Always Hope

source: This is Cornwall http://bit.ly/HnxnAN A good crust and a trusty hand! A faithful heart and true! George Osborne's men shall understand what Cornish food can do! And have they fixed the budget yet? Shall pasties be served cold? Here's twenty percent VAT before it's even sold! And is your pasty warm? And was it when it sold? Here's twenty thousand Cornish men don't like to eat it cold! With apologies to R. S. Hawker

So. Farewell Then Dr Rowan Williams. You were cleverer than The Rest of us but The papers could never Understand What you were saying. In fact Some of your Ideas were quite brilliant Apart from The Anglican Covenant. And that was That. With apologies to E J Thribb 

This sermon was preached last week on the Gospel of the day: Mark 8:31-38  (NIV)   31  He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  32  He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.   33  But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”   34  Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  35  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.  36  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  37  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?  38  

Congratulations to David Ison on his appointment as the next Dean of St Paul's. Dr Ison, who is already a Dean, in Bradford, and thus labours under the title "the Very Reverend" (what a millstone to place around a man's neck) will take up his new post at the end of May. This is an absolutely key appointment, following the unfortunate departure of his predecessor, The Right Reverend Graham Knowles, who resigned suddenly in the midst of the "Occupy" crisis. His reasons for doing so are still slightly opaque, but it appeared that he simply buckled under the enormous pressure from all directions, including the media, opinion in the church, his own staff, and probably the Bishop of London. The new Dean may come with clean hands as far as that incident is concerned, but it's a safe bet that St Paul's, having featured on the radar in this way, will have other storms to weather before long. David Ison's style of leadership and his vision for St Paul