Also, when the clocks go back, and you get an extra hour in bed but really just end up getting up an hour earlier than yesterday, doesn't it make the rest of the day feel like a fortnight and a half?
Anyway, I was asked by a commentator on my previous post to expound on my opinions on the Nelson McCausland/Sinn Fein row and the Jan Moir thing. So here are my opinions, with which you are free to disagree, but please don't shout:
1. The Nelson McCausland / Sinn Fein row. First, some background. Nelson McCausland is a DUP councillor/MP/something. He recently caused a row by saying that he will not attend any religious service in a Catholic church, although he will go to other things there as long as they're just for the craic. But also he will not go to any event on a Sunday, unless (and I promise I'm not making this up) 'it was an Orange Order parade that included a church service'. Sinn Fein (possibly amongst others) got Quite Cross about this, because they said that it means he cannot be fully representative of the people he serves if he is not prepared to go to a Catholic Church for a religious service.
Now, I do not agree with either of them. I would not, for instance, refuse to attend a religious service in a Catholic church, and indeed have even gone so far as to have done so in the past, oh yes. On the other hand, I do not see why my public representatives have to be prepared to go to church with me in order to represent me fully. To the extent that, at this point, I lose all understanding of what this is about.
However, I do find it oddly fascinating that anyone would be upset by this man not attending their church.
2. Jan Moir. This, you will remember, is the article which we all widely misinterpreted as being Homophobic, Nasty and A Bit Much Even For The Daily Mail. You will be glad to hear though, that we were wrong, and that Jan Moir is not at all homophobic, and that when she said that Stephen Gately's death "strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships", that she didn't mean it like that and is actually very supportive of civil partnerships and really she could have said the same thing about a heterosexual relationship. Which is concrete proof, although then you wonder whether it might have been worth not mentioning the whole gay thing in the article in the first place, given that we were all supposed to think that that bit was irrelevant.
So those are my opinions from last week, but now I have a whole new set of opinions brewing, so I will have to go and attend to them.
4 comments:
I have attended Catholic services too, but I went to an Anglican church for Harvest festival the other week, as I was staying with a friend in England. Now, when they call me to take the eucharist in Catholic churches I stay put. But here the vicar demanded that I come up. He said 'even if you don't take the eucharist in your own church come up and have a blessing.' But when I got up there no-one else was having blessings, they were all taking the wafer, and I was too embarrassed to say anything. So I ate it. It tasted like that rice paper they use to make kids's sweets like flying saucers (remember then.)
Anyway, I hope I wasn't doing anything wrong. For some reason they didn't offer me any wine, or maybe I failed to notice. But there was a nice church brunch in the cafe with buck's fizz and bacon sandwiches. But my friends decided they didn't want any so we went to the pub.
PS - I buy the Daily Mail every day for my mum. I'm too embarrassed to admit that as it makes me worse than Hitler, apparently.
My parents are also Daily Mail fans. They like the crossword and Garfield.
I don't think you did anything majorly wrong... I think though, if you want a blessing, you just don't put your hand out for the wafer, and they'll realise. I'm not sure that Anglican churches are all that strict on communion anyway though.
I think the whole thing is about respect, irrespective of which church / eucharist.
Which is why the Jan Moir thing is oh so unforgiveable and should result in the cessation of Daily Mail purchases for the Smile and Bresker households.
Perhaps a volume of Daily Mail Xwords and a Garfield book would take the edge off?
I would like to emphasise that my parents do not buy the Daily Mail every day, just sometimes. I have tried to point out that there are better papers out there (such as toilet paper), but it seems to have gone unheeded.
I may try the Garfield book and crosswords suggestion.
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