Andrew Brown The Guardian If the Conservative party’s doing God again, what sort of God is it?
Giles Fraser The Guardian The agony and ecstasy of Saint Theresa, the vicar’s daughter
Loretta Minghella, CEO of Christian Aid gave the Inclusive Church lecture for 2016 at Liverpool Cathedral this week: Does Poverty have a Woman’s Face?. [48 minute video]
Update: the text of the lecture is also available as a PDF download.
Language about or addressed to God should be derived from human experience, not just from men’s experience, argues Prof Adrian Thatcher, a trustee of Modern Church, in a new booklet Gender-Inclusive Language and Worship. The 36-page booklet can be downloaded or purchased in hard copy from the Modern Church website.
“The Agony and the Ecstasy” – was Charlton Heston in that movie?
I don’t know about “Saint” Theresa but I was delighted when the other female candidate decided to leave the fray following her ridiculous comments in the Times interview. I was conducting a Worship Guild meeting when the unbelievable news came through that Mrs. May had incredibly appointed Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. My reaction was similar to that of Angela Eagle’s! What on earth was she thinking about appointing man who with his previous crass comments has insulted the present President of the USA, hopefully, the next President of the USA, the beleaguered President of Turkey and a whole host… Read more »
Pam, Heston played Michaelangelo (shudder) opposite Rex Harrison’s pope.
The new PM’s father was indeed likely to have been of the Anglican Catholic tradition, having been trained at Mirfield. However, a liking for the hymn “Therefore, we before him bending” is not confined to those of that tradition. It was included in The Book of Common Praise (1938) in its Canadian and Australian editions – still in use in places, the person who led the work on that book being a good moderate Evangelical – and musician – and Icelandic scholar (!), the late Bishop Charles Venn Pilcher, who after serving in Canada came to be Coadjutor Bishop of… Read more »
The link to download the Inclusive Church booklet “Gender- Inclusive Language and Worship” tells me I am not authorised to access the resource. Is there another route to download this, please?
Sorry Anne, try
http://modernchurch.org.uk/downloads/viewcategory/14-forewords
Anne – it tells me that as well. But if you go to the page where this booklet can be purchased, there is a “Free download” link which does work. I’ve amended the links above to remove the one that does not work.
On the subject of “Therefore, we before him bending”, the tune has been a long-term favourite of mine, although in my experience, the words were “Let all mortal flesh keep silence…”
I love the John Rutter version of this tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpPm1cxy2B0
Well worth a listen, especially the last verse with a wonderful descant.
Thank you so much Kate and Peter. I have now downloaded the booklet.
‘Therefore we before him bending’ are the opening words of the fifth verse of a seven verse hymn ‘Now my tongue the mystery telling’ Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium in its original latin. Often referred to as Pange Lingua or by the incipit of the last two verses Tantum Ergo. Ascribed to Thomas Aquinas and probably written for the feast of Corpus Christi, it is the last two verses which are used at Benediction. To refer to the hymn as ‘Therefore we before him bending’ implies a familiarity with the rite of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
“To refer to the hymn as ‘Therefore we before him bending’ implies a familiarity with the rite of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.”
No it doesn’t. The hymn appears in the ‘Communion’ sections of hymn books, and is used in places where Benediction would be completely alien.