Simon Says ...

Review - Michael Turnbull and Donald McFadyen, The state of the Church and the Church of the State: Re-imagining the Church of England for our World Today (DLT, 2012) Despite the rather long-winded title, this is a very interesting book that repays attention.  Written by a former Bishop of Durham (Turnbull) and a more recently ordained priest (McFadyen), it offers a vision of the Church of England (CofE) at the heart of English society. Inspired by Rowan Williams’ remarks at his very first press conference as Archbishop-elect of Canterbury that he longed to see Christianity able ‘to recapture the imagination of our culture’, Turnbull and McFadyen offer an unapologetic and inspiring vision of the CofE as the Established Church and a Church for England: “a church which belongs to England and which serves England in all its manifestations” (p. 3). The authors see the CofE as a church with a particular vocation, “to live deeply within the nation, insisting on a vi...

Mark 3.20-35 The American journalist Franklin Jones once said that “Honest criticism is hard to take – especially when it comes from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger”.   Well, anyone familiar with the life of Jesus will know that he received some fairly harsh criticism from all of those categories of people.   In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus is criticized by his family, by “people”, and by the scribes, the religious and legal experts of the day.   But before we look at the whole of today’s Gospel story, let’s just dwell for a moment on the fact that Jesus was criticized.   Too often we make Jesus a bit safe, a bit too easy to get on with.   We make him into someone that no-one could really criticize.   But Jesus was not safe, and the scale of the criticisms that he faced were pretty large.   In the Gospel this morning, we hear Jesus described as mad and as in league with the devil.   He is quite definitely ...