Is it time to give up something injurious to one's health?

As usual there was the unenviable task of reading the Church Times today. I am told that Bishop David Hope, when he was Principal at St Stephen's House, on entering the Common Room and seeing an ordinand (now a priest well known to me) hurl the said rag across the room in exasperation said, "You want to give that up lad, it's bad for the blood-pressure."

That was, of course, some years ago, but things have not improved and the letters page today is a case in point. We have two letters having a go at Anglo-Catholics. One by an ingrate who wishes use the Letter Page of the said rag to inform us that we should leave as we are hurting the Church of England which, for him "for all of my life it has been the Church". So much for ecumenical relations in North Shoeburyness then! And so much for his ecclesiology!

The author goes on to talk about how Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals have added to the "breadth, depth and vitality of the Church of England", which I am sure is very gracious of him. He then goes on to say that Anglo-Cathlics and Evangelicals who cannot live with that breadth should "Leave! Leave! And do it quickly because you are tearing the Church of England apart." I really do wonder what planet some people live on! It is not Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals who are refusing to accept the breadth of the Church of England, but people like this letter writer who seem to want to drive out those who cannot accept the narrower breadth they seem intent on forcing on everyone else. What we are seeking is a structural solution that will enable both sides to flourish - that surely is about "breadth, depth and vitality." The fact is that the Vicar of North Shoeburyness seems to show that he really doesn't believe in that "breadth, depth and vitality" at all, rather he seems to believe that he would be better off without us as he would be left, with those who share his views, as he says: "to get on with the real job in a real Church". As I said earlier: so much for ecumenism then!

I am entering this post on the blog today having broken into my holidays to go and visit one of my parishioners in Coventry, a real stalwart of the Parish Church, who is suffering severe trauma having been involved today in an unfortunate incident as a pedestrian crossing a road. On my drive back from the hospital having anointed him and having spent time pastorally with his family I found myself thinking of this letter and eventually came to realise that there continues to be a real job to do, but that job should not be determined by the likes of the Vicar of North Shoeburyness. How dare he suggest that I, and others (Lay and Ordained) leave the Church through which we were baptised? How dare he seek to encourage pastors to leave the flock entrusted to them?

Blood pressure then raised a little higher by the next letter which asks whether Forward in Faith has paid the clergy stipends down the years. This question appears to have formed by the Bishop of Fulham's remarks about certain parish properties having not been built by the Church of England, but with "Catholic money". Of course, the stipends for many years were paid for by the glebe and endowments which have been frittered away on Projects and Advisors since the advent of the Central Stipends Authority. If you ask Lay folk who have been around in a parish long enough they will tell you of Local Aided Schools that were built with local money, but which have been closed and sold off with the parish not getting a penny. They will tell you of church buildings being closed and sold, and of vicarages being sold and not a penny coming to the parish which built and paid for them in the first place. If the author of this letter wishes to suggest that somehow the Church of England has paid for the stipends down the years then he needs to remember that parishes have been the source of the income for the Church of England since the beginning not the central structures.