Monday: Check to see what the Church of England has been up to now. Probably ordaining eggs or marrying Pokemons. Read the Telegraph. An article on how useless the Archbishop of Canterbury is and how George Carey was better. Make a witty comment on Twitter about how useless the Church of England is.
Tuesday: Read in the Mail that you have to be a member of the Communist Party, a witch, or - worse - a Remainer to be allowed to be ordained in the Church of England these days. Write a witty comment on Facebook about how useless the Church of England is. Thank goodness I've resigned and don't have to think about this any more.
Wednesday: I see on the BBC web page that a vicar has carried out a blessing service for two gay clergymen who have had a civil partnership. Disgusting. When I was a young priest, homosexuals were supposed to keep very quiet about it and go around calling each other names like Alice. I regret that the glory has departed. Although at least the gay clergymen were men.
Thursday: I write a blog post about how the Church of England has fallen. Some clergy these days did not go to even a minor public school. No wonder they do not understand how to be closet homosexuals properly.
Friday: A vicar in Lincolnshire has received a fine for speeding. This is what happens once you separate the clergy from the Establishment. Once upon a time you could be 4 times over the limit, give the traffic constable the appropriate handshake, and receive a merry "on your way, Sir!" without even troubling the scorer. This is not the Church of England I grew up in, and then left because it was not the Church I grew up in.
Saturday: A wedding car has broken down on the A509. In many ways a parable for the state of the Church of England. Serves them right. I don't suppose that the bride is a virgin. That is how standards have slipped.
Sunday: As I conduct Divine Worship I rejoice that I am now completely free of the Church of England. It was a wrench to leave but now it never crosses my mind.
Is this you, Bob?
ReplyDeleteI thought that those who left the Church of England either joined the Ordinariate or alternatively, were consecrated Bishop by an obscure church, not in communication with the CofE or by a Church, supposedly walking some distance from the Church of England, normally in the Southern Provinces of the Church of England.
ReplyDeleteI know that one such has been consecrated Bishop for the Gafcon types somewhere in the UK, another was consecrated Bishop to minister to those in Scotland who believe in traditional values including not being Scottish.
It's hard to be feel sympathy for those who leave in a fit of spite and than posture and carp from the margins, actually missing their friends they left, the comfortable stipend, acccumulating pension and warm parsonage, living rent free. They go out into the wider, wild word, with baggage, they could have sorted out with a robust spiritual director.
As someone who left the RC Church with real disagreements over doctrine, and being treated quite poorly at a very vulnerable point in my life, I don't spend my time carping at them, just getting on with being an Anglican, having been welcomed with open arms when I became one, after 20 years in the wilderness of agnosticism.
And of course, these days, the RC Church has a radical leader, who is regarded as a heritic by many traditional types over there. I say, strength to your arm Pople Francis.