The Pensive Pilgrim

Prince William's recent assertion that he has a 'quiet' Christian faith has triggered a great deal of debate both within and outside the church.   Whilst many people (probably mainly non-churchgoers) have welcomed the heir to the throne 's refreshing openness and honesty and can relate to his position, others (mainly inside the Church) have been critical and have expressed concern about a lack of clarity and commitment in the future 'Defender of the Faith' and 'Supreme Governor of the Church of England'. The context for this debate is an interesting one. Some politicians and others are claiming that they are fearful for our Christian heritage in today's multicultural, multi-faith Britain.  Much of this 'concern' is a smoke-screen for right-wing anti-immigration views, and church leaders have rightly been critical of so called 'Marches for Jesus' which are actually not pro-Christian at-all but rather anti-Muslim. Indeed the words, acti...

 "If anyone would like communion at today's service, there's bread and wine at the back of church; please feel free to help yourselves."  My friend, a firmly Anglo-Catholic priest, was gallantly attending the main Sunday morning service in a neighbouring supposedly Anglican Evangelical-Charismatic church. He had gone with as open a mind as he could manage, but as he heard the foregoing announcement, his heart sank and he knew that he really couldn't stay. It wasn't merely the blatant disregard for Canon Law that offended him (for no public celebration of Holy Communion had taken place), it was also the total lack of reverence for Our Lord's presence in the sacrament (always presuming, of course, that the elements had been consecrated in the first place). It's tempting for those of us of a more Catholic tradition to launch into a diatribe against such practices, but for once I hesitate to do so. This admittedly uncharacteristic restraint stems from the ...

Over recent weeks, several Cathedral Deans of  the Church of England have preached passionately and eloquently on the subject of 'Living in Love and Faith' - the process that was supposedly intended to lead to a more 'radical inclusion' of LGBTQ+ Christians into the life and ministry of the church.  All of these sermons - at least two of which were positively heart-rending - were pleas to the House of Bishops, due to meet this week, not to allow the process to run into the sand nor to abandon plans for stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples and the lifting of the ban on clergy marrying a same sex partner.   It is no surprise that this cry for justice, Christian love and sheer common sense should come from the heads of some of our Cathedrals. The latter are, after all, bastions of true Anglicanism, not just in their dignified and traditional worship but also in their readiness to serve - and be seen to serve - the entire community and to genui...

Having now been retired for all of two weeks, yesterday - Remembrance Sunday - was the first time I actually felt a huge sense of relief at no longer being in parish ministry.  I suspect I was far from alone amongst active clergy in finding Remembrance Sunday the most stressful Sunday of the year, especially when linked to a 'civic' church.   Remembrance Sunday is, of course, an important and solemn occasion, and it's absolutely right that we should properly  honour those who lost their lives in war. Responsibility for leading a suitably dignified service with a very large congregation is in itself stressful enough, but Remembrance brings with it many added challenges and pressures, especially for the Established Church.  Firstly, there's the need to ensure that the Remembrance Service incorporates all the essential elements  (Komina Epitaph, Last Post, Two minute Silence etc) in the correct order and that it is accessible and meaningful not only for the Ch...

Those of a 'churchy' disposition will be aware that after seven years of wasted time, breath and energy, and a great deal of misplaced hope, the 'Living in Love and Faith' process (LLF for short) has finally been euthanised by the House of Bishops. The CofE website describes LLF as 'part of a longer journey......to listen, learn and respond to changing views in our society towards identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage' and recognises that 'Despite big differences over the best approach to take, the church agrees it needs to better include and support LGBTQI+ people'.   Some of us - particularly those who have learned to live with the CofE's flaws for many decades - were sceptical about the process in the first place. Experience has certainly taught me that when bishops say they 'want to listen' it usually means they really want to find a way of doing nothing, preserving the status quo and sparing themselves any aggro. (Apparently th...

"I didn't like the hymns today." "Why did we sing 'x' to the wrong tune?" "The hymns were far too fast this morning." "The hymns were far too slow this morning." Anyone who leads worship regularly will be all too familiar with these - and similar - comments. The selection and performance of hymns can be a major bone of contention in even the most harmonious congregation (if you pardon the pun).   I suspect that many worshippers have little idea of how much time, blood, sweat and tears actually goes into the choosing of hymns, if it's done properly and conscientiously.   Selecting hymns for worship isn't simply a matter of closing one's eyes and sticking a pin in the index of a hymn book, nor of endlessly regurgitating one's own - or indeed one's congregation's -  favourites. It is rather a matter of carefully matching the hymns to the liturgical season, the themes of the set readings for the day (especially the...

