At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
According to South Korea's Minister of Defense An Gyu-bak, South Korea has put into serial production the world's most powerful non-nuclear ballistic missile, Hyunmoo-5.
🔻 South Korea, which has committed under international agreements to not possess nuclear weapons, focuses on the power of the non-nuclear warhead of ballistic missiles and the mass production of such missiles to deter North Korea. According to the South Korean Minister of Defense, the missiles will be deployed on combat duty by the end of this year.
🔻 The first public display of the Hyunmoo-5 missile system took place last year during a military parade held to commemorate Armed Forces Day. According to limited available information, the ballistic missile weighs 36 tons, of which 8 tons are the warhead. The flight range reaches 3000 km (according to another version - 3500 km). https://x.com/visionergeo/status/1979839930340659704
North Korea is only 250 miles long so it may overshoot a bit.
The probable reason for the range is that they can go for an extreme elevated trajectory shot. The missile goes up, close to vertical (to a very high altitude - perhaps 1500Km or more) and comes down equally steeply. If it has mid course guidance, it may be able to make its decedent actually vertical.
This would be to get round the problem I mentioned in another post - one way to defend against ballistic missiles is to build facilities on the opposite side of a mountain from where they will launch from. Normally, the warhead will come in at quite an angle - see here : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Peacekeeper-missile-testing.jpg
It's not likely to be a very long-lasting legacy given that Miami is one of the cities most at risk from climate change, particularly from rising sea levels.
According to South Korea's Minister of Defense An Gyu-bak, South Korea has put into serial production the world's most powerful non-nuclear ballistic missile, Hyunmoo-5.
🔻 South Korea, which has committed under international agreements to not possess nuclear weapons, focuses on the power of the non-nuclear warhead of ballistic missiles and the mass production of such missiles to deter North Korea. According to the South Korean Minister of Defense, the missiles will be deployed on combat duty by the end of this year.
🔻 The first public display of the Hyunmoo-5 missile system took place last year during a military parade held to commemorate Armed Forces Day. According to limited available information, the ballistic missile weighs 36 tons, of which 8 tons are the warhead. The flight range reaches 3000 km (according to another version - 3500 km). https://x.com/visionergeo/status/1979839930340659704
North Korea is only 250 miles long so it may overshoot a bit.
The probable reason for the range is that they can go for an extreme elevated trajectory shot. The missile goes up, close to vertical (to a very high altitude - perhaps 1500Km or more) and comes down equally steeply. If it has mid course guidance, it may be able to make its decedent actually vertical.
...one way to defend against ballistic missiles is to build facilities on the opposite side of a mountain from where they will launch from.
Then that's a job for the Mosquitos of 633 Squadron!
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
They sound like Opus Dei, but without the tolerance, open mindedness and modern world view.
It's not likely to be a very long-lasting legacy given that Miami is one of the cities most at risk from climate change, particularly from rising sea levels.
And Lord alone knows where he will park the jet at the Library....
According to South Korea's Minister of Defense An Gyu-bak, South Korea has put into serial production the world's most powerful non-nuclear ballistic missile, Hyunmoo-5.
🔻 South Korea, which has committed under international agreements to not possess nuclear weapons, focuses on the power of the non-nuclear warhead of ballistic missiles and the mass production of such missiles to deter North Korea. According to the South Korean Minister of Defense, the missiles will be deployed on combat duty by the end of this year.
🔻 The first public display of the Hyunmoo-5 missile system took place last year during a military parade held to commemorate Armed Forces Day. According to limited available information, the ballistic missile weighs 36 tons, of which 8 tons are the warhead. The flight range reaches 3000 km (according to another version - 3500 km). https://x.com/visionergeo/status/1979839930340659704
It's the South Korean version of the Japanese long running project of multi-stage solid fuelled orbital launchers.
For those who don't know, no-one uses all solid fuelled rockets for orbital launch as a simple choice. They are almost certainly supporting a military usage, if they do. Modern ICBMs are solid fuelled - low maintenance and quick reaction. They have less performance - liquid fuels have more energy.
The Japanese orbital solid launchers are about having a deterrent. They have lots of plutonium, and a rocket they can use as an ICBM. The deterrent is that "if you push things too far, we can have nuclear weapons and a delivery system in a short time"
In the South Korean case, they are claiming to be just developing a shorter range missile. Though larger than the Poseidon SLBM of yore...
However, if the warhead weight dropped to a ton or half a ton, the Hyunmoo-5 would have the range to go more than half way round the world. They could strike *anywhere* from South Korea. 1-0.5 tons would easily be a first nuclear weapon.
That's part of it. The other part is what it says on the tin: they want a conventional weapon that can penetrate even the deepest bunkers that fat Kim can hide in.
Fat Boi will just have his bunker dug on the North side of some mountains. North Korea has plenty of those.
That's not likely to help against a missile with so much range to spare.
Excellent analysis. Kudos to all involved. A few points. 1. The pilots are clearly NOT suicidal and are not at fault. They did their best to try and save the aircraft. 2. Boeing is also NOT out of the woods either. There is a clear design change required. 3. The authorities have work to do. The FAA to see to it that the proposed changes are evaluated and implemented. The Indian authorities should take immediate action against Air India and ground the entire fleet pending a full review of all aircraft maintenance compliance. 4. All operators of the 787 should take this investigation very seriously and check every single one of their 787s
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I am amazed at how many vicars intend to leave the CoE over gay marriage/blessings etc, and not all of them are conservative evangelicals. I suspect a fair amount of it is positioning to make sure the process is stopped dead in its tracks, which I think is what will happen.
Incidentally, if it does happen and there is an exodus, an awful lot of the evangelicals will in fact stay but would be subject to a multiple split like the anglo catholics over women, who since 1994 have split dramatically into three: those who have gone to Rome etc, those who stay but are traditional with flying bishops, and those who embrace the new order.
I haven't tried to boil down my critique too much, but I roughly think that Jeffrey John had it about right, when he identified faithful, enduring relationships as the key building block - rather than taking a position that gay people had to be told that their loving relationships, even if lifelong, were somehow "invalid", and even "perverted".
The LLF (is that the label - Living in Love and Faith?) process has it framed as roughly "for now we cannot have a meeting of minds, but we need to hold open the possibility for the future". As I see it was always going to be a process taking 50-100 years; things can change that slowly.
I see the insistence on nuclear families and modern Western style marriage (along with priests as male) as being essentially cultural, supported by a modernist attitude to the OT and NT. IMO, ironically modernist culture has nearly died now, and it would be absolutely bloody typical of the Yanks to hitch their wagon to something which is about to vanish, just as Trump is doing with attempt to recreate the geopolitics of the 1950s/70s.
GAFCON and co have imo bought the dummy, and their attempted schism is as much a power grab, which will redefine the communion as embracing "innerrency of scripture", which is not the Anglican trinity of Bible, tradition and reason. But that's just my view.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I am amazed at how many vicars intend to leave the CoE over gay marriage/blessings etc, and not all of them are conservative evangelicals. I suspect a fair amount of it is positioning to make sure the process is stopped dead in its tracks, which I think is what will happen.
Incidentally, if it does happen and there is an exodus, an awful lot of the evangelicals will in fact stay but would be subject to a multiple split like the anglo catholics over women, who since 1994 have split dramatically into three: those who have gone to Rome etc, those who stay but are traditional with flying bishops, and those who embrace the new order.
Not many are really, LLF got a clear majority in the house of clergy in Synod.
Conservative evangelicals have also ensured bishops confirm that bespoke services for same sex couples like same sex marriage in church would need a 2/3 majority as was given for remarriage of divorcees in churches and female clergy and bishops in the C of E by Synod. So no need for flying bishops for them like conservative Anglo Catholics who have not crossed the Tiber have for women clergy.
