Yisssssssssssssssssssssss

So there is something of an hiatus in the selection process for the next Arch of his majesty, what with candidates arguing the toss about the bishop of Norwich, while the police say that too many holidays to Lowestoft are not a good sign of portents to come, what with all stars getting nervous in the TV comedian studios of London. Either way the good old HMS Ecclesia Anglica continues unfazed and unabated, hardly non-plussed by the slings and ARROWs of heedless evangelical red dawns, and indeed proceeds noiselessly and calmly to its next port of call - Dr Sentamu of York by way of Beachey Head for the next Arch of Cantuar - and why jolly well not my dears? Our local Rev Noel Coward here at Melton Mowbray would say - forsooth 'tis time for a change.

Re making saints

Vive l'empereur, people tend to say nowadays, but if we are and independent branch and a via media, on our own times, with deeper roots in history than just in the reformation, that is with deep roots in the creative tensions between Edward Confessor and Bp Godwin, between Stephen and Lanfranc, and Henry II and Becket, and Henry and Wolsey, then why not establish a few institutes that put us on a par with the Overseas brigades of the Swiss guard? A commission for ritual that beefs up the sacrificial dimension, and a commission for beatifying saints, and so on?

Gawd bless us and save us

Good golly miss molly, as my housekeeper would say the word. Well anybody would think that dear old KGB Rowan had moved out of Canterbury's finest annexe for old bishops already! KGB - knowing God better of course. The point is why all this back room barracking and bawling and toadying so quickly, as dear old Rowan has yet to quit the scene at the old centre of the papal mission to les anglais or even take up his excellent offer of a residence at glorious Emmanuel where many illustrious international lawyers like his worshipful chancellor of the archdiocese of Winchester used to work? And this brings us on to the really big question. It is now earnestly hoped that when dear young William comes of age and becomes the next monarch, that the royal household will put in a request to have the said coronation of the said in the old coronation cathedral basilica of King Arthur - at Winchester, and not at boring old farcicle Benedictine vetting locations such as OSB Westminster Abbey. Who ever said that the future king of All Britain, like some Charles I, should become a monk and live like a monk? This is chicanery and the good lady Mrs Q is not happy. 

Well .... whatever

Yisssssssssss, as Prince Charles might say, as our commander in chief of Forces Anglican and Britois. The time has come thence to do some homework and housework. Can we really defy the statistics and hang on to all of these churches around us, when the catholics can do just as good, take them over, a good 1000 of them, or say 20%, and run them efficiently and profitably as pilgrimage centres and saints places of recall and so on. Loads of foreign pilgrims are descending on the country since the Olympics. The Olympics - Our Awakening of Conscience maybe. We as anglicans are part of the historical problem so we will never be able to convince a now more and more intelligent British public, and a public that reads books for itself like that of MacCulloch's Reformation or a Sansom's Dissolution or a Scarisbrick's Henry VIII, and watches movies like the natural-law driven Borgias and TV series like the Tudors, that we can be part of any serious long-term solution. So why not hand over, as a polite gesture, some 20% of these parish churches, keeping the cathedrals for ourselves for a time maybe? Yissssss or Nayyyyyy?

Mmm not so

Mmm but presidentialism a la Rowan too? Can anglican vicars really be trusted with the guidance of a church, especially without much philosophy between them? The queen is temporal and spiritual sovereign for a reason, for the sake of the common good pro tem. Wiser to leave it like this until our chappies and lassies develop philosophy in their divinity curricula. And can govern wisely and sensibly, without all the usual gunge from Red soviet ecclesiacentrism.

Well there hangs a tail

Well our dear departing leader, the great arch-priest of the basilica of Diana, as the site at London is called, is soon to depart, and wishes us all well on the good ship HMS Anglicana. He regrets that he could have done more to forestall any possible splitting over the Gene case in the Usa episcopalian church. But tis all water under the bridge - what more could he have done, good fellow, on such a tricky civil rights ticket as gay rights within the old faith of Cranmer and Becket? Gay rights are now de rigeur, it would have been somewhat mean-minded and churlish of the old boy to have marched over there and cast aspersions or asked for prudence to step away from precipitous action, or cajoled them that this would be a tricky step so early in the history of gay civil rights, especially given that all of us do have a right to privacy nowadays with regard to intimate, personal, and family life, whatever OT regulations about gay activity among sacred ministers used to say. Oh yes, Dr Rowan dun good in this latest interview, and showed great humility, and he is to be wished the best in his new role at a Cambridge quad. We raise our glasses to Rowan here at Oxford quads dot com.

Oh and lo there upon

Lo tis night and the church of england is not ready. We have all sold our thruppence ha'apenny bits and bobs to the rag and bone man and forgot what the concept of institute must look like, especially when society itself is assaulted by the forces of cucumber sandwich and the glass of orange squash, for the next battles will involve children under the tutelage of radicalising feminism, via the awful sites of Facebook and the twit. Forsooth, we are not prepared for this agincourt fair liege Prince Charles and we may need some lessons on why the church of england does exist as institute and institution. As Maggie Smith said of the young Lady Dowager princess Kate Middleton-Stowe, a woman only has a right to her opinion on her wedding day - christian marriage is an institute in itself which can waylay the wearisome drones of feminist exegesis. Verity would say - come all ye faithful. All people that on earth do dwell - as young farmer Giles use to put it. Or as the children of the far north would sing in their weekly assemblies -

I have seen the golden sunshine
I have seen the golden rain
I am happy to live with Jesus
And I wish to sing again.

Forsooth.