Well, by the grace of God (and a meeting) I survived yesterday, enjoyed a trip back to Fife and spent Mother's Day with my Mother. Avoiding any Church service that might mention Mother's Day at all. You see, I may be a member of the Mother's Union (one of these days, I really need to revenge myself on my former Vicar in Ealing for that!) but I can't stand Mothering Sunday. I detest the feeling of being excluded by virtue of being male (not that it's all about me!), I always struggled with the need to mollify those women who found it upsetting because they had a) no children b) lost children or c) lost their own mother by dishing out flowers to them as well (thereby rendering the celebration of female parenting non existent and turning it into a "women who go to Church Sunday"). And to be frank, I really wore pink vestments to gently subvert the whole show and its heterosexual triumphalism - that being less hassle than abolishing it outright!
Had I been in Town, I'd have gone to an early service and/or the Quakers to avoid some ghastly liturgy for Mother's Day. Instead, I communed with my inner secularist and read the Sunday Herald, enjoying an article in which younger Feminists (a breed against which as student I had something of a vaguely terrified prejudice agin) expressed their distate for it as a phenomenon. I also chortled when I read that the reason the hateful Scottish Defence League had such a failure when they tried to organise a march in Edinburgh recently was because in England they had united all the Football thugs into it, but in Scotland they had been unable to overcome the Sectarian divide. Huns and Jambo casuals joined up, but the Celtic and Hibs neds had planned to ambush the SDL, operating on the principle of hating the Proddies more than the darkies!!!! Personally, I think Scotland's ingrained Calvinism explains our relative lack of racial prejudice to a degree. We are all sinners dependent on God's grace and colour does not affect that. And the Union Jack waving BNP-esque thugs of the English Dimwits League forgot that when they tried to unite the Scottish footie casuals, the Green Teams traditionally drew their support from an immigrant community who were discriminated against when they 1st arrived in Scotland - the Catholic Irish. Perhaps the EDL don't realise that "The Soldier's Song" isn't the Scottish national Anthem!
And so to bed!
Had I been in Town, I'd have gone to an early service and/or the Quakers to avoid some ghastly liturgy for Mother's Day. Instead, I communed with my inner secularist and read the Sunday Herald, enjoying an article in which younger Feminists (a breed against which as student I had something of a vaguely terrified prejudice agin) expressed their distate for it as a phenomenon. I also chortled when I read that the reason the hateful Scottish Defence League had such a failure when they tried to organise a march in Edinburgh recently was because in England they had united all the Football thugs into it, but in Scotland they had been unable to overcome the Sectarian divide. Huns and Jambo casuals joined up, but the Celtic and Hibs neds had planned to ambush the SDL, operating on the principle of hating the Proddies more than the darkies!!!! Personally, I think Scotland's ingrained Calvinism explains our relative lack of racial prejudice to a degree. We are all sinners dependent on God's grace and colour does not affect that. And the Union Jack waving BNP-esque thugs of the English Dimwits League forgot that when they tried to unite the Scottish footie casuals, the Green Teams traditionally drew their support from an immigrant community who were discriminated against when they 1st arrived in Scotland - the Catholic Irish. Perhaps the EDL don't realise that "The Soldier's Song" isn't the Scottish national Anthem!
And so to bed!
"Heterosexual triumphalism" (?) .... I think you've been in Edinburgh too long!
ReplyDeleteJust remember that you have a social life, I used to have one pre-kiddies!
Ah, so you have heard about yesterday's 10:30 at your old charge? I was told to miss it by Mrs S-E, who then was only distracted from a long litany of complaints by a glass of wine (or was that whine?) and Sunday Lunch.
ReplyDeleteHey, I only got my social life when I gave up a parish!
ReplyDeleteNope, ain't heard what happened in me old charge - was it really that bad?