Crannóggy Island

USA v Netherlands   🙄 England v Senegal 🙂 Will England meet the USA in the World Cup Final?  🤐

Versus Jack predicts USA 3 - 0 Iran  

Worshipers at Trinity College chapel, University of Cambridge, were treated to a "sermon" that claimed that Jesus’ side wound in Renaissance and Medieval paintings of the crucifixion can be likened to a vagina, suggesting Jesus could have been transgender. The wound in Christ's side  "takes on a decidedly vaginal appearance"  worshippers at Evensong were informed.  Junior research fellow Joshua Heath,  continued,  “In Christ's simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these works, if the body of Christ as these works suggest the body of all bodies, then his body is also the trans body.” The Dean of Trinity College, Michael Banner, defended the heresy, saying, " For myself, I think that speculation was legitimate, whether or not you or I or anyone else disagrees with the interpretation, says something else about that artistic tradition, or resists its application to contemporary questions around transsexualism.” A spokesperson for Trinity Coll...

From an article in "First Things"  Fifty-six percent of American evangelicals “strongly agreed” that “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God,” according to survey results released by Lifeway Research in September.  Not a few ministers and theologians were troubled by this evidence that more than half of American evangelicals are convinced Arian heretics. The problem is endemic to American Christianity more broadly:  The survey found that similar percentages of Catholics and mainline Protestants also called Jesus a created being. According to some commentators, this suggests that sincere believers with little taste for theology may have been confused by such a metaphysically loaded question. Labeling them “Arians,” they argue, misconstrues the situation and pours contempt on ordinary brothers and sisters. Their confusion, we are told, is in itself inconsequential and entirely predictable.  We have every reason to believe God desires loving obedience far...

  Pull up a chair and say hello  Happy Jack has discovered how to allow anonymous comments! This is available to those without Google accounts. Just click on the 'Comment' button and select 'Anonymous'. You can give yourself a name too by clicking the 'Name/URL button.  There is now a 'Contact' button - on the right of the page - for anyone with any ideas or suggestions about this blog. However, Jack believes one has to have a Google account to use this. If someone has an article they'd like published do send Jack your email address and he'll contact you and let you know his. You'll see from the 'Visits' counter that we've had 2000+ views since week this blog has been running. So please make a comment and keep things going - or not!  

" When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year,   she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Saviour’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming ." Lord Jesus, Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas. We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day. We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us. We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom. We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence. We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light. To you we say, "Come Lord Jesus!" Amen.

Versus   Predictions?

Archbishop Cranmer Bishop of the Blogosphere 2006 – 2022 His Grace’s ashes are once more scattered to the winds. ‘And forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished.’

In a 1969 German radio broadcast, Father Joseph Ratzinger offered his considered thoughts on the future of the Catholic Church.  Do his insights apply to all Christian communities today? And what do they mean for ecumenism “The future of the Church can and will issue from those whose roots are deep and who live from the pure fullness of their faith. It will not issue from those who accommodate themselves merely to the passing moment or from those who merely criticize others and assume that they themselves are infallible measuring rods; nor will it issue from those who take the easier road, who sidestep the passion of faith, declaring false and obsolete, tyrannous and legalistic, all that makes demands upon men, that hurts them and compels them to sacrifice themselves. To put this more positively: "The future of the Church, once again as always, will be reshaped by saints, by men, that is, whose minds probe deeper than the slogans of the day, who see more than others see, bec...