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Happy Jack
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Has Israel lost the war against Hamas?
In the early hours of Oct. 7 th , 2023, Hamas launched a barrage of 3,000 missiles from the Gaza Strip against the State of Israel, combined with ground attacks upon civilians and soldiers. The resulting one-day death toll of 1,200 people in Israel represented the largest Jewish loss of life since the Holocaust. In addition to murdering civilians and raping women, Hamas seized 253 hostages, Global reaction was swift and widespread, with leaders of democratic nations simultaneously condemning Hamas while asserting Israel’s right to defend itself. Today, seven months later, the Palestinian death toll stands at 34,500 as Israel continues its offensive on Gaza. A crippling blockade is leaving its population on the verge of starvation and plague. Vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruin, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement with a lack of shelter, food, clean water, and medicine. At least 153 hostages remain in the hands of Hamas. That narrative has now shifte
Has anyone read the book by Kazuo ishiguro, Never let me go? I haven't but I have seen most of the movie the book was turned into. It wasn't very good and I'm told the book isn't one of his best, however, I found the whole premise behind the book frightening. With designer babies just around the corner, fatherless babies being touted, is this book almost prophetic in some of what it is forecasting what do people think?
ReplyDeleteWhat's to stop the creation of clones to act as organ donors when ours have worn out?
I have read Never Let Me Go, though I have not seen the film. It is not one of his best, but Ishiguro is a fine writer and it can still touch the heart. I read it at about the same time as 'Spares' by Michael Marshall Smith, which has essentially the same premise, handled very differently.
DeleteI hope that our society would be incapable of producing such a horror, but you would also think that of many horrors our society has produced in abundance. It just takes the practice to be normalised, and opponents to be demonised. Clones, or even natural children, kept in artificial sleep, unseen in a factory, dehumanised out of convenience, with the assurance that without consciousness they are not human, and it could happen.
Hi Little Hobb - hope all is well with you and yours.
DeleteWith designer babies just around the corner, fatherless babies being touted, is this book almost prophetic in some of what it is forecasting what do people think?
DeleteNone of this is far off, in my opinion; we're already at the fringes of designer babies as the law already turns a blind eye to sex-selective abortion, and women are able to select sperm donors based on their physical or educational profiles.
What's to stop the creation of clones to act as organ donors when ours have worn out?
Only that it will probably prove easier to grow individual organs from scratch.
Or you could just harvest them from the less fortunate instead.
And as if by magic
Deletehttps://youtube.com/watch?v=_9IbPiLnzdc&feature=share8
Hitler loved this idea.
Thankfully, the majority commenting strongly agree with this man's 'intellectual' depravity.
DeleteI am always grateful to Peter Singer, he gives me someone to point to when I need to demonstrate what's wrong with unwavering utilitarianism. He also finds his own ideals impossible to live up to.
Delete@ Clive - just to cheer you up!
DeleteArticle here in the Guardian:
Synthetic human embryos created in ground breaking advance
Not especially reassuring HJ!
DeleteSo after 2000yrs we are to return to the Roman practice of exposing unwanted babies!
DeleteYes I'd hope our society wouldn't sink to such depths, but in no longer certain of it.
ReplyDeleteHistory teaches us that whatever man can do he invariably will do; and he'll find a justification for his actions.
DeleteDepressing isn't it.
DeleteNot really, Clive. It has been this way since Eden. Man wants to be like gods. We covered this during the 'Moral Consequentialism' discussion. It's why we put our faith in Christ and through scripture and our respective churches develop an understanding of the world and ways to protect ourselves and our families. Remember, we're in the world but of the world. One prays for our grandchildren and their futures.
DeleteI still find it depressing. I look at my son's generation and I fear for their futures.
DeleteAs a parent or close relative you worry about issues more intensely, then you would íf you don't have children to concern you.
Yes, HJ completely agrees, Clive. However, we can only do our best with our children, relatives and others close to us, and try to equip them with a solid faith. First we evangelise to those close to us. After that, we pray, keep an eye on them and, in the final analysis, trust in the goodness of God.
DeleteAll very true HJ, but I still worry ☹️
DeleteHere's an interesting contribution from a convert to the faith in "Crisis" magazine about those "obnoxious" trads and their schismatic ways.
ReplyDeletehttps://crisismagazine.com/opinion/is-traditionalist-catholicism-a-sect
"Groundhog Day" - some are and some are not.
DeleteFor some people, their starting point is that they want to be sectarian, and they wouldn’t be motivated to join a church that didn’t behave like a sect. Obviously that’s not true of everybody who attends the Latin Mass, just as it’s not true of all Plymouth Brethren or of all Zen Buddhists. But this Crisis article might have been more informative if it had taken this factor into account.