Indeed the prayers for same sex couples in services approved by Synod are remarkably similar to the non liturgical prayers for same sex couples the Pope and Vatican have approved, which are also made clear to not be same sex marriage services
Given the ages of many members -- and the stress of the job -- it is possible that Democrats will gain 3 -- or more -- seats in special elections before November 2026. And you don't have to know much about American politics to anticipate some of the fights that could develop should that occur.
I can now see the point of Birmingham City council banning the Maccabi football supporters.
Yes and no. Plenty of other teams in UEFA have troublesome hooligans, yet the game in Birmingham is the only time I can recall where away fans have been banned.
No-one suggests that they are the good guys. But the issue is anti-semitism.
No, it really isn't. At least, it probably isn't. The issue is the rioting at their last game in Amsterdam where Israeli fans attacked local Muslims and then it all kicked off bigly as local thugs, many antisemitic no doubt, are up for a ruck. Transferring this scenario to Birmingham is what the police are worried about.
And as I posted earlier, I can remember in the dim and distant past, West Ham fans being banned from European games, so this is not new. Liverpool fans were also famously banned after Heysel. And all this is without betting on Israeli police banning Israeli fans unless you think Tel Aviv's Chief Constable is an Iranian mole.
I too recall the really bad times of the eighties and football violence. Its why I get so pissed off at Liverpool fan sentimentality around Hillsborough (an awful tragedy, to be clear) while one of the biggest reasons for Hillsborough was fan behaviour, such as that displayed by Liverpool fans at Heysel. Yes the police were shits and lied. Yes the stadium was unsafe. But fan behaviour (from all clubs) led to the need for cages at football.
I watch Premiership rugby all the time. There is no segregation. What the eff is wrong with football fans?
But on this specific case, unless we are shown the evidence, I, and many others, will believe it is the threat of antisemitic violence from the pro-Gaza lobby that is the biggest reason for the ban.
FPT (or a recent one anyway):-
The problem is two opposing groups up for a ruck. Have a read of the Jewish Chronicle account of the Amsterdam kerfuffle:-
ETA this might almost be a parable of the Gaza ceasefire breakdown.
Hardly an impartial source there.
Exactly. So when JC pinpoints the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for the initial provocation, we should take that seriously, even although the vast majority of Israeli fans caught up were innocent and even if many antisemites gleefully joined the violence.
And that is the point in Birmingham. Even if we accept there are thousands of would-be Jew-bashers waiting – especially if there are – the last thing the police need is dozens of Israeli fans ready to throw the first punches.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
They sound like Opus Dei, but without the tolerance, open mindedness and modern world view.
I'm sort of "yes, but" on that. I find value in communities thinking and reflecting together; it is one of the things we have lost that makes a society possible. But if it becomes purely a campaign to mobilise and impose, then I am far more sceptical.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I am amazed at how many vicars intend to leave the CoE over gay marriage/blessings etc, and not all of them are conservative evangelicals. I suspect a fair amount of it is positioning to make sure the process is stopped dead in its tracks, which I think is what will happen.
Incidentally, if it does happen and there is an exodus, an awful lot of the evangelicals will in fact stay but would be subject to a multiple split like the anglo catholics over women, who since 1994 have split dramatically into three: those who have gone to Rome etc, those who stay but are traditional with flying bishops, and those who embrace the new order.
I haven't tried to boil down my critique too much, but I roughly think that Jeffrey John had it about right, when he identified faithful, enduring relationships as the key building block - rather than taking a position that gay people had to be told that their loving relationships, even if lifelong, were somehow "invalid", and even "perverted".
The LLF (is that the label - Living in Love and Faith?) process has it framed as roughly "for now we cannot have a meeting of minds, but we need to hold open the possibility for the future". As I see it was always going to be a process taking 50-100 years; things can change that slowly.
I see the insistence on nuclear families and modern Western style marriage (along with priests as male) as being essentially cultural, supported by a modernist attitude to the OT and NT. IMO, ironically modernist culture has nearly died now, and it would be absolutely bloody typical of the Yanks to hitch their wagon to something which is about to vanish, just as Trump is doing with attempt to recreate the geopolitics of the 1950s/70s.
GAFCON and co have imo bought the dummy, and their attempted schism is as much a power grab, which will redefine the communion as embracing "innerrency of scripture", which is not the Anglican trinity of Bible, tradition and reason. But that's just my view.
I tend to think that most of Trump's circle are mushrooms, glove puppets or dependents, except for perhaps Vance, Scott Bessent, Russell Vought and perhaps Rubio
Of that list, the only one capable of finding his own ass with both hands and a map is Vought
According to South Korea's Minister of Defense An Gyu-bak, South Korea has put into serial production the world's most powerful non-nuclear ballistic missile, Hyunmoo-5.
🔻 South Korea, which has committed under international agreements to not possess nuclear weapons, focuses on the power of the non-nuclear warhead of ballistic missiles and the mass production of such missiles to deter North Korea. According to the South Korean Minister of Defense, the missiles will be deployed on combat duty by the end of this year.
🔻 The first public display of the Hyunmoo-5 missile system took place last year during a military parade held to commemorate Armed Forces Day. According to limited available information, the ballistic missile weighs 36 tons, of which 8 tons are the warhead. The flight range reaches 3000 km (according to another version - 3500 km). https://x.com/visionergeo/status/1979839930340659704
It's the South Korean version of the Japanese long running project of multi-stage solid fuelled orbital launchers.
For those who don't know, no-one uses all solid fuelled rockets for orbital launch as a simple choice. They are almost certainly supporting a military usage, if they do. Modern ICBMs are solid fuelled - low maintenance and quick reaction. They have less performance - liquid fuels have more energy.
The Japanese orbital solid launchers are about having a deterrent. They have lots of plutonium, and a rocket they can use as an ICBM. The deterrent is that "if you push things too far, we can have nuclear weapons and a delivery system in a short time"
In the South Korean case, they are claiming to be just developing a shorter range missile. Though larger than the Poseidon SLBM of yore...
However, if the warhead weight dropped to a ton or half a ton, the Hyunmoo-5 would have the range to go more than half way round the world. They could strike *anywhere* from South Korea. 1-0.5 tons would easily be a first nuclear weapon.
The other point, of course, is that it provides (vis a vis N Korea) pretty well all the deterrent effects of a nuclear weapon, without the large financial and diplomatic cost associated with actually developing one.
I can now see the point of Birmingham City council banning the Maccabi football supporters.
Yes and no. Plenty of other teams in UEFA have troublesome hooligans, yet the game in Birmingham is the only time I can recall where away fans have been banned.
No-one suggests that they are the good guys. But the issue is anti-semitism.
No, it really isn't. At least, it probably isn't. The issue is the rioting at their last game in Amsterdam where Israeli fans attacked local Muslims and then it all kicked off bigly as local thugs, many antisemitic no doubt, are up for a ruck. Transferring this scenario to Birmingham is what the police are worried about.
And as I posted earlier, I can remember in the dim and distant past, West Ham fans being banned from European games, so this is not new. Liverpool fans were also famously banned after Heysel. And all this is without betting on Israeli police banning Israeli fans unless you think Tel Aviv's Chief Constable is an Iranian mole.
I too recall the really bad times of the eighties and football violence. Its why I get so pissed off at Liverpool fan sentimentality around Hillsborough (an awful tragedy, to be clear) while one of the biggest reasons for Hillsborough was fan behaviour, such as that displayed by Liverpool fans at Heysel. Yes the police were shits and lied. Yes the stadium was unsafe. But fan behaviour (from all clubs) led to the need for cages at football.
I watch Premiership rugby all the time. There is no segregation. What the eff is wrong with football fans?
