Ladies of Ill Repute and of Good Repute

When I was a child my father did a lot of travelling on business (yes, we defenders of privilege at Plumstead Rectory spring from the commercial classes). At that time hotels were very vigilant about guests entertaining visitors in their rooms, whether from moral or financial motives, or both. It was not uncommon for the manager to call round late at night, asking sternly “have you got a woman in your room, sir?”

My father maintained the theory that there were two classes of hotel for business travellers: the better sort, where if one answered “yes” to this question the lady would be asked to leave, and the seedier sort, where if one answered “no” a lady would be thrown in.

Friends of Buckingham

Readers of recent posts may have noticed, as we did, the uncanny similarity between the Dean of St Albans (above right) and James I (above left). Separated brethren?

Posing as a Jacobite

In the life of every blog there comes the time to do some navel-gazing theological reflection, reviewing the subject-matter and reach of the site, and developing some conclusions. This is, we suppose, a largely fruitless as well as a self-absorbed tradition, but we are not in the business of questioning tradition here.

We advertise our letters as containing Anglo-catholicism, reaction and whimsy; but like all Church of England publications we actually cover mostly the gays, internal church politics, and nostalgia for an impossibly golden age. For most Anglicans this utopia is the 1950s: for us, true to form, the 1670s. Or possibly the 1630s. Certainly not the 1650s, though.

Give Him a Crook and a Vocation

Saturday’s Telegraph article about the selection of the next Bishop of Manchester (Church of England diocese asks for gay-friendly bishop) hardly needs comment by us. 

It is just possible, as David Keen reminds us, that the Diocese of Manchester has a broader agenda. But when the world wishes to talk only about sex, the Church must surely address herself to its concerns. In theological language this is called “meeting people where they are”. So let us meet the Daily Telegraph where it is and ask: just how gay should the Bishop of Manchester be?

Ding Dong

The funeral of Lady Thatcher (pictured above) took place this week. The interpretation of her memory has divided commentators over whether she was divisive or not. Both her detractors and defenders have been given ample airtime to elucidate matters; but the quasi-Manichean nature of the discussion (of which the lady herself would perhaps have approved) does not seem well-adapted to increasing anyone's understanding.

Sic Transit Benedict (inter caetera)

We know that some readers have been troubled by the non-appearance of a letter from Plumstead, worrying that we had been silenced by Royal Charter. Do not be afraid: for us the carnival is not over (though taking in the Church of England the more vernacular form of the Feast of Fools) and we will continue to tell you what to think abut the great issues of Church and State.

Tomorrow Belongs To Me

Of course Dr Fraser is not going to be elected. Admittedly, the timing of his giving up his Church Times column is suggestive.