Last rites?

(follows on well from the title of the previous post!)
Finished reading Michael Hampson's Last Rites - the End of the Church of England - strongly recommended. Borrowed from the library and due back today, about to attempt a renewal and reread.

It is time for a serious progressive challenge - for the sake of the gospel - to the increasingly vacuous liberal establishment... it is about having a faith and a theology with some substance, taking the scriptures seriously, having some concern for the truth, putting right a hideous betrayal of the gospel, and maintaining gospel values without compromise. For a decent progressive theology there is an ideal single-question test of orthodoxy: What is your attitude towards homosexuality?' If you delay or fudge your answer you are betraying the heart of the gospel, at the cost of real human lives.

His testimony and manifesto are worth (re-)reading. I think he sees hope - a new birth rather than a complete end as you might guess from the title.

Creating stories

As just mentioned - we've been at a parish weekend - not very far away, really within walking distance! where the speaker Ann Morisey (can't find a good web link) was talking - amongst many other things - about community involvement giving the opportunity for us to let others tell their stories and also to allow them to create stories of their own. 'Hey you'll never guess what I spent the weekend doing' which gets told and the momentum carries on.
I could have listened to her all day, she was born in Bootle - only a few miles along the coast from my own birthplace, so maybe the accent had something to do with it! But her combination of earthed stories and piercing insight gave me a lot to think about. `We often mistake doing jobs in church for discipleship' - echoes of my Richard Rohr quote about cheap religion? Risk taking 'could we - should we' or shall we just carry on as normal!?

The seeing of the face of the other.
Levinas

She's speaking at tomorrow's service and we bought her two books which will - no doubt - be further food for thought!