...of the committee of the Association of Catholic Women. The committee meets at St James, Spanish Place - beneath the church is a large bright room where a children's day-nursery sends out happy noises, plus a kitchen, various offices, and a positive rabbit-warren of intriguing boiler-rooms and storage spaces...and various other rooms, one of which we used today for our meeting...
Lots to plan. Next year sees the ACW's 25th anniversary - we should do something splendid to mark it. Meanwhile, the 2013 nationwide Schools RE Project under way, discussion of plans for a Schools Music Festival, decisions about speakers for our AGM in the Autumn, a summertime pilgrimage trip (jointly with LOGS - see blog entries below), and more...
Much talk about the Govt's ghastly plans to redefine marriage. Among the many aspects not adequately discussed by those supporting these idiotic plans is the whole question of what people in Britain will in future be allowed to say about marriage, and what will be banned. As things stand at present, a ban on talking about marriage as the union of a man and a woman seems likely to be imposed on all sorts of people, randomly and weirdly. School governors, local borough councillors, teachers, clergy, speakers at school prizegivings or other public ceremonies...lecturers in public libraries or at seminars in hospitals or training colleges, policemen, magistrates and court officials...
It's all getting spooky.
Marriage is the union of a man and a woman, establishing a new family. If you don't like my making this statement, get used to not liking it, because I am certainly going to continue making the statement from time to time in the course of my life, both in public as a writer and lecturer, and in private if the topic comes up in conversation.
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2 comments:
I follow your blog because I try to make sure that my own views are based on the information available and I do appreciate that yours are based on devotion to your chosen version of Christianity.
It is always enjoyable to read about your family and friends; the shared love and support of good, strong relationships is truly rewarding.
I often wonder if you will be able to offer that same family level of love and support if they were (to be brave enough) to tell you they are gay and making a marriage commitment, married and not having children, having childen and choosing not to marry, single and having a child or other choices which may not sit comfortably with you?
Family is everything and people in families are individuals who make their own choices as they lead their own lives. Would you judge and remove that love and support because it didn't suit you any more?
Anonymous, yes, because this is a viewpoint from a someone who has something to say.
Please be assured that I do not simply adhere to a "chosen version" of Christianity. If religion was simply a matter of personal choice and what-Auntie-likes-best, then it would not be a faith worth following.
What matters is not personal versions but truth. It is important to be brave enough to listen to it, learn about it, pray about it, and not to pretend that you can abandon it and invent a personal version instead. Christ is a great reality, not an invention.
I don't expect my family and friends to support me if I announce that I am doing something wrong: some might well do so, out of a misguided idea of making me feel happy instead of seeking my real welfare, but they would be cowardly and unhelpful. True love demands more than that.
Like most people, I have dear friends and family members whose views on many things I do not share. Experience over many years suggests that, if any of them want my help or opinion on anything, they are not shy about asking for it.
Like many of other people, I have often found that Christianity does not "sit comfortably" with me...but Christ did not promise that we would always be comfortable, and things like trying to love one's neighbour, and to be patient and kind, and to take time to pray regularly even it feels boring, and to give generously and take some responsibility for the poor and ill...and so on and so on...are difficult at times. I think that is why we are urged to pray for one another: being a Christian alone would be much, much harder.
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