But on this specific case, unless we are shown the evidence, I, and many others, will believe it is the threat of antisemitic violence from the pro-Gaza lobby that is the biggest reason for the ban.
FPT (or a recent one anyway):-
The problem is two opposing groups up for a ruck. Have a read of the Jewish Chronicle account of the Amsterdam kerfuffle:-
ETA this might almost be a parable of the Gaza ceasefire breakdown.
Hardly an impartial source there.
Exactly. So when JC pinpoints the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for the initial provocation, we should take that seriously, even although the vast majority of Israeli fans caught up were innocent and even if many antisemites gleefully joined the violence.
And that is the point in Birmingham. Even if we accept there are thousands of would-be Jew-bashers waiting – especially if there are – the last thing the police need is dozens of Israeli fans ready to throw the first punches.
The Police should be able to do their jobs and arrest any of the dozens, or any of the thousands, if they cross the line.
Not say Jews aren't welcome to placate the Jew bashers.
I tend to think that most of Trump's circle are mushrooms, glove puppets or dependents, except for perhaps Vance, Scott Bessent, Russell Vought and perhaps Rubio
Of that list, the only one capable of finding his own ass with both hands and a map is Vought
There's also Miller, albeit he's more or less insane.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
No idea. He must have kept really quiet about it.
I'd be tempted to take my profit around now. A big points score by McLaren at the next GP would rather spoil the numbers.
Even when Mercedes dominated Red Bull used to do well at Mexico, I might wait until Friday to cash out.
Mexico is a weird place because the altitude (7,500’) makes the cars do funny things in the thin air, and it’s an unpredictable race. They look like Monaco cars with the big wings on, but have one of their fastest top speeds of the year on the straight.
That's disappointing. I have a preference for clean-shaven women.
Don't be so Cis-normative 🤫
Its also rather prejudiced against Terry Pratchett's female dwarves.
Warhammer has chosen to depict female Dwarfs as beardless.
This should be more controversial than that they are depicting female Dwarfs, but, alas, the controversy has focussed on that there are females depicted at all.
Well, indeed, females and Warhammer is an oxymoron.
I don't see that it is.
There was quite the online dispute about whether there can be female space marines in Warhammer. It's not a franchise/world I have any emotional investment in so it didn't matter that much to me, but for those who do it was quite the argument. Templin Institute did a vid.
Excellent analysis. Kudos to all involved. A few points. 1. The pilots are clearly NOT suicidal and are not at fault. They did their best to try and save the aircraft. 2. Boeing is also NOT out of the woods either. There is a clear design change required. 3. The authorities have work to do. The FAA to see to it that the proposed changes are evaluated and implemented. The Indian authorities should take immediate action against Air India and ground the entire fleet pending a full review of all aircraft maintenance compliance. 4. All operators of the 787 should take this investigation very seriously and check every single one of their 787s
Which ignores the fact that the black box showed that someone unlatched and moved the both fuel switches to CUTOFF, about 1 second apart. And then the co-pilot clearly asks, in the cockpit audio "Why did you cut them?" - the switches are large and make a distinct sound when operated.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Crashing out in sprint race wasn't exactly ideal for setting up the car for the main race. At that point, it's a bit of a lottery who comes up with the faster setup for the race.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
There is a reason that some thought they'd found the New Messiah. And it was just Paula Vennells.
Large organisation love people who have a Safe Pair of Hands. Who are Team Players.
Excellent analysis. Kudos to all involved. A few points. 1. The pilots are clearly NOT suicidal and are not at fault. They did their best to try and save the aircraft. 2. Boeing is also NOT out of the woods either. There is a clear design change required. 3. The authorities have work to do. The FAA to see to it that the proposed changes are evaluated and implemented. The Indian authorities should take immediate action against Air India and ground the entire fleet pending a full review of all aircraft maintenance compliance. 4. All operators of the 787 should take this investigation very seriously and check every single one of their 787s
Which ignores the fact that the black box showed that someone unlatched and moved the both fuel switches to CUTOFF, about 1 second apart. And then the co-pilot clearly asks, in the cockpit audio "Why did you cut them?" - the switches are large and make a distinct sound when operated.
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
That simply isn't true. I have called out a hundred years of Labour local authority corruption. I have quoted T. Dan Smith from your neck of the woods and Graham Jenkins (Richard Burton's late brother) from mine.
More recently Rochdale has shredded the Conservatives's Lord Ben H. in Teeside.
According to Lord Pack, Reform Councillors are dropping like flies. Why shouldn't that be reported?
According to South Korea's Minister of Defense An Gyu-bak, South Korea has put into serial production the world's most powerful non-nuclear ballistic missile, Hyunmoo-5.
🔻 South Korea, which has committed under international agreements to not possess nuclear weapons, focuses on the power of the non-nuclear warhead of ballistic missiles and the mass production of such missiles to deter North Korea. According to the South Korean Minister of Defense, the missiles will be deployed on combat duty by the end of this year.
🔻 The first public display of the Hyunmoo-5 missile system took place last year during a military parade held to commemorate Armed Forces Day. According to limited available information, the ballistic missile weighs 36 tons, of which 8 tons are the warhead. The flight range reaches 3000 km (according to another version - 3500 km). https://x.com/visionergeo/status/1979839930340659704
It's the South Korean version of the Japanese long running project of multi-stage solid fuelled orbital launchers.
For those who don't know, no-one uses all solid fuelled rockets for orbital launch as a simple choice. They are almost certainly supporting a military usage, if they do. Modern ICBMs are solid fuelled - low maintenance and quick reaction. They have less performance - liquid fuels have more energy.
The Japanese orbital solid launchers are about having a deterrent. They have lots of plutonium, and a rocket they can use as an ICBM. The deterrent is that "if you push things too far, we can have nuclear weapons and a delivery system in a short time"
In the South Korean case, they are claiming to be just developing a shorter range missile. Though larger than the Poseidon SLBM of yore...
However, if the warhead weight dropped to a ton or half a ton, the Hyunmoo-5 would have the range to go more than half way round the world. They could strike *anywhere* from South Korea. 1-0.5 tons would easily be a first nuclear weapon.
The other point, of course, is that it provides (vis a vis N Korea) pretty well all the deterrent effects of a nuclear weapon, without the large financial and diplomatic cost associated with actually developing one.
Which was my point - they are carefully assembling a deterrent of the Japanese kind.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
Fine, if you can't even accept prayers for same sex couples within services NOT even bespoke services or same sex marriages in churches and little different for prayers for same sex couples the Roman Catholic church offers and for which PCCs can opt out of anyway you are probably better off leaving the C of E and becoming Baptist or Pentecostal or free church anyway. Then you can completely reject same sex relationships to your hearts content!
After male sex scandals in the church the choice of a woman Archbishop was also long overdue. Most Anglicans welcome that, there are a few misogynists who don't still but most of those who had genuine theological opposition to women clergy and bishops crossed the Tiber and became Roman Catholic or Orthodox or Baptist long ago. The Church of Nigeria is also from a nation where same sex couples can be jailed. Mullally is a decent person and managed a very complex diocese in London and ideal for the role now
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
That's one issue. I would have said it's also a very surprising pick given Welby was forced out over a major safeguarding breach and the saga of Mulally's mishandling of Martin Sargeant's false allegations still hasn't completely played out.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I am amazed at how many vicars intend to leave the CoE over gay marriage/blessings etc, and not all of them are conservative evangelicals. I suspect a fair amount of it is positioning to make sure the process is stopped dead in its tracks, which I think is what will happen.
Incidentally, if it does happen and there is an exodus, an awful lot of the evangelicals will in fact stay but would be subject to a multiple split like the anglo catholics over women, who since 1994 have split dramatically into three: those who have gone to Rome etc, those who stay but are traditional with flying bishops, and those who embrace the new order.
