ANOTHER Pastoral Reflection

I'd better stop doing this; see this site for a daily Peanuts cartoon: so helpful when it comes to theological issues.  And much funnier than this one - if no-one minds me saying so.

A pastoral reflection

Somehow, this resonates with me as I think of pastoral issues...

Aren't computers wonderful?

Over at Biblical Christianity my e-friend Dan Phillips is having blogging problems. He laments (in the 'comments' part of the blog):




...aaaaaaaaaaand now I see my blog has just suddenly decided to display all links as underlined.Sigh.Anyone know how to turn that off? I didn't knowingly do anything.

Joyce (obviously an expert) replies
Dan, if you look at your view source from the post page you'll see your html has underline in line 94, 421, and 423(check to be sure). Do you think replacing with none would fix?

And when that doesn’t work she suggests:
Line 94 with hover could be okay as underline as my blog View/Source has that in the code(only place) and does underline with mouseover while links aren't underlined unless I <> & < /u > code. Does changing the other two underlines in the html get you back to where you want to be? My blog recently began adding line spaces in the sidebar only and immediately upon opening each section to edit. Blogger is glitching??? Needs be rocket scientist ~

And then

hmmmmm...me sorry. The V/S is typically somewhat in the dashboard template area. Do you see the underline wording when you click to View Source? Wonder if VS and the template being different reflects it being Blogger? Sorry I couldn't be more helpful ~ :-

And

Should do this email but am popping off the computer after this comment...Try this ~ go to the dashboard, layout, edit html. Click Edit(on browser page top), then Find on this Page and type in underline. See if it highlights the 3 underlines I'm seeing when looking at your blog's ViewSource(leave hover as is) and the other two a:link, a:visited??? Not sure changing would fix but only thing I could think of to try if it were on my blog ~

To which Dan says, plaintively,

Here's what I've got:a:link {color:$linkcolor;text-decoration:none;}a:visited {color:$visitedlinkcolor;text-decoration:none;}a:hover {color:$titlecolor;text-decoration:none;



Aren't you just so glad that that's all cleared up?



Never used to have these problems with quill and ink.

Shock Horror: Anglican Church says 'We believe the Bible'!

Some of last week's papers recorded the shocking story of a church in Sevenoaks, Kent, where a curate (apparently) preached on marriage and the role of women. It was, say the unbiased, godly newspapers, reviled as a medieval sermon - or worse - by many of the women in attendance, some of whom have cancelled their direct debit mandates (I think they mean 'standing orders' - can a church set up a DDM?) And some of the women - and even their husbands (doing as they're told, I suppose) have vowed never to enter the church again.

The church's rector says:

At the heart of all the press coverage is the very ordinary fact that at St Nicholas Sevenoaks, as in many other evangelical churches up and down the country, we engage in an expository preaching ministry which requires both preacher and people to engage humbly with God's word, the Bible.

Radical, eh? Several things are worth noting in the press coverage:

• first, the press's surprise than anyone should preach on marriage rather than 'giving an uplifting message' as Valentine's Day approaches


• second, the press's surprise that not everyone believes the liberal media's view of relationships is all it's cracked up to be


• third, the very careless attitude to truth that the press shows - look at what the Mail says the church did and what the Rector says they didn't do. It ranges from the trivial (the Rector wearing his kilt to church) to inaccuracies at the very heart of the story :

On a different point another strand of headlines speak of the Rector telling women to

be silent and of a leaflet written by him being distributed around the congregation in

January. The reality is that I have written no leaflets, nothing has been distributed

and no-one has ever told women to be silent.

Still, let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story on an otherwise quiet (!) weekend. And let's not notice either that the church is growing - so much so, apparently, that they're having to start another congregation. If only they'd compromise; if only they'd preach what society and the Daily Mail wants them to. Then they could quietly die like other Anglican churches.

Sigh...

Nervous? Me? Well...

This year, the elders here have agreed that it would be good for me to attend a State-side conference. I have it in mind to go to Together for the Gospel - the speakers look good, the theme's important and the accommodation better than British conferences. And it might actually cheer me up, which would make a change.

Only problem is - I've flown before, but never alone. Anybody like to come?

John Terry's mistake

BBC's lunch-time news today tells us that John Terry will meet England manager Fabio Capello this afternoon, and a decision may be made about whether Terry can captain the England team to the World Cup after his affair 'with an England team-mate's ex-girlfriend'.

Ah, well; that was his mistake then. If only he'd had an affair with an England team-mate's ex-BOYfriend, his status as captain would have been secure - probably for ever - and he would have been hailed as a national hero.

Better luck next time, eh John?

Mind you, for what it's worth - and nothing's been announced as I write, so this is a genuine predicition - my bet is that Terry will keep his captainship. After all, if football is more important than life and death, it's certainly more important than mere sex. Whoever you do it with.

Update: I was wrong - Terry's been sacked as captain, but not as a player. Well, I've been wrong before. (Sometime in 1973, I think it was...)