DeleteSensible observation, Ray.
DeleteThat's a good point, Ray. Some people need something to define themselves against.
DeleteThere's trouble ahead with the publication of the Synod working document ahead of the opening of the first of two sessions of the Synod of Bishops in October. The Catholic Herald reports.
DeleteThe document asks: “How can we create spaces where those who feel hurt by the Church and unwelcomed by the community feel recognised, received, free to ask questions, and not judged?
“In the light of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, what concrete steps are needed to welcome those who feel excluded from the Church because of their status or sexuality (for example, remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people, etc.)?”
If that article wasn't in the Herald, I'd swear it was discussing a Church of England document. 'Listening to the People of God' is exactly what a CofE consultation would be called. It just needs to add in a commitment to 'mutual flourishing' and 'good disagreement'.
Delete“Toxic masculinity” turns out to be pretty harmless after all, a Green Party deputy has unwittingly assured voters in France. It amounts to nothing more dangerous than downing one small bottle of lager.
ReplyDeletePresident Emmanuel Macron was filmed a few days ago drinking beer with the winning team after a weekend rugby final. Obviously with his full consent, or even at his own suggestion, the video has been doing the rounds on YouTube and other social media. It seems to have caused quite a sensation in France, attracting both support and attacks. An angry Green Party deputy, Sandrine Rousseau, denounced the swigging act as “toxic masculinity”, apparently in the belief that this would rally the electorate to her side against the Macron government. A more serious objection might be raised by the French breweries, who would have every right to complain that the president of the Republic was going out of his way to endorse Corona, a Mexican brand, when he could have provided his free-of-charge “product placement” for Kronenbourg or one of the other French beers instead.
https://youtu.be/bQP_jqQvbJE
This is the woman who in 2022 proposed that a law making non-participation in household chores a criminal offence!
DeleteHJ will leave this page open for the time being.
ReplyDeletePlease post subjects your interested in for others to comment on.
The Unite union is lobbying for a pay rise for Church of England vicars, for the first time in history.
ReplyDeleteDo you think this is appropriate? And are the figures given about housing etc., from the recent review accurate?
DeleteIn some cases. It's a problem with the one size fits all model: living off the stipend is obviously easier for a single vicar in a small modern church house than a clergy family in a huge draughty rectory. But some clergy are also adverse to frugal living...
DeleteThe housing is a bit of a red herring, I think, because so much of the CofE's housing is in poor condition. The Church sold off much of its older (i.e., Victorian) housing stock in the 60s at rock bottom prices (and many of those old rectories are now worth millions!) and replaced them with 60s and 70s buildings that aren't as well built, haven't been maintained, and are now coming to the end of their lives. Many of them are also impractically large and the dioceses don't want to invest money in modernising heating, etc. I remember marking the start of each autumn with the annual feast of the ancient boiler blowing up and the visitation of the repairmen. Not very energy efficient.
If it costs half your stipend to heat a house you'd never choose to live in on that wage, it's a bit disingenuous to claim that it forms part of your remuneration package.
You obviously have personal experience of this that HJ doesn't. Your point is taken about "one size fits all" being inappropriate. That said, from the outside looking in, having no housing costs and a stipend of £26,794, compared to many families and pensioners, seems sufficient. Granted, family size and heating costs will be a big factor in how far this goes. Perhaps that's what they should be campaigning about: differential stipends based on family size and a program of housing/heating improvements. Regardless, an increase of 9% seems reasonable.
DeleteThere is a school of thought that says that clergy are professionals and should be remunerated in a way comparable to other professionals, particularly when one considers that they're effectively on 24hr call and work long hours 6 or 7 days a week.
DeleteThat seems quite a worldly argument to me; a stipend is intended to support a minister in carrying out their ministry, it's not supposed to be a wage or allow for a worldly standard of living, good wines and fine Italian clerical shirts. I know that my Abba's stipend is only a few hundred per month, although he has no family to support and no housing costs.
I think it would be a more elegant solution if those clergy who didn't need as much sacrificed some of their stipend to supplement the income of those who do: those with large families, for example.
It is a "worldly argument" and ministry is a vocation. Then again, so was nursing and social work before the dash to become "professionals".
DeleteWhilst your suggestion might be an "elegant solution" HJ doubts it's practical. Ministers, like all of us, are subject to temporal temptations. The Church of England needs to address this when it reviews stipends. HJ's proposal is differential stipends based on family size/dependents. If he were representing ministers, this is the avenue he would pursue, along with a program of housing upgrades and temporary relief with excessive energy bills until this is completed.