I haven't tried to boil down my critique too much, but I roughly think that Jeffrey John had it about right, when he identified faithful, enduring relationships as the key building block - rather than taking a position that gay people had to be told that their loving relationships, even if lifelong, were somehow "invalid", and even "perverted".
The LLF (is that the label - Living in Love and Faith?) process has it framed as roughly "for now we cannot have a meeting of minds, but we need to hold open the possibility for the future". As I see it was always going to be a process taking 50-100 years; things can change that slowly.
I see the insistence on nuclear families and modern Western style marriage (along with priests as male) as being essentially cultural, supported by a modernist attitude to the OT and NT. IMO, ironically modernist culture has nearly died now, and it would be absolutely bloody typical of the Yanks to hitch their wagon to something which is about to vanish, just as Trump is doing with attempt to recreate the geopolitics of the 1950s/70s.
GAFCON and co have imo bought the dummy, and their attempted schism is as much a power grab, which will redefine the communion as embracing "innerrency of scripture", which is not the Anglican trinity of Bible, tradition and reason. But that's just my view.
Supporting marriage however has been a core basis for Christianity for over a 1000 years, that is non negotiable
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
That's one issue. I would have said it's also a very surprising pick given Welby was forced out over a major safeguarding breach and the saga of Mulally's mishandling of Martin Sargeant's false allegations still hasn't completely played out.
Sargeant committed fraud from 2009 to 2019 in the diocese of London, for which he was jailed in 2022, Mullally only became Bishop of London in 2018
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
That's one issue. I would have said it's also a very surprising pick given Welby was forced out over a major safeguarding breach and the saga of Mulally's mishandling of Martin Sargeant's false allegations still hasn't completely played out.
Sargeant committed fraud from 2009 to 2019 in the diocese of London, for which he was jailed in 2022, Mullally only became Bishop of London in 2018
Yes, and she was the one who blew the whistle and removed him.
It's not about his fraud, though, that's a separate issue. The problem was that he made numerous (entirely false) allegations against various priests in his exit interview which the diocese of London proceeded to handle so badly they caused one priest to kill himself and drove several others out of their parishes.
Edit - she is also very much seen as a creature of Welby and his corporatism, which is to put it mildly a controversial position in itself. However, I suspect the reason she was appointed is that given her age she will not be around for long (maybe only two or three years) which means there will not be time for opponents of female clergy to schism. And then, when another female Archbishop is chosen, any attempts to cause trouble will be met with, 'well, you accepted Mulally.'
It would actually be a clever strategy but for these other problems.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
In my experience the worst councillors generally come from one party state councils.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
In my experience the worst councillors generally come from one party state councils.
Coughs in a way that sounds suspiciously like 'Welsh Labour.'
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
In my experience the worst councillors generally come from one party state councils.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
In my experience the worst councillors generally come from one party state councils.
We need PR for local council elections.
We need *STV* for local council elections.
It's one of the things the SNP introduced in Scotland that seems to have been unambiguously successful.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
i don't remember Jos Verstappen causing many crashes. That may be of course because his car was so slow he didn't have the chance to.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I am amazed at how many vicars intend to leave the CoE over gay marriage/blessings etc, and not all of them are conservative evangelicals. I suspect a fair amount of it is positioning to make sure the process is stopped dead in its tracks, which I think is what will happen.
Incidentally, if it does happen and there is an exodus, an awful lot of the evangelicals will in fact stay but would be subject to a multiple split like the anglo catholics over women, who since 1994 have split dramatically into three: those who have gone to Rome etc, those who stay but are traditional with flying bishops, and those who embrace the new order.
I haven't tried to boil down my critique too much, but I roughly think that Jeffrey John had it about right, when he identified faithful, enduring relationships as the key building block - rather than taking a position that gay people had to be told that their loving relationships, even if lifelong, were somehow "invalid", and even "perverted".
The LLF (is that the label - Living in Love and Faith?) process has it framed as roughly "for now we cannot have a meeting of minds, but we need to hold open the possibility for the future". As I see it was always going to be a process taking 50-100 years; things can change that slowly.
I see the insistence on nuclear families and modern Western style marriage (along with priests as male) as being essentially cultural, supported by a modernist attitude to the OT and NT. IMO, ironically modernist culture has nearly died now, and it would be absolutely bloody typical of the Yanks to hitch their wagon to something which is about to vanish, just as Trump is doing with attempt to recreate the geopolitics of the 1950s/70s.
GAFCON and co have imo bought the dummy, and their attempted schism is as much a power grab, which will redefine the communion as embracing "innerrency of scripture", which is not the Anglican trinity of Bible, tradition and reason. But that's just my view.
Supporting marriage however has been a core basis for Christianity for over a 1000 years, that is non negotiable
Didn't God marry the mother of His only begotten son?
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
Sir Jackie’s a bit of a bellend these days, he keeps on slagging off Sir Lewis Hamilton
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
Yes. And 5000x£1000 = £5,000,000. Which for someone is a nice little earner. It's a growth industry, not wholly run by poverty embracing altruistic idealism I suspect.
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
In my experience the worst councillors generally come from one party state councils.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
Sir Jackie’s a bit of a bellend these days, he keeps on slagging off Sir Lewis Hamilton
He’s been doing it for ages. I seem to remember thinking it was when Lewis was in line to match his three titles and he started getting really critical and personal and has been ever since. The only rational reason is professional jealousy. I lost all respect for Stewart because of it.
Excellent analysis. Kudos to all involved. A few points. 1. The pilots are clearly NOT suicidal and are not at fault. They did their best to try and save the aircraft. 2. Boeing is also NOT out of the woods either. There is a clear design change required. 3. The authorities have work to do. The FAA to see to it that the proposed changes are evaluated and implemented. The Indian authorities should take immediate action against Air India and ground the entire fleet pending a full review of all aircraft maintenance compliance. 4. All operators of the 787 should take this investigation very seriously and check every single one of their 787s
Which ignores the fact that the black box showed that someone unlatched and moved the both fuel switches to CUTOFF, about 1 second apart. And then the co-pilot clearly asks, in the cockpit audio "Why did you cut them?" - the switches are large and make a distinct sound when operated.
Has the complete CVR transcript been released? I think not.
Based on Richard Godfrey's highly plausible report, the crash was directly caused by water entering a sensitive electronics bay, which triggered an electrical short and caused both engines to shut down as a safety measure.
The root of this was a failure in maintenance philosophy. The airline, Air India, was focused on corrective maintenance - constantly fixing problems as they broke - rather than preventive maintenance, which proactively hunts for and fixes potential issues before they become dangerous. This "fix-it-when-it-breaks" approach, often driven by a desire to maximize profits and keep planes flying, allowed a known vulnerability (in this case, likely a faulty seal) to persist, with tragic consequences.
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
That is interesting.
No idea how credible it all is, but I liked the reference to the black humour propaganda articles.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
Yes. And 5000x£1000 = £5,000,000. Which for someone is a nice little earner. It's a growth industry, not wholly run by poverty embracing altruistic idealism I suspect.
Interesting comment from their 2025 South African event. I didn't know I needed saved.
Throughout the week it was impressed on Southern Africans in attendance to not take the fruits of Christianity for granted. Cultural fruit, no matter how seemingly secure, can be lost if severed from its root. Of this stark reality, the UK is a disturbing example – a nation now fighting for its Christian soul in the areas of end-of-life care, marriage, God-given sexual identity, protection of women-only spaces and a host of others.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
Sir Jackie’s a bit of a bellend these days, he keeps on slagging off Sir Lewis Hamilton
I never really took to Stewart. He was always rather precious ( understandable for the times). He also came across as a professional Scotsman. A Scotsman who happened to live on Lake Geneva.
