Jude Smith

Morning: today is the day in the church calendar where we celebrate Christ the King! (its also apparently the best day to make Christmas Puddings). I'm off for the first of three services at three different churches in about an hour but I feel that I need to put some thoughts out there about our current state. I really wish that I had taken a course on late antiquity at university, because I am currently fascinated about era change. Thats what I feel we are on now. I feel that we are in the throes of one of those civilisation shifts that we have read about in the history books (or didn't in my case.. where is that copy of Gibbon). Europe has been in the ascendancy since the mid 1400's I guess. And now, through ripping ourselves apart in war, this little patch of land (for that is what it is) is running dry of resources and no longer makes anything. Instead we pass money to one another- and thats no future. Our citizens have grown fat on the fruits of two hundred years...

Two years ago yesterday I sat in a flourescently lit room, as a seemingly unreally fit (in the sense of the word that existed before ten years ago) noted down my goals. "Errr.. lose three stone" I heard myself say. "When by?" came the reply. "Easter". And so began a journey. The day I nearly bought a breadmaker. I used the money (and then some) to invest in some personal training sessions, and my life changed. At the risk of sounding like I am writing for a health magazine I should put some flesh around that statement. Let me start with the raw facts. I have lost 80lbs in weight. Thats about 36 kilos. Five stone and 10 pounds. I have lost about 14 inches off my broadest parts! In some areas I have lost 5 dress sizes, in others just three. I have gone from being obese to be healthy in BMI terms. I have gone from not being able to walk up two flights of stairs without puffing to being able to run a half marathon. What the raw facts don't tell is t...

So metal theft is under the spotlight because man of the people Dave, thinks its appalling (thats another of his words, like absurd) that it happens, especially from war memorials. If Dave and his chums would like to do the sums or look at the data they would discover that acting (and the proposal seems sensible) over war memorