Published by Justin Lewis-Anthony on 02 Jun 2009 at 06:09 pm

Kill George goes mainstream!

8 Comments killgeorge

8 Responses to “Kill George goes mainstream!”

1. ????? ?????? on 03 Jun 2009 at 3:06 am #

   You are so much more handsome than Stanley Spencer! As much as I love his paintings, I think Sir Stanley should come down and your real photo should go up on your blog.

   Hunky clergy are just another good argument for the priest “facing east” at the altar. It’s less of a distraction for the laity.

   Justin, this is a wonderful article, but you went mainstream a while back with “Circles of Thorns.” That sublime book is so much more of a big deal than the Guardian.

   Happy (upcoming) Trinity Sunday!

2. Tay Moss on 10 Jun 2009 at 2:19 pm #

   Justin, this is a brilliant, concise piece. Unfortunately, I know several colleagues that have embraced exactly this model of what a parish priest should be like, much to the disservice of the missional church. And even though I’ve been able to de-programme some aspects of this in my own vocational self-understanding, it still creeps in. Sometimes it’s hard not to say the Offices without a certain self-satisfying feeling of martyrdom! “Oh… how holy am I to be praying on behalf of my parishioners in an empty church…”

   Thanks again for the essay!

3. Justin Lewis-Anthony on 10 Jun 2009 at 3:33 pm #

   You’re very kind, Tay, and especially so for reading the piece before sounding off about “disrespecting the memory of Blessed George” as some other clergy of the Anglican Communion have done.

   Would you like me to come and talk to your ministerial fraternal?

4. Tay Moss on 10 Jun 2009 at 3:46 pm #

   You’re welcome! Incidentally… you know how every Anglican Vestry has a mirror? It’s often taken as evidence of the vanity of the Cloth? Take a look at what St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Franscisco, did with theirs…

   That’s the poem “Aaron” by blessed George…

   -t

5. Justin Lewis-Anthony on 10 Jun 2009 at 5:04 pm #

   I’ve always loved that poem, the way it ends with “Come, people ; Aaron’s drest.”

   I feel it’s a bit like Judy Garland saying “Now I can face my adoring public”!

6. Tay Moss on 10 Jun 2009 at 5:40 pm #

   It’s way better than the traditional vesting prayers….

   Praecinge me, Domine, cingulo puritatis, et exstingue in lumbis meis humorem libidinis; ut maneat in me virtus continentia et castitatis.

   Gird me, O Lord, with the cincture of purity, and quench in my heart the fire of concupiscence, that the virtue of continence and chastity may abide in me.

   I always wondered whether continence was really a problem I had to worry about as I got ready to preach…

   -t

7. Robin Ward on 19 Jul 2009 at 8:08 pm #

   Wasn’t it Clive James who called Robert Runcie the anodyne divine etc after the 1981 Royal Wedding?

8. Justin Lewis-Anthony on 22 Jul 2009 at 12:32 pm #

   Possibly, because it has a Jamesian flightiness about it, but I have it on v good authority that it was Runcie himself who coined the phrase (the v good authority being the Archbishop’s chaplain!)

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