The Pensive Pilgrim

When I was a Theological student, I once met a hospital chaplain whom I greeted in the customary way by extending my right hand. He stepped back, his arms firmly behind him and his face contorted with pure horror.  "I never, ever shake hands", he said. "It's a disgusting habit and one of the most efficient ways of spreading infection and disease. You really shouldn't do it." Somewhat bemused, I decided that he was either barking mad or at least living with OCD; but looking back through the lens of Coronavirus and Covid-19 I think he may have had a point.  Like most people, in more normal times I seldom give a second thought to shaking hands, even with multiple people after a church service or funeral. I must confess, however, that as I've clambered  onto a packed rush hour London Tube, standing with sardine-tin intimacy with hundreds of strangers, I've sometimes wondered how many hands have previously held the strap or rail to which I desperately cli...

Last night I watched Russell T Davies' new Channel 4 drama 'It's a Sin'. It tells the story of a group of young gay friends living in London in the nineteen-eighties. For those of us who are gay and for whom these were formative years, the series promises to evoke a nostalgia that is both powerful and disturbing as we experience the emotional roller coaster ride that is not only typical of Davies' writing, but which is also a scarily accurate reflection of the hedonism of those times and of the dark spectre of  AIDS by which it was permanently overshadowed.  Most of my experience of nineteen-eighties gay life took place in the more provincial setting of the East Midlands. The local 'gay scene' consisted of a couple of gay bars and a seedy back street nightclub where the stench of acrid cigarette smoke competed fiercely with the stupifying aroma of 'Kouros'.   I will always remember with great affection the colourful characters that peopled that scene...

There has been a flury of social media activity recently following the publication of the Church of England's teaching materials 'Living in Love and Faith' - the latest attempt to explore questions around gender, sexuality, marriage and relationships.   Not surprisingly, attention has been focussed in particular on two videos.The first of these, released by the 'Church of England Evangelical Council', was clearly filmed prior to the release of LLF and re-iterates all the well-rehearsed conservative arguments whilst also gently rattling sabres about either leaving the CofE if it changes its teaching in any way, or at least requiring the development of new provinces for those who would dissent from any such change. Rather bizarrely, it features people who were architects of LLF itself. The second, far more toxic, video was published by the group calling itself 'Christian Concern'. This is presented as a 'critique' of the LLF materials, in particular th...

  Welcome, straight friend, to Mirror-World. Your imagination has brought you here, and your imagination will enable you to experience what Mirror-World has to teach you.   So set your imagination free. While here you can be – and indeed must be – completely yourself. It is only the world around you that will be different. It will be a mirror image of the real world, and everything will be reversed, but if you dare to open your heart and mind, it is an image that may give you a new insight into the lives and experiences of others, and perhaps even to understand yourself in new ways. You are yourself. Your sexual desires and drives remain as they have always been. If you are in a committed relationship, that person remains the absolute focus of your desires and love. (I bet that’s a relief, isn’t it?) But you need to know that here in Mirror World, physical and romantic attraction to the same sex is the norm.   You will be left in no doubt about this. From the ear...

As England begins another Lockdown in response to Covid-19, places of worship have once again been told that they can open their doors only for private prayer. Public worship is now forbidden by law for the next month. As one would expect, there have been some very angry responses to this, not least from clergy in the Church of England. Indeed even the Archbishops and Bishops - who were criticised for acquiescing too readily to the shutting down of public worship last time round - have challenged the government on this occasion.  Inevitably, it is the voice of the objectors that is most heard; but in reality, views on this issue - both amongst the clergy and, even more so, the laity - are rather more mixed. Whilst some have argued that closing churches for public worship will do missional harm to the church, others suggest that in a predominantly secular culture, excepting faith communities from a hardship that so many other institutions must endure simply causes more alienation. I...

A few days ago I took a funeral service. Unlike several others recently, the death wasn't Covid-19 related. As the mourners gathered in the Crematorium, I  noticed that, despite the Funeral Director's best efforts,  many of them were taking no notice whatsoever of the social-distancing markers on the chairs. As a result, many rows were filled with people who clearly weren't all from one household or 'bubble'. To their credit, they were all wearing face masks, but as the service ended and they filed past me into the courtyard area, many of them huddled close together whilst others kissed and embraced. As several people were chatting, they either raised, lowered or removed their facemasks.  Grief, of couse, is difficult enough to cope with at the best of times, and it's hardly surprising that mourners at a funeral either forget what precautions they need to be taking or abandon them because they simply find them all too much to bear in such sad circumstances.  It...

 One day, a couple of years ago I had two appointments to keep in London. I was going to have a little time to spare, so I asked myself how I might best fill the time. Some people would probably say that I should have gone shopping; but my itinerary didn’t really allow long enough for a decent shopping spree, and anyway I’m a Yorkshireman, so I didn’t want to spend any money! It occurred to me that I was due to make a confession. What better place to do it than London? With so many famous Anglo-Catholic churches, there was bound to be somewhere with a set time for hearing confessions where I could slip in and out anonymously. Just for interest, I picked up my copy of ‘The Church Travellers Directory 1973’ – which some of my readers will doubtless remember with great affection. It listed the churches in which at that time there was a Daily Mass, indicated by a letter D, where the main Sunday Service was always a Mass indicated by an S, where Confessions were heard regularly at fixed...