You are probably too young to remember his relentless safe driving campaigns, one of which was colloquially know as "keep your balls on your bonnet".
He was unlikely to drive a fellow competitor off the track though.
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
Sir Jackie’s a bit of a bellend these days, he keeps on slagging off Sir Lewis Hamilton
He’s been doing it for ages. I seem to remember thinking it was when Lewis was in line to match his three titles and he started getting really critical and personal and has been ever since. The only rational reason is professional jealousy. I lost all respect for Stewart because of it.
Yup, there was a clip a few years ago when Stewart downplayed Hamilton’s titles because none of Hamilton’s contemporaries have died, like does Jules Bianchi not count?
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
That is interesting.
No idea how credible it all is, but I liked the reference to the black humour propaganda articles.
Yet another area of instability is probably not what is needed right now but Xi has been increasingly unpredictable in recent times. No saying his successor will be better, of course.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
Yes. And 5000x£1000 = £5,000,000. Which for someone is a nice little earner. It's a growth industry, not wholly run by poverty embracing altruistic idealism I suspect.
Interesting comment from their 2025 South African event. I didn't know I needed saved.
Throughout the week it was impressed on Southern Africans in attendance to not take the fruits of Christianity for granted. Cultural fruit, no matter how seemingly secure, can be lost if severed from its root. Of this stark reality, the UK is a disturbing example – a nation now fighting for its Christian soul in the areas of end-of-life care, marriage, God-given sexual identity, protection of women-only spaces and a host of others.
Same sex marriage of course also now legal in South Africa and the USA
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
"I had Republican colleagues in the House that told me about how they fear for their lives or the safety of their families with the threats that they're getting."
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
Presumably, of the others, one third function as vegetables and the last third as minerals?
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
That is interesting.
No idea how credible it all is, but I liked the reference to the black humour propaganda articles.
Yet another area of instability is probably not what is needed right now but Xi has been increasingly unpredictable in recent times. No saying his successor will be better, of course.
We had some earlier discussion about changes in senior personnel in the PLA, where I was worried that it could be Xi purging those reluctant to invade Taiwan in the near future.
A purge of Xi loyalists is preferable, though I wouldn't go any further than that.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
That's one issue. I would have said it's also a very surprising pick given Welby was forced out over a major safeguarding breach and the saga of Mulally's mishandling of Martin Sargeant's false allegations still hasn't completely played out.
Sargeant committed fraud from 2009 to 2019 in the diocese of London, for which he was jailed in 2022, Mullally only became Bishop of London in 2018
Yes, and she was the one who blew the whistle and removed him.
It's not about his fraud, though, that's a separate issue. The problem was that he made numerous (entirely false) allegations against various priests in his exit interview which the diocese of London proceeded to handle so badly they caused one priest to kill himself and drove several others out of their parishes.
Edit - she is also very much seen as a creature of Welby and his corporatism, which is to put it mildly a controversial position in itself. However, I suspect the reason she was appointed is that given her age she will not be around for long (maybe only two or three years) which means there will not be time for opponents of female clergy to schism. And then, when another female Archbishop is chosen, any attempts to cause trouble will be met with, 'well, you accepted Mulally.'
It would actually be a clever strategy but for these other problems.
Such allegations would still have needed to have been investigated though even if they ultimately proved to be false.
She also is not Welby, she is much more focused on England and its Parishes, whereas Welby wanted to basically be close to a global Pope of the Anglican Communion.
She is also less evangelical and more liberal Catholic than Welby. She also made clear by nodding her head she disapproved of Welby's final speech in the Lords. After too many male sex scandals in the church a woman was also needed in terms of perception by the public to lead the Church of England.
2/3 of Synod approved female clergy and bishops anyway and even GAFCON and the Church of Nigeria are more concerned about Mullally's authoring LLF than her sex. So the fact she will serve less than 10 years is not a big issue.
Generally conservative evangelicals hate recognition of same sex relationships more than they hate women clergy while conservative Anglo Catholics largely hate female ordination more than they hate any recognition of same sex relationships and most of the latter who were already most anti women priests have crossed the Tiber anyway!
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
Sir Jackie’s a bit of a bellend these days, he keeps on slagging off Sir Lewis Hamilton
I never really took to Stewart. He was always rather precious ( understandable for the times). He also came across as a professional Scotsman. A Scotsman who happened to live on Lake Geneva.
You are probably too young to remember his relentless safe driving campaigns, one of which was colloquially know as "keep your balls on your bonnet".
He was unlikely to drive a fellow competitor off the track though.
Given that he drove in the days when dying on the track was thought part of the job, it's not surprising he was interested in safety.
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
That is interesting.
No idea how credible it all is, but I liked the reference to the black humour propaganda articles.
Yet another area of instability is probably not what is needed right now but Xi has been increasingly unpredictable in recent times. No saying his successor will be better, of course.
We had some earlier discussion about changes in senior personnel in the PLA, where I was worried that it could be Xi purging those reluctant to invade Taiwan in the near future.
A purge of Xi loyalists is preferable, though I wouldn't go any further than that.
Or it could be something as simple as them overdoing the financial corruption. Really there isn't a good way of knowing until more information emerges.
Sweden called on European countries to shift into war mode to defend and sustain peace, Defense Minister Pål Jonson told RND. Around 90 percent of Swedes support maintaining or expanding aid to Ukraine, he said. https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1979949719737500141
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
Yes. And 5000x£1000 = £5,000,000. Which for someone is a nice little earner. It's a growth industry, not wholly run by poverty embracing altruistic idealism I suspect.
Interesting comment from their 2025 South African event. I didn't know I needed saved.
Throughout the week it was impressed on Southern Africans in attendance to not take the fruits of Christianity for granted. Cultural fruit, no matter how seemingly secure, can be lost if severed from its root. Of this stark reality, the UK is a disturbing example – a nation now fighting for its Christian soul in the areas of end-of-life care, marriage, God-given sexual identity, protection of women-only spaces and a host of others.
Same sex marriage of course also now legal in South Africa and the USA
A fairly uniform theme of culturally conservative Christian groups when they condemn various groups is that they studiously avoid direct dealing with divorce and remarriage, even though Jesus (and Paul) ban this altogether and class it with adultery (even the well known 'Matthew exception' does this). This has to be because the subject risks othering the wrong people - their own family, friends, congregations and sometimes themselves. Which would never do.
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
Doesn't Xi have the final say on this sort of thing?
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
That's one issue. I would have said it's also a very surprising pick given Welby was forced out over a major safeguarding breach and the saga of Mulally's mishandling of Martin Sargeant's false allegations still hasn't completely played out.
Sargeant committed fraud from 2009 to 2019 in the diocese of London, for which he was jailed in 2022, Mullally only became Bishop of London in 2018
Yes, and she was the one who blew the whistle and removed him.
It's not about his fraud, though, that's a separate issue. The problem was that he made numerous (entirely false) allegations against various priests in his exit interview which the diocese of London proceeded to handle so badly they caused one priest to kill himself and drove several others out of their parishes.
Edit - she is also very much seen as a creature of Welby and his corporatism, which is to put it mildly a controversial position in itself. However, I suspect the reason she was appointed is that given her age she will not be around for long (maybe only two or three years) which means there will not be time for opponents of female clergy to schism. And then, when another female Archbishop is chosen, any attempts to cause trouble will be met with, 'well, you accepted Mulally.'
It would actually be a clever strategy but for these other problems.
Such allegations would still have needed to have been investigated though even if they ultimately proved to be false.
She also is not Welby, she is much more focused on England and its Parishes, whereas Welby wanted to basically be close to a global Pope of the Anglican Communion.
