http://www.liturgy.org.uk/archives/169 Dana Delap's Blog Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:23:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.liturgy.org.uk/archives/169/comment-page-1#comment-2161 Russell Kelly Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:49:56 +0000 http://www.liturgy.org.uk/?p=169#comment-2161 Is the Chruch being ageist? Yes, by definition .... The Church, Religion, exists in order to answer some fundamental questions for ordinary folk, primarily elderly women. They need the Church in order to sustain their belief in an afterlife, heaven, a place where dead children and husbands have gone before them. Churches exploit this need to fill collection plates, collect from wills and endowments, and generally finance itself. Although not a Christian, years ago, I collected and processed the data for the Decennial Bishop's Visitation for the Bishops of Lancaster and Blackburn. Suddenly, the local clergy found a desperate need to pass by my front door! The writing was on the wall then ... about 60% of parishes were insolvent ... the plate collections weren't even covering basic running costs, with no spare for special missions, etc. It's got worse since then. Women priests were inevitable. Men were too expensive, with wives and families. Gay and lesbian clerics .. equally solutions to the same problem. But their inclusion alienates the economically most important members of the laity, those elderly women, Conservative middle England. Blair and his Blair babes, the MPs surrounding you who mostly came unstuck in the expenses scandal, have simply served to confirm the laity's worst fears - they were morally bankrupt. There will be an increasing swing back to more Conservative postures on these issues ... Yes, the Church is ageist. It has to because it can only exist if it exploits the cohorts of elderly women who have sustained it since before the 12th century as Ladourie demonstrated. Alienate them any further and your Church will crumble around your ears. I live in the midst of Catholic Germany. I see the local women trek each day to the graves of their children and the husbands. They are absolutely distraught over the revelations about priests as are friends in Ireland. What happens to your Church of England when the revelations turn to sexual interference of vicars with choirboys which has gone on for decades? Beware of the Pandora's Boxes you are opening. I don't understand why you don't initiate and build a Church of your own based on a postmodern theology. C of E has been dying for centuries. These Synod disputes are the last gasp attempts to keep it alive! Is the Chruch being ageist? Yes, by definition …. The Church, Religion, exists in order to answer some fundamental questions for ordinary folk, primarily elderly women. They need the Church in order to sustain their belief in an afterlife, heaven, a place where dead children and husbands have gone before them. Churches exploit this need to fill collection plates, collect from wills and endowments, and generally finance itself. Although not a Christian, years ago, I collected and processed the data for the Decennial Bishop’s Visitation for the Bishops of Lancaster and Blackburn. Suddenly, the local clergy found a desperate need to pass by my front door! The writing was on the wall then … about 60% of parishes were insolvent … the plate collections weren’t even covering basic running costs, with no spare for special missions, etc. It’s got worse since then. Women priests were inevitable. Men were too expensive, with wives and families. Gay and lesbian clerics .. equally solutions to the same problem. But their inclusion alienates the economically most important members of the laity, those elderly women, Conservative middle England. Blair and his Blair babes, the MPs surrounding you who mostly came unstuck in the expenses scandal, have simply served to confirm the laity’s worst fears – they were morally bankrupt. There will be an increasing swing back to more Conservative postures on these issues …
Yes, the Church is ageist. It has to because it can only exist if it exploits the cohorts of elderly women who have sustained it since before the 12th century as Ladourie demonstrated. Alienate them any further and your Church will crumble around your ears. I live in the midst of Catholic Germany. I see the local women trek each day to the graves of their children and the husbands. They are absolutely distraught over the revelations about priests as are friends in Ireland. What happens to your Church of England when the revelations turn to sexual interference of vicars with choirboys which has gone on for decades? Beware of the Pandora’s Boxes you are opening. I don’t understand why you don’t initiate and build a Church of your own based on a postmodern theology. C of E has been dying for centuries. These Synod disputes are the last gasp attempts to keep it alive!

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