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Showing posts from December, 2010

Equal Love

I'm glad that there's now a proper campaign in Britain for same-sex marriage: Equal Love. Living in Massachusetts in 2004 when same-sex marriage came in there I've been impatient to see people fighting for it in the UK. I'm not sure however, about the part of the campaign to allow civil partnerships to be open to different-sex couples. It is logical I suppose. But I've always viewed civil parnterships as an insufficent step towards marriage, and if marriage is available to everyone, then why would anyone want a civil partnership? Also, where does this leave our campaign for allowing civil partnerships to be conducted in places of worship? Surely this will now become irrelevant, if we can perform same-sex marriages? Or do we still want to perform civil partnerships? If so what exactly is "civil" about them if they are, religious? Surely if they're allowed for all couples the defining characteristic of civil partnerships will be that they would be non-r...

Seven Marks of a Healthy Church

(Quoted in "Hope for the Church: Contemporary Strategies for Growth" by Bob Jackson) 1. Energized by faith rather than just keeping things going or trying to survive worship and sacramental life: moves people to experience God’s love motivation: energy comes from a desire to serve God and one another engaging with Scripture: in creative ways connect with life nurtures faith in Christ: helping people to grow in, and share their faith. 2. Outward-looking focus with a 'whole life' rather than a 'church life' concern deeply rooted in the local community, working in partnership with other denominations, faiths, secular groups and networks passionate and prophetic about justice and peace, locally and globally makes connections between faith and daily living responds to human need by loving service 3. Seeks to find out what God wants discerning the Spirit’s leaning rather than trying to please everyone vocation: seeks to explore what God wants it to be and do vision:...

Should I write something for the Guardian?

I just came across this link about the Comment is Free column in the Guardian. They do sometimes publish unsolicited submissions for the column. Catherine Robinson managed to get this article published about Unitarianism a while ago. So should I submit something? Maybe if I have some spare moments sitting around after Christmas? Anything on this blog worth publishing in a national newspaper? What subject do you think I should write about? Any ideas? Or is this just a bit of an egotistical fantasy?