She is also less evangelical and more liberal Catholic than Welby. She also made clear by nodding her head she disapproved of Welby's final speech in the Lords. After too many male sex scandals in the church a woman was also needed in terms of perception by the public to lead the Church of England.
2/3 of Synod approved female clergy and bishops anyway and even GAFCON and the Church of Nigeria are more concerned about Mullally's authoring LLF than her sex. So the fact she will serve less than 10 years is not a big issue.
Generally conservative evangelicals hate recognition of same sex relationships more than they hate women clergy while conservative Anglo Catholics largely hate female ordination more than they hate any recognition of same sex relationships and most of the latter who were already most anti women priests have crossed the Tiber anyway!
There is absolutely nothing but pure prejudice and bigotry to hate same sex relationships
Not in my name as a quiet Christian who has seen religious bigotry and how it affects lives
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
Doesn't Xi have the final say on this sort of thing?
F1: Ladbrokes has Verstappen at 2.5, favourite for the title. Astonishing given he's 40 odd points off the lead with just five races.
Betfair has Piastri favourite at 2.7, with Norris and Verstappen essentially tied at 3.1(ish) each.
Who was that modest and self effacing chap who recently tipped Verstappen at 12s?
Ha, well, I hope it comes off. I backed Piastri each way at 14 and Verstappen just to win at 4 (admittedly with tiny stakes).
It's still odds against... but not by much.
The odds for the GP were actually astonishingly correct. Verstappen 8-15, Norris 2-1 I think. 20s/50s other manufacturers (Incl Ferrari) were correct. If Leclerc hadn't held up Norris he might have won. Piastri seems to be in a slump tbh
Just what is going on with Piastri ? He was significantly slower than Norris this weekend just gone, up to now they've been fairly level and the difference has been mistakes to seperate them. This wasn't like that, the car is clearly still better than the Ferrari yet Piastri was significantly slower than both Norris and Leclerc.
Piastri seems to be annoyed he lost a place to Norris in the last race and Norris didn’t give it back and McLaren were fine with it.
Norris has definitely upped his racecraft, adding an element of aggression which was previously absent.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
Honourable mention to Damon Hill as well.
And his Dad and Sir Jackie. Most of the sixties and seventies F1 Champions shared the jeopardy of their chosen career with their fellow drivers.
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
Sir Jackie’s a bit of a bellend these days, he keeps on slagging off Sir Lewis Hamilton
"Grand Prix enthusiasts may be worried by the amount of time it has taken me to get into this Lotus Formula Three. What they don't realize is, although Le Chiffre thinks he has a faster car than me, I am faster in my Lotus Formula Three. Hee Hee!"
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
That's one issue. I would have said it's also a very surprising pick given Welby was forced out over a major safeguarding breach and the saga of Mulally's mishandling of Martin Sargeant's false allegations still hasn't completely played out.
Sargeant committed fraud from 2009 to 2019 in the diocese of London, for which he was jailed in 2022, Mullally only became Bishop of London in 2018
Yes, and she was the one who blew the whistle and removed him.
It's not about his fraud, though, that's a separate issue. The problem was that he made numerous (entirely false) allegations against various priests in his exit interview which the diocese of London proceeded to handle so badly they caused one priest to kill himself and drove several others out of their parishes.
Edit - she is also very much seen as a creature of Welby and his corporatism, which is to put it mildly a controversial position in itself. However, I suspect the reason she was appointed is that given her age she will not be around for long (maybe only two or three years) which means there will not be time for opponents of female clergy to schism. And then, when another female Archbishop is chosen, any attempts to cause trouble will be met with, 'well, you accepted Mulally.'
It would actually be a clever strategy but for these other problems.
Such allegations would still have needed to have been investigated though even if they ultimately proved to be false.
She also is not Welby, she is much more focused on England and its Parishes, whereas Welby wanted to basically be close to a global Pope of the Anglican Communion.
She is also less evangelical and more liberal Catholic than Welby. She also made clear by nodding her head she disapproved of Welby's final speech in the Lords. After too many male sex scandals in the church a woman was also needed in terms of perception by the public to lead the Church of England.
2/3 of Synod approved female clergy and bishops anyway and even GAFCON and the Church of Nigeria are more concerned about Mullally's authoring LLF than her sex. So the fact she will serve less than 10 years is not a big issue.
Generally conservative evangelicals hate recognition of same sex relationships more than they hate women clergy while conservative Anglo Catholics largely hate female ordination more than they hate any recognition of same sex relationships and most of the latter who were already most anti women priests have crossed the Tiber anyway!
There is absolutely nothing but pure prejudice and bigotry to hate same sex relationships
Not in my name as a quiet Christian who has seen religious bigotry and how it affects lives
I am not opposed to the prayers for same sex couples married or civilly partnered in UK law either, although I would reserve holy matrimony in church for one man and one woman personally
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
Doesn't Xi have the final say on this sort of thing?
Apparently not, or at least not any more. The CCP structures he controls have allegedly been bypassed. The fact that someone can do that (if it is a fact) and still be breathing would suggest that things are changing.
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
Doesn't Xi have the final say on this sort of thing?
Apparently not, or at least not any more. The CCP structures he controls have allegedly been bypassed. The fact that someone can do that (if it is a fact) and still be breathing would suggest that things are changing.
I can now see the point of Birmingham City council banning the Maccabi football supporters.
Yes and no. Plenty of other teams in UEFA have troublesome hooligans, yet the game in Birmingham is the only time I can recall where away fans have been banned.
No-one suggests that they are the good guys. But the issue is anti-semitism.
No, it really isn't. At least, it probably isn't. The issue is the rioting at their last game in Amsterdam where Israeli fans attacked local Muslims and then it all kicked off bigly as local thugs, many antisemitic no doubt, are up for a ruck. Transferring this scenario to Birmingham is what the police are worried about.
And as I posted earlier, I can remember in the dim and distant past, West Ham fans being banned from European games, so this is not new. Liverpool fans were also famously banned after Heysel. And all this is without betting on Israeli police banning Israeli fans unless you think Tel Aviv's Chief Constable is an Iranian mole.
I think it's a bit more complicated than that.
That said: given the issue was not specifically with the Villa, I cannot understand why there were not measures implemented to bus Macabee fans in from outside Birmingham. This happens all the time when there is the possibility of violent confrontations. That they did not reflects very poorly on the authorities.
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
Doesn't Xi have the final say on this sort of thing?
Apparently not, or at least not any more. The CCP structures he controls have allegedly been bypassed. The fact that someone can do that (if it is a fact) and still be breathing would suggest that things are changing.
Brace?
Maybe a little premature but a wary eye seems sensible.
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
The important bit of this interesting post is the seven words I have put in bold.
It's potentially a vector for American style politics into here, whatever your view of the content.
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
Yes. And 5000x£1000 = £5,000,000. Which for someone is a nice little earner. It's a growth industry, not wholly run by poverty embracing altruistic idealism I suspect.
Interesting comment from their 2025 South African event. I didn't know I needed saved.
Throughout the week it was impressed on Southern Africans in attendance to not take the fruits of Christianity for granted. Cultural fruit, no matter how seemingly secure, can be lost if severed from its root. Of this stark reality, the UK is a disturbing example – a nation now fighting for its Christian soul in the areas of end-of-life care, marriage, God-given sexual identity, protection of women-only spaces and a host of others.
Same sex marriage of course also now legal in South Africa and the USA
A fairly uniform theme of culturally conservative Christian groups when they condemn various groups is that they studiously avoid direct dealing with divorce and remarriage, even though Jesus (and Paul) ban this altogether and class it with adultery (even the well known 'Matthew exception' does this). This has to be because the subject risks othering the wrong people - their own family, friends, congregations and sometimes themselves. Which would never do.
