Virtual Methodist

Today, Monday 17th November, the final piece of legislation allowing women to be appointed as bishops is due to make its way through the General Synod of the Church of England. I generally don't comment on the goings on in sister denominations unless something so outrageous happens that I drop my guard and have pressed the "publish" button before engaging the "grace" circuit in my brain... So I am not going to make any comment except those that might be inferred in the light of the superb event in the Agape Centre on Friday past, entitled A Night with Messy Women . In this Wendy Johnston recited from memory the family tree of Jesus in Matthew chapter one, before going on to recite the stories of the 5 women cited in that story... all of whom, in the eyes of established Jewish social and religious circles would have been even further down the social scale than "normal" Jewish women... either because of dubious sexual morals (ignoring the dubious sexual...

Saturday involved two events that don’t happen too much back home. First thing in the morning I took part in the consecration of a Methodist Bishop, in the concluding act of the North Central Jurisdictional Conference 2008 , which was unusual for me given that we don’t have Methodist Bishops back home. Then I spent the afternoon in Muskegon on the shores of Lake Michigan watching the finals of a beach volleyball tournament… and before anyone thinks that I was just leering at scantily clad fit young women, let me assure you that I watched the men’s and the women’s competition. But much though I would love to wax lyrical about the deeper significance of beach volleyball, I’m actually going to reflect on how I spent the earlier part of the day. My role in the service was simply to carry the Christ-candle in the opening procession… an act which would probably get me kicked out of many evangelical circles back home, which aren’t into candles and processionals and the like. I’m not much for ...