April 2020 – Cry Hard

30th April 20205th May 2020

Will there be Female Bishops in Heaven?

Two new suffragan bishops have been appointed in the Diocese of Chichester, one of the partner Dioceses of St Augustine’s College of Theology. Ruth Bushyager will be Bishop of Horsham and Will Hazlewood will be Bishop of Lewes. I look forward to meeting and working with them.

The press release of The Society under the patronage of Saint Wilfrid and Saint Hilda, describes Will as a ‘traditional Catholic priest’, by which I assume is meant one who has theological objections to the ordination of women to the priesthood or episcopate. The Chairman of The Society commented, ‘It is wonderful to see the Church of England’s Five Guiding Principles being lived out in this way.’

The ‘Five Guiding Principles’ are those established following the Act of Synod allowing ordination of women to the episcopate in 2014. They include the superficially contradictory principles that:

20th April 2020

Blood, Hearts and Stakes (but no vampires)

Almost as soon as the current Corona virus restrictions were put into place, the discussion started: what about Holy Communion/ Eucharist? (How) can we still celebrate it?

12th April 2020

Moses and Moaning

I listened to a talk about Moses in which his reluctance to heed God’s call was highlighted. The speaker suggested that five times Moses tried to evade God’s instruction, despite hearing from God direct at the bush that burned but was not consumed (in Exodus chs. 3-4):

3:11 Moses said ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh…’
3:13 Moses said ‘If I go to the Israelites … what shall I say to them?’
4:1 Moses answered ‘Suppose they do not believe me…’
4:10 Moses said ‘I have never been eloquent…’
4:13 Moses said ‘Please send someone else…’

The point the speaker made was that Moses moved ‘from weakness to strength’ when he did eventually respond to God. But I was much more struck by reflecting on the process by which Moses reached that point.