Monday, January 09, 2006

 

Flying off, and academic involvement

I'm flying off to Nice this afternoon with a bunch of colleagues for a sales and marketing meeting, which should be very interesting - it was last time - and worthwhile (ditto). However, it does mean being away from Jo and Moo, which is less happy. I'll phone them a couple of times a day, at least, which is something.

When Dad was over with us for the weekend, we talked a bit about the House of Bishops' pastoral statement on Civil Partnerships. As a chancellor of a couple of dioceses, he has a legal interest - mine is more general. All-in-all, I have to say that I find not only this statement, but the whole position that it reflects, deeply unsatisfactory, and I'd love to find a way to engage in the theological discussion that's going on. We so need strong a strong academic theological discussion on Christianity and sexuality - particularly homosexuality - to help us to ground the broader ecclesiastical discussions that are taking place. As a fairly "safe" voice (I'm in a happy heterosexual marriage, I'm not a bishop, and I'm not strongly aligned with any of the more forthright parties), there are lots of things I'd like to say, and I think that I might have some interesting perspectives, particularly given my multi-disciplinary background. There are two major dangers, however: the first is finding the time, what with family commitments and the amount of training and work I'm committed to, and the second is that I'm in a difficult position, in that I'm not yet ordained. Not to say that things are necessarily any easier for those who _are_ ordained, but I'd put myself in a dodgy position to start publishing on this topic at the moment, I think.

I'm really not sure how to proceed on this one. There are a number of ways forward, I think, none of which is particularly satisfactory in and of itself. These include:

Note that even discussing this on my blog yields some possible dangers, but I think I'm safe at this level: I'm not being too outspoken, I'm not condemning anyone, and I'm not holding up any views too strongly. Importantly (and to quote from the selection criteria for ordinands), I'm able to "respect the teaching of the Church of England on matters of sexuality". Let's leave it there for now.

Music today


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