The late Queen Elizabeth II once famously referred to the year 1992 as an 'annus horribilis' for the royal family. Whilst the year 2024 may not quite qualify for that title, in our household it's certainly a close contender. At the the beginning of the year, the continuing rapid decline in my Mother's health had culminated in her admission to a specialist Dementia Nursing Home with the inevitable exhausting and frustrating battle to optimise her funding. It was difficult to find opportunities to make the 270 mile round journey to visit Mum, and often when I did so, she would either be in a deep sleep or in a highly confused and distressed state which was very disturbing to witness. Her death in September, though in many ways a blessed release, inevitably came as a painful shock, and she is sorely missed, although, of course, the Mavis that we all knew and loved had not been truly present for almost two years. May she rest in peace. As with any close bereavement, sortin...

My mother died recently.  The death was neither unexpected nor, to be honest, entirely unwelcome, for she had been seriously ill with dementia for the best part of two years.  Dementia is a cruel disease that takes our loved one from us a piece at a time, and I started grieving for her several months ago as I sat by her bedside in the Nursing Home, listening to her unbearable screams, cries of distress and incoherent ramblings, and seeing in her eyes only pain and fear and, often, no vestige of recognition.   When I received the inevitable phone call telling me that Mum had died, my sadness was more than equalled by a sense of relief that her suffering was ended and she was at last at peace. "I've been grieving for my mother for the last year or so," I would say, "because the woman who was my Mum is long gone". But if I imagined that this 'pre-grieving' would somehow diminish the pain of bereavement, I was mistaken.   Grief, as we all know, is a strange ...

I've been involved in a number of discussions in Social Media recently (some of them, it must be said, quite heated) regarding clerical vesture and liturgical practice. Readers won't be at-all surprised to hear that the various forums for these discussions were all of an 'Anglo-Catholic' hue.   In the course of one particular exchange, I was informed that I am (I quote) "A typical 'Boomer'". Well I've been called much worse than that in my time. 'Boomer' I must accept in terms of my vintage, although I have to say 'typical' stings a bit!  I guess, however, that we are all products of our time - and this is as true of clergy and our approach to liturgy as it is of anyone else.  It was in my late teens that I discovered Anglo-Catholicism. At that time in my local parish church, Mass was celebrated 'ad orientem' (eastward facing) at a high altar which stood proudly at the top of several steps in a distant chancel. I loved the s...

I recently watched the livestream of this year's Assumption-Tide Procession at All Saints Margaret Street, London's best known  Anglo-Catholic 'shrine' just off Oxford Street.  As always - and in common with its sister, the annual Corpus Christi Procession - it was a colourful, moving and brilliantly choreographed event, and I was left wishing that I could have been there.  As the vast procession made its way along the streets of London's West End, incense billowing, candles flickering, Our Lady of Walsingham wobbling slightly on her litter from time to time as those responsible for carrying her expertly navigated kerbs and potholes and avoided banana-skins (and worse), as clergy modelled varying degrees of lace (from the tasteful to the absurd) everyone lustily sang a variety of hymns from much loved esoteric Marian devotions to what was once regarded as a 'ranter' for evangelical use only, 'To God be the Glory'.  This was surely Anglo-Catholicism a...

Sermon preached at the Parish Mass, S t Matthew's Perry Beeches, Sunday 4th August Some words of St Paul from this morning’s second reading: I, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 3:14-21) On the evening of Wednesday 24 th July, a major service was held in the parish church of St Helen, Bishopsgate, London. St Helen’s is well-known as a stronghold of conservative evangelicalism. It attracts a large, predominantly wealthy, middle-class congregation. Its clergy eschew the ‘cool’ look of tee-shirt and chinos popular with so many of their evangelical colleagues and instead wear expensive suits and posh silk ties. The service that took place on the 24 th July was no ordinary service,   indeed it was a profoundly significant event not only for tho...

In the 1970s, the progressive rock/folk group 'Magna Carta', led by my friend Chris Simpson, produced the album 'Lord of the Ages', which included the song 'Father John', which Chris said was based on an anonymous priest friend of his. It was a rather haunting, melancholic number, and here are the lyrics:    Slowly steals the dawn in a grey December way Tired night has closed her eyes to say "Oh let all the world be light Each darkened room till I return" Father John wakes early Dons a faded robe, breathes a prayer Then hurries where the air is cold It's Sunday come round again Maybe one face more or less in church today Oh can't you see, Father John? Oh can't you see, Father John? Miss Pringle and Miss Prendergast And George who does the brass are there To say the words they've said for twenty years And no one knows or cares Safe in the security of things they see and want to be Believing is a word for growing old Oh can't you see,...

Advent will soon be upon us, and there is a tradition that over the four Sundays of this season,  preachers turn their attention to the 'Four Last Things' - Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.  Whether by design or coincidence, today's edition of The Church Times carries a feature headed "The British turn their backs on funerals" which clearly links with the first of these 'last things'.   It seems that in a recent survey commissioned by the think tank Theos, only 47% of respondents said that they would like a funeral,  24% said that they definitely didn't want a funeral while 28% were undecided.  So far as I'm aware, the survey didn't ask the participants how they felt about being asked these questions in the first place, but I suspect a very large percentage would say that they would have preferred not to have to think about such things. If the British are indeed turning their backs on funerals, I suspect it's because in reality they'r...