BC/AD or BCE/CE?

Am I the only person in the world who finds myself mildly disgruntled by the upsurge in the level of political correctness in the world today? The latest thing to have me shaking my head in disbelief is the BC/AD or BCE/CE debate. Perhaps I have been asleep for several years but the other day I heard that some folk no longer refer to 'the 4th Century BC' but rather 'the 4th Century BCE' . That is to say Before the Common Era. They don't say 'the year 79 AD' but rather 'the year 79 CE', ie the year 79 in the Common Era. Who thought that one up? Apparently it started in the 1980's - clearly not been publicised too well then, eh? But is it really so offensive to people to use the birth of Jesus as a point of reference for time? Yeah, yeah, before anyone starts to get all pedantic with me, I know that we are about 4 years out with the dating of the actual event but that is not the point. The point is that historically we have used this system for a long, long time in the western world. Like it or not, our cultural heritage is deeply rooted in the Christian tradition. Fact. Why change it now? If in other parts of the world people have their own calendar system which works for them, great. I have no problem with that at all. But why fix something which isn't broken? It's like trying to change the names of the months - "well, people who don't worship Roman gods might find it offensive, so from now on we are going to call January 'Aardvark'. March will be 'Colander'..." The fact is, it is custom and practice. Do the PC brigade really think that they are making the world a better place by littering our language with euphemisms? Euphemisms do not change the reality of the world in which we live, they merely obscure meaning. The net result of all this is that we are rapidly ceasing to communicate. Like politicians, we are generating lots words but saying very little. If you want to really upset people, the best way is to muck about with their language - I cite the Basques and the Welsh as examples. The humourless, prissy behaviour of the PC brigade only causes bad feeling.

Saying chalkboard instead of blackboard, word shower instead of brainstorm, and 'before the common era' instead of 'before Christ' does not make people more tolerant; only meeting people, learning to lunderstand them and valuing them for who they are, in all of their glorious and beautiful diversity, will do that.

There. I've had my grumpy old woman moment - apologies if that statement sounds ageist, sexist and emotionist!!

The Blagmeister has landed. He will be open for business SOON!!

The extravagance of God's love...

A huge thank you to Fr Denis Marmion who was covering today's masses at Holy Family in the absence of Fr Simon. It was a familiar enough gospel reading today - the wedding feast at Cana. I had never thought about it before until Fr Denis did the maths for us today - 6 jars each holding 20-30 gallons - that is between 120 and 180 gallons. That is a lot of wine. You would be reasonable in expecting a fair old discount at Bargain Booze for that amount. Now I reckon, by the time the hosts had run out of wine, a copious amount would have already been consumed. Fr Denis explained that in those times and at that place, the whole village would have been invited to the wedding, perhaps a couple of thousand people or more - but surely the hosts would have estimated with those numbers in mind? 120 gallons still seems an awful lot of wine to me.

But then this sets something of a precedent. Let's consider the story in Luke 5 of the calling of the first 4 disciples. Simon and the other fishermen had been out through the night, fishing, but to no avail. Jesus asked them to put out their nets once more. They did so, perhaps considering it against their better judgement. However, when they pulled them in again the nets were bursting, so huge was the haul of fish.

Think again of the feeding of the five thousand. From a couple of fish and five loaves, five thousand people ate their fill and there were twelve baskets filled with the leftovers. Thank goodness they didn't have a McDonald's happy meal to work with! But is this not ever so slightly over the top? Would it not be enough to have one jar of wine, a reasonable haul of fish or just enough food for everyone? Is that not impressive enough in itself? Not when you have a God whose grace is lavish, extravagant and nothing short of outrageous as in the case of the one true God. This should be an encouragement to us to be lavish in our own generosity. Jesus tells us:

"Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and there will be gifts for you; a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you." (Luke 6:36-38)

It's not a new message, but it is one we could all do with being reminded of, from time to time.

Have a good week.

Testing one, two, one, two...

Is there really any point to this? I don't know, really. We won't be going live properly until the new style website is launched - but since that is being done using CSS and I haven't got the book on how to do that yet, it could be a while!

Celebrity Big Brother has started again, I see. Does anybody know who any of the so-called celebrities are? I'm not going to take any moral high ground over anyone - I have found myself sucked into this quicksand TV on many occasions. In fact I like to watch things like that, as much as anything to take a stand against the many irritating people around who take delight in smugly passing judgement on the rest of us poor feeble-minded individuals. No, what I object to is no-mark models/actors/boy or girl band members, who clearly have no claim to fame, passing themselves off as celebrities. Surely this is in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act (does that still exist?) So I will not be watching.

I did, however, watch Just the Two of Us (professional singer duets with "celebrity"). To be fair I struggled with some of the celebrities on that too (am I just getting old?), but I was entertained by it and enjoyed singing along with some classic songs. I love listening to panel judge Stuart Copland - he has perfected the art of the back-handed compliment but does it all in a kindly way ( re. a raunchy rock and roll number in which the vocals may have lacked some necessary oomph - "I kinda like the camp version"). I'm so glad that Brendan the arrogant/bratty ballroom dancer didn't win - I love Beverly Knight but he got right up my nose! I know Denis Waterman's daughter didn't have much of a voice but she came across as a lovely, bubbly person who was just having great fun. And hasn't Marti Pellow matured nicely.....?

Welcome to virtual refreshments!!!

TEA'S UP!

Welcome to the virtual church hall. Since we don't get much of an opportunity to get to know each other properly on Sundays here is your opportunity to join in the banter. Here you can share your ideas, your good news, comment on world affairs and have a good old moan (well, try to keep it balanced!)

Hoping to hear from you soon.