Then you'd have ministers fathering as many children as possible to get a higher stipend!
DeleteNone of this was a problem back when a community supported its own priest. I'm not sure the move to a paid clerical class has been beneficial over all. Compared with the worker priests, and bishops who lived in caves, I think there is a degree of softness and an over expectation of comfort in modern clergy. My old Russian prayer book says that one should be content to sleep on the ground and one should swap one's pillow for a rock!
Yes, the model of a community supporting its own priest is certainly the ideal. This way they'd be on a par with those they serve; neither richer nor poorer.
DeleteWhat do the Orthodox Church do?
In times gone by, the priest would usually just be the most capable man in the village, who'd be dragged to the bishop for ordination. He'd be supported by the village and his own farm etc. Of course, that model is no longer possible, especially in non-Orthodox countries.
DeleteHere, it depends on the jurisdiction. Some, like the Greeks or Russians, are established enough in the UK, or wealthy enough outside of it, to have something similar to the Catholic/Anglican model of stipendiary clergy. In smaller jurisdictions, the priest will either be non-stipendiary or receive a very small amount from the diocese and rely on local donations and/or working another job to support their ministry. I think that there are pros and cons to both approaches.
Monasteries are usually supported by benefactors, although this support tends to be leaner in the UK. Monastics (and eremitic weirdos) are expected to learn a handicraft to support themselves, and monasteries typically sell candles for parish use, prayer ropes, icons, books etc.
Hmm ... it's looks to HJ like all the orthodox Christian churches are going to have to consider different models for their clergy as the faith wanes and numbers shrink.
Delete@ Lain
Deleteあなたに尋ねるつもりです、あなたの洞窟はどうですか?
(HJ has discovered Word translate)
So, what are you suggesting, Jack? Create new dogma?
Delete@ Bell
DeleteNo. As you know, the full time celibate priesthood is a matter of Church discipline, not dogma.
@ Jack
DeleteMany of the Orthodox jurisdictions in the UK are still effectively missions, borrowing buildings and without a reserve of their own funds. The challenge is handing the faith on to a second indigenous generation, rather than simply ministering to the diaspora of other nationalities (we actually need an autocephalous British Orthodox Church). It's similar to the problem that the Catholic Church faced with Irish and Polish immigrants bolstering its numbers, but their children not engaging with the faith. But the Church is simply called to keep faithfully praying and sowing the seed, which can't be measured in numbers.
I think all the churches will face the same problem as faith wanes. The CofE increasingly relies on self supporting (what used to called non-stipendiary) priests to run ever increasing groups of parishes and minister to ever decreasing congregants and finds itself 'reimagining ministry' (i.e., cost cutting) every five minutes. The Catholic Church currently seems to have more problems in making priests than paying them (again, a waning faith means a shrinking pool of suitable candidates, and desperate ordinations make for bad priests), but the financial buffer zone that Rome provides shouldn't be taken for granted. It would be wise for the Church to attempt to address this (and the priest shortage) before it becomes critical. This requires proactivity rather than reactivity, of course, which is something none of the institutions are very good at!
Maybe the answer is house churches 😎
私の電灯が動作しない。
There may well come a time when small Christian communities gather in house churches served by 'mobile' priests.
Deleteろうそくを買おう!
A lot of Orthodox communities already do something like this; meeting in a church hall or borrowed Anglican building and holding reader's services, with a visiting priest serving the Liturgy once a month or so.
Deleteはい、はい、伯父さん！
The C of E has fired all three members of its Independent Safeguarding Board.
ReplyDeleteTwo of the three were evidently too independent and asked too many embarrassing questions:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65977524
Revealing comments on this thread at Thinking Anglicans:
https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archbishops-council-terminates-contracts-of-isb-members/#comments
Not sure just why this mess is taking so long to resolve! No doubt Martin Sewell's views will appear soon.
DeleteMatthew Ineson is posting on Twitter in support of the two members of the Safeguarding Board.
Deletehttps://twitter.com/InesonMatthew?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
No surprises there ...
DeletePolitics rather than religion, but here's an interesting take on the general election due next year and the Labour Party which will fight it.
ReplyDeletehttps://thecritic.co.uk/issues/june-2023/the-on-behalf-of-labour-party/
It's no surprise really.
DeleteAs the author says: Labour has become dominated by the middle classes and by public sector and NGO professionals. Class as the marker of candidacy has been replaced by race and gender.
Early reports that the Wagner Group has mutinied and attacked the Russian command centre at Rostov-On-Don.
ReplyDelete