Lots

Lots of vicars do forget that an endowed church does not have any real civil obligations to the temporal side of the state, so that if there were any suggestions that gay weddings become mandatory or expected, the rites would have to be devised and this to go before synod. A discretion in any case is always granted to vicars - they do not have to marry drunks at the church or the impenitent or even royals if they are scruffy, so the same goes for other categories of person. Anyway from the point of view of the general theory of church and state, it is an endowed church not an established one.

Yes

Yes technically the Church of England is more an endowed church than an established one, and this is how the matter stands in comparative law - much like the old situation of the catholics in the Irish constitution at the old article 44 - they are simply recognised as the majority faith but only because they are a standard majority - and that can change too as numbers of catholics increase so rapidly, and thuswise the CoE retains some independence from the sphere of the temporal in civil law. It was always said that CoE canon law became UK domestic law by dint of the Commons and parliament assent and the Queen's own assent, but this is illusion and grandiose pretension, more civil effects than a real blessing of the civil temporal force. Besides the two sees of York and Canterbury remain the spiritual directors of the prime minister. And these alone.

Brethren

A stressing time, what with many vicars assuming that they will be asked and must accede to express wishes from gay boy couples and girl couples to be married in the churches of the established faith, even though there is no formal rite or ceremony for the idea. Also many vicars assumed that the establishment of the faith by law is also a simple meal ticket to all and sundry, as defined and impressed upon by the powers temporal of some parliamentary organ. But tis not the case, since even at the height of the reformation, there are statutes of Henry VIII which recall that the spiritual is distinct from the temporal and that the idea of establishment is not what it seems. Though the king or queen is the governor, there is scope for freedom for the spiritual power. Indeed the solemn statutes of Henry still view the spiritual vs the temporal as a division of opposition, and a healthy one too.

Hola

Pride of place must be given to Justin - a good job well done. Well look, the Arch of Deans at Canterbury is moving right along on his agenda - and he has asked christians to repent for ever having contributed to that strange Jew-baiting type atmosphere where gays were seconded to bedlams and hospitals for re-education and for chemical and electric treatment, just because we had not accepted diversity in our pathetic little luddite world after the reformation when a foreign spirit of spite crept in the back door of reformation anglican christianity - not that anglican christianity was ever meant to be so low church or reformed as the official Via media in northern europe and the defender of the [apostolic] faith. Reformation christians have been weak on pluralism in places like rump Geneva. Shades of the village.

Funnily enough the opposite attitude of openness and of patronage despite orientation is to be found among our masters in compassion, the renaissance popes like the soldier Julius II or the astronomer Urban VIII - these popes looked kindly on those artists who were known for a little playing off the official natural law pitches such as Caravaggio and Michelangelo, and it was not just because they were producing useful art either. They felt that humanitas required compassion and the secrecy of the confessional - maybe they were too good as confessors to descend into judgmentalism; whereas we had foolishly jettisoned confessionals and so also disposed of an important service to lots of people on the margins, the science of conscience jurisprudence which went out with the 1548 BCP alas as a "papistical ceremony". The renaissance popes and the Borgias maybe could teach us how an imperial power should behave toward our brothers and sisters on the gay side of debate. Well done Justin. Civil rights are civil rights. Enough of the bedlam please here in Britain.

Fading

Well we are fading into the mists of Avalon this weather. Slowly but surely, the mists are engulfing us and we shall soon be just a memory to chelsea chatter. As the poetess Edna Carberry used to put it of the wonder-filled faerie folk - There they go, there they go, off to the isles of Imaal. Yes 'tis time for Lauren of Penzance and I to remove ourselves from London gazes and find a quiet little cottage in the South West where she is based at university near Falmouth. Marina biology will be a welcome and pleasant diversion. Who knows we might find out way to Padstow. So we are off to the Pirates of Penzance. Steal away, steal away.

Ah

Ah the Church of England settling down to a nice quiet summer. Hopefully nothing too shocking or surprising will happen this summer and we can get wet on our quiet lawns on the south Downs with impunity, bar maybe some announcement by the Queen, say on her coronation anniversary on 2nd June 2013 that she will abdicate in favour young Charles. We shall see, but anyway, judging on my visit to St Alban's cathedral abbey, the atmosphere is sedate and serene, as ever.

Anyway

The Real Church of England was always historically dedicated to a little bit of tension vis-a-vis the civil state, since it had it not only from the various monarchs of its time but also from the saints and mystics of the island that the Gelasian principle of two powers spiritual vs temporal kept the country in a state of healthy tension and debate. If all the power went to the state it became civilism, if all the power went to the spiritual, it became theocracy, and both these heresies lead to tyranny over the hard pressed citizenry. The flock of Christ was never meant to be governed by egyptian taskmasters and now and then in the wonderful 2000 years of the faith in the twin islands, a young Moses would be asked to arise and think dark thoughts in order to restore the balance between the 2 powers. So we give too much power to the PCC and this will lead to civilism and tyranny, and the invasion of conscience and privacy, as per the Dawkins empire, but if we give too much authority to the sacerdotium and the spiritual, then the democratic checks and balances do not get an opportunity to work their magic.