THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND'S NASTY SECRETS AND A FEW DISTURBING QUESTIONS

Let me pose some questions.

If the telephone communications worker who cut the phone lines of Jewish families in Germany was your friend, what would you have done?

If the train driver with cattle trucks full of Jews heading to Auschwitz was your friend what would you have done?

If the white person that refused to sit next to a black person in apartheid South Africa was your friend what would you have done?

Changing the questions, if you were the telephone worker, the train driver or the white person in South Africa, what would you have done?

Updating. If the person who represents and is employed by an organisation that would not before and now cannot provide equal marriage is your friend, what will you do?

Or change it a little, if you believe sexuality is a different area, what will you do, if the same friend will not provide a funeral service for a black person?

I have been asked for specifics about a previous entry.

Fresh Expressions has rejected the Open Episcopal Church from becoming involved. Why?

The Church of England has vetoed the Open Episcopal Church from being processed for membership of Churches Together in England now for over 10 years. Why?

The Archbishop of Canterbury and his special appointee for reconciliation has rejected the overtures for a positive relationship between the Church of England and the Open Episcopal Church. Why?

The answer is clear.

The Church of England is besmirched in unpleasant politics and Fresh Expressions is not quite as 'fresh' as one would have hoped, equally contaminated by those same regrettable influences.

So may the spirit of honest and peaceful protest continue to be alive and well and may those of any minority, oppressed and discriminated against community rise up and speak vociferously and act concertedly to lay siege to the doors of oppression and shake off the chains of prejudice.

The trouble is that people do not like to identify what is wrong in their own time.

The train drivers and telephone workers did not consider they were inherently evil, just that they were doing their jobs for which they were paid.

We all have the potential for good and evil.

Part of the challenge of life is whether we are going to use our one destiny chance to associate with and support organisations that do wrong.

Instead, we can make different choices, different associations and help create a different world.

Many otherwise  'good' clerics will not leave the Church of England because they covet their income and the accompanying perks and because they gain personal satisfaction from the cudos and position they hold.

I suspect they would be quick to have a re-think if they received no stipend and no perks and risked being thrown to the lions.

It's a cosy niche I am afraid that dulls the spirit and lulls people into quiescence and conformity.