prepared Apparently they expected a "programme" for the weekend. Some kind of "structure". Some "seminars" or "acts of worship".

Instead of which we gave them a bag of pebbles and pointed outside to the glories of nature. Told them to buzz off and be spiritual. We wouldn't want to impose.

You know what, I don't think they'd thought this through. We gave them the chance to be Spiritual. But they wanted to be Religious all along.



Want a good laugh? Want to laugh at the church? Want to be secretly suspicious that the author has been sitting in your church committee meetings taking notes? Then Writes of the Church: Gripes and grumbles of people in the pews is probably the book for you.

From Amazon, Sarum Bookshop, The Bible Readers Fellowship and other good Christian bookshops. An excellent book for your churchgoing friends, relatives or vicar. By the creator of the Beaker Folk.

2 comments :

  1. I've often thought that Anglican and Catholic clergy are very spiritual, with their Penchant for Gin (other alcoholic beverages are available) which feature on twitter and facebook profiles. As someone who only consumes communion wine in sips, a couple of times a week, I find that my spirituality is inhibited by my being teetotal.

    So, where can I buy non-alcoholic gin to be more spiritual? There are non-alcoholic beers available and also wines, but nobody has brought out a non-alcoholic gin? Come on business, help me and others be more like Clergy with a gin that is suitable for teetotal types.

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  2. Some NHS Trust has just appointed a humanist to lead its team of chaplains, apparently in response to public demand for pastoral care on the part of atheists and agnostics. Splendid idea - let's all draw strength and comfort from religion without any of the boring parts.

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