Some Overdue Spiritual Influence

Doubtless to the disappointment of our peculiar readership, but because of the day, our theme will be secular affairs, and purely ecclesiastical subjects will have to wait for another.

Not that Trespassers W, our latter-day Dr Codex, has not been busy in the internal affairs of the Church. Time would fail me to tell of the preferments of the Bishop of Stockport and Canon White (for those who like that sort of thing), of Prebendary Thomas (for those who really don’t) and of Farther North (so good they nominated him twice), of the Archdeacon of Hackney (for those who don’t think suffragan bishops really count; by far the soundest proposition on offer). And words fail me (because of excitement, of course) to tell of the Bishop of Islington (for those who think the Church of England needs more small under-resourced organisations) and the Bishop of Richmond (because if episcopacy is good, even more episcopacy must be better).

Quo Vadis? Or, Church Times Appointments Section in Full

I want my mitre back.

A Choice, Not a Northern Echo

Speculation is growing that the press, despite continual public washing of the Church of England’s appointments process, has no idea who is to be the next Bishop of Durham. Never fear: we at Plumstead Rectory are ready to show how to mount a rumour.

Not a Jot Or a Tittle

Members of the Wakefield Diocesan Synod are not, it seems, to be regarded as loyal Anglicans (so-called) after all. Despite the tearful pleas of Wakefielders to be allowed to remain the General Synod is determined to cast them out, where there will be wailing and gnashing of t’ teeth. Any who don’t like it are welcome to become Roman Catholics (Diocese of Leeds).

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.