Generally yes, with a few exceptions like Southern Baptists who only allow remarriage after divorce if the spouse of the divorced was the one who committed adultery (basically the grounds Jesus allowed it in Matthew).
The Vatican is at least consistent, it does not allow remarriage after divorce for those married in Roman Catholic churches except with an annulment (even megastar Pavarotti had to get remarried in a theatre not a Catholic cathedral like his first marriage and Henry VIII of course created the C of E in the first place as the Pope refused him a divorce). Just as it also does not allow female bishops and clergy, in line with the teachings of Paul even though Jesus never opposed them and just as it also does not allow services for or same sex marriages in church, reserving holy matrimony for one man and one woman as Jesus taught, although the Vatican does at least now allow non liturgical prayers for same sex couples and many conservative evangelical churches won't even do those
Normal politics. You'd probably find the same sort of thing happening in other councils and other parties over the years.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
I once suggested to OGH that about one third of local councillors were capable of purely animal functions.
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
Presumably, of the others, one third function as vegetables and the last third as minerals?
Waitress: Would you like to order, sir? Thatcher: Yes. I will have the steak. Waitress: How would you like it? Thatcher: Oh, raw, please. Waitress: And what about the Vegetables? Thatcher: Oh, they'll have the same as me!
At breakfast I was having an interesting little dig into Mrs James Orr aka Rev Helen Orr, who is a Church of England vicar, and daughter of Simon Barrington-Ward, who was a REALLY interesting Bishop of Coventry about 3 decades ago, and also head of the Church Missionary Society for a decade, and interested in contemplative spirituality. She herself is interested in societal questions such as how girls can grow into women in our current cultural environment. But the trail stopped when I needed to follow it to substack.
Fascinating situational dynamics for someone who is SWMBO to one of JD Vance's key mentors.
Good morning everyone.
Looks like his wife is a C of E vicar in Cambridgeshire. C of E vicars like civil servants (and often CEOs and directors of large companies) are normally discouraged from getting too involved in party politics though there is nothing to stop their spouses doing so
Yes - the last week or two I've been listening to a little Youtubing from a Vicar in Chalfont St Giles called Rev Dan Beasley (about 20k subs - so notable but not substantial), as he does some of reflecting around movements such as ARC, and movements in the Church of England and Anglican Communion. He takes care with the limitations imposed on him by his public role where he has the "cure of souls" of the whole parish.
But he's told his bishop that he will find it very difficult to stay in the CofE if gay marriage comes in. I can't quite catch the precise tenor of his stance (probably "mainstream traditional evangelical still wrestling to find his view"), but the basics are reminiscent of that taken in 1991 by people like David Holloway when Reform was set up. That positioning is clear, but to me seems less self-consciously sharp-elbowed and has his face set less "like flint" than say William Taylor or other "Reformed" people.
His take on attending ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) was interesting, where he contrasted attending in person, with newspapers reporting over the internet. His critique is that "ARC" the movement was promoting "cultural Christianity" rather than "the Gospel itself". "Cultural Christianity" is likely to be code for "the form of the religion, but not the heart thereof" in evangelical language, and is deployed in all sort of ways.
This is his vid - quite long, but it gives a good idea of the tensions vicars in that stream are dealing with, and where they are coming from. There's useful summary in the last few minutes if anyone just to dip in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV98xcd12xM
* For anyone not following, ARC is the Jordan Peterson / Baroness Philippa Stroud movement looking to "Create a Better Story" (ie imo trying to create a new societal culture to follow on from what we have now). I had not realised that ARC 2025 in London had nearly 5000 people attending paying around £1000 each for 3 days just for the conference itself.
I'm going to a PPC meeting tonight in which there will be a lot of pressure (and possibly a decision) to leave the CofE (normal parish churches can't, but we're a rather odd setup and theoretically can).
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
I wish you well - for the meeting and for the outcome. Meetings like that can be very stressful.
In the single market we could do our own trade deals unlike in a Customs Union and by 2028 we will not have had free movement from the EEA for 7 years, equivalent to the transition controls Blair could have imposed from 2004
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
Doesn't Xi have the final say on this sort of thing?
Apparently not, or at least not any more. The CCP structures he controls have allegedly been bypassed. The fact that someone can do that (if it is a fact) and still be breathing would suggest that things are changing.
Xi broke the compact: that leaders would rule for a decade, and then would hand over to a successor.
He's also ruling at a time when the Chinese growth model (even before Trump's tariffs) was spluttering a bit.
And there are also lots of Senior Chinese who are unhappy with Xi's direct confrontation with Taiwan approach. (Before Xi, the policy was smothering Taiwan with love: a reopening of flight routes, etc., with the goal of first Finlandization, and then later assimilation.)
Put those together (plus the fact that people will be wondering if Xi picked the wrong side in the Russia conflict) and there was always going to be rumbling below the surface.
The question is: what can Xi do about it? Can he arrest the army leaders and reassert control?
Comments
5000 are significant numbers of movers and shakers, which is on the scale of a party conference. There have also been "summer schools" running since 2010 alongside Christian Concern for Our Nation, called the Wilberforce Academy, for about 15 years now.
I tend to be sceptical, but again it's not something I have dug into deeply, other than knowing the predecessor movements from the 90s and noughties. I believe in the engagement and process of relation of faith to society, but not in the imo overly exclusive and morally authoritarian point of view that this group exhibits.
This would be to get round the problem I mentioned in another post - one way to defend against ballistic missiles is to build facilities on the opposite side of a mountain from where they will launch from. Normally, the warhead will come in at quite an angle - see here : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Peacekeeper-missile-testing.jpg
It's still odds against... but not by much.
Edited: anyway, I must be off.
1. The pilots are clearly NOT suicidal and are not at fault. They did their best to try and save the aircraft.
2. Boeing is also NOT out of the woods either. There is a clear design change required.
3. The authorities have work to do. The FAA to see to it that the proposed changes are evaluated and implemented. The Indian authorities should take immediate action against Air India and ground the entire fleet pending a full review of all aircraft maintenance compliance.
4. All operators of the 787 should take this investigation very seriously and check every single one of their 787s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM-r_J63uhA
He must have kept really quiet about it.
I'd be tempted to take my profit around now.
A big points score by McLaren at the next GP would rather spoil the numbers.
The LLF (is that the label - Living in Love and Faith?) process has it framed as roughly "for now we cannot have a meeting of minds, but we need to hold open the possibility for the future". As I see it was always going to be a process taking 50-100 years; things can change that slowly.
I see the insistence on nuclear families and modern Western style marriage (along with priests as male) as being essentially cultural, supported by a modernist attitude to the OT and NT. IMO, ironically modernist culture has nearly died now, and it would be absolutely bloody typical of the Yanks to hitch their wagon to something which is about to vanish, just as Trump is doing with attempt to recreate the geopolitics of the 1950s/70s.
GAFCON and co have imo bought the dummy, and their attempted schism is as much a power grab, which will redefine the communion as embracing "innerrency of scripture", which is not the Anglican trinity of Bible, tradition and reason. But that's just my view.
Conservative evangelicals have also ensured bishops confirm that bespoke services for same sex couples like same sex marriage in church would need a 2/3 majority as was given for remarriage of divorcees in churches and female clergy and bishops in the C of E by Synod. So no need for flying bishops for them like conservative Anglo Catholics who have not crossed the Tiber have for women clergy.
Indeed the prayers for same sex couples in services approved by Synod are remarkably similar to the non liturgical prayers for same sex couples the Pope and Vatican have approved, which are also made clear to not be same sex marriage services
Currently, there are 219 Republicans, 213 Democrats, and three vacancies. A majority is 218.
(As soon as Adelita Grijalva (Arizona 7) is sworn in, the Democrats will have 214.)
I expect each party will win one of the two other vacancies (Texas 18 (D) and Tennessee 7 (R). So, early in December the party balance will, almost certainly, be 220 R to 215 D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_representatives#Vacancies
Given the ages of many members -- and the stress of the job -- it is possible that Democrats will gain 3 -- or more -- seats in special elections before November 2026. And you don't have to know much about American politics to anticipate some of the fights that could develop should that occur.
(If so, there would be some parallels to what happened after the 1930 election: Republicans won a narrow majority, but lost it in special elections before the House convened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections )
And that is the point in Birmingham. Even if we accept there are thousands of would-be Jew-bashers waiting – especially if there are – the last thing the police need is dozens of Israeli fans ready to throw the first punches.
Have a good afternoon, all.
Not say Jews aren't welcome to placate the Jew bashers.
Frequently, any reader of Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs over the years will see that. however this forum is obsessed with Reform councillors for some obscure reason. Holding them to a far higher standard than others. 🤷♂️
To me they aren’t ’none of the above’ they’re just the same as the above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZatVIVggl0 (13 mins)
https://media.assettype.com/thenewsminute/2025-07-13/5nbqav4e/GvqhDsKXkAAHcvn.jpeg?w=1200&auto=format,compress&fit=max
The choice of Sarah Mullay as Archbishop of Canterbury is remarkably poor - even if you don't care about questions of gay marriage or female leadership (the two big questions over which the CoE, and indeed worldwide Anglicanism is currently ripping itself to shreds) she's the most "process state, managerialist decline" pick imaginable. Could they not have found someone marginally more (small c) charismatic?
At that point, it's a bit of a lottery who comes up with the faster setup for the race.
Large organisation love people who have a Safe Pair of Hands. Who are Team Players.
More recently Rochdale has shredded the Conservatives's Lord Ben H. in Teeside.
According to Lord Pack, Reform Councillors are dropping like flies. Why shouldn't that be reported?
I expect Taiwan to do so as well.
After male sex scandals in the church the choice of a woman Archbishop was also long overdue. Most Anglicans welcome that, there are a few misogynists who don't still but most of those who had genuine theological opposition to women clergy and bishops crossed the Tiber and became Roman Catholic or Orthodox or Baptist long ago. The Church of Nigeria is also from a nation where same sex couples can be jailed. Mullally is a decent person and managed a very complex diocese in London and ideal for the role now
He said I was being generous.
We have both been local councillors.
It would appear that 9 of Xi Jingping's closest advisors and supporters have all been purged from the PLA by Zhang Youxia just before the Fourth Plenary Session of the CCP. Or, to put it another way, Xi has lost control of the army. Which may make him kind of vulnerable.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qpz39jpj7o
It's not about his fraud, though, that's a separate issue. The problem was that he made numerous (entirely false) allegations against various priests in his exit interview which the diocese of London proceeded to handle so badly they caused one priest to kill himself and drove several others out of their parishes.
Edit - she is also very much seen as a creature of Welby and his corporatism, which is to put it mildly a controversial position in itself. However, I suspect the reason she was appointed is that given her age she will not be around for long (maybe only two or three years) which means there will not be time for opponents of female clergy to schism. And then, when another female Archbishop is chosen, any attempts to cause trouble will be met with, 'well, you accepted Mulally.'
It would actually be a clever strategy but for these other problems.
Gentlemen don't become F1 champions (Jim Clark excepted).
It was during the eighties and nineties that things changed and Prost, Piquet, Senna and Schumacher would have been quite content to send a fellow competitor into the Armco. Verstappen, and his Dad before him have taken that notion up a notch or two.
It's one of the things the SNP introduced in Scotland that seems to have been unambiguously successful.
There are 7 Council By-Elections taking place this week:
🌹 Moseley (Birmingham)
🌹 New Town & Christ Church (Colchester)
🌳 Whittlesey North West (Fenland)
🌳 Dunster (Somerset)
🔶 Glastonbury (Somerset)
🏘️ Paulsgrove (Portsmouth)
🙋 Milton & Tamarside (Torridge)"
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1980212166117708184
Based on Richard Godfrey's highly plausible report, the crash was directly caused by water entering a sensitive electronics bay, which triggered an electrical short and caused both engines to shut down as a safety measure.
The root of this was a failure in maintenance philosophy. The airline, Air India, was focused on corrective maintenance - constantly fixing problems as they broke - rather than preventive maintenance, which proactively hunts for and fixes potential issues before they become dangerous. This "fix-it-when-it-breaks" approach, often driven by a desire to maximize profits and keep planes flying, allowed a known vulnerability (in this case, likely a faulty seal) to persist, with tragic consequences.
No idea how credible it all is, but I liked the reference to the black humour propaganda articles.
You are probably too young to remember his relentless safe driving campaigns, one of which was colloquially know as "keep your balls on your bonnet".
He was unlikely to drive a fellow competitor off the track though.
"From their own political base, I want to emphasize that."
https://x.com/BulwarkOnline/status/1979978600699801770
A purge of Xi loyalists is preferable, though I wouldn't go any further than that.
She also is not Welby, she is much more focused on England and its Parishes, whereas Welby wanted to basically be close to a global Pope of the Anglican Communion.
She is also less evangelical and more liberal Catholic than Welby. She also made clear by nodding her head she disapproved of Welby's final speech in the Lords. After too many male sex scandals in the church a woman was also needed in terms of perception by the public to lead the Church of England.
2/3 of Synod approved female clergy and bishops anyway and even GAFCON and the Church of Nigeria are more concerned about Mullally's authoring LLF than her sex. So the fact she will serve less than 10 years is not a big issue.
Generally conservative evangelicals hate recognition of same sex relationships more than they hate women clergy while conservative Anglo Catholics largely hate female ordination more than they hate any recognition of same sex relationships and most of the latter who were already most anti women priests have crossed the Tiber anyway!
Really there isn't a good way of knowing until more information emerges.
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1979949719737500141
Not in my name as a quiet Christian who has seen religious bigotry and how it affects lives
But if he means it, then "rejoin" should be party policy;
https://x.com/EdwardJDavey/status/1980179105321726427
That said: given the issue was not specifically with the Villa, I cannot understand why there were not measures implemented to bus Macabee fans in from outside Birmingham. This happens all the time when there is the possibility of violent confrontations. That they did not reflects very poorly on the authorities.
The Vatican is at least consistent, it does not allow remarriage after divorce for those married in Roman Catholic churches except with an annulment (even megastar Pavarotti had to get remarried in a theatre not a Catholic cathedral like his first marriage and Henry VIII of course created the C of E in the first place as the Pope refused him a divorce). Just as it also does not allow female bishops and clergy, in line with the teachings of Paul even though Jesus never opposed them and just as it also does not allow services for or same sex marriages in church, reserving holy matrimony for one man and one woman as Jesus taught, although the Vatican does at least now allow non liturgical prayers for same sex couples and many conservative evangelical churches won't even do those
Thatcher: Yes. I will have the steak.
Waitress: How would you like it?
Thatcher: Oh, raw, please.
Waitress: And what about the Vegetables?
Thatcher: Oh, they'll have the same as me!
He's also ruling at a time when the Chinese growth model (even before Trump's tariffs) was spluttering a bit.
And there are also lots of Senior Chinese who are unhappy with Xi's direct confrontation with Taiwan approach. (Before Xi, the policy was smothering Taiwan with love: a reopening of flight routes, etc., with the goal of first Finlandization, and then later assimilation.)
Put those together (plus the fact that people will be wondering if Xi picked the wrong side in the Russia conflict) and there was always going to be rumbling below the surface.
The question is: what can Xi do about it? Can he arrest the army leaders and reassert control?
Or will there be a compromise?
Or is this a prelude to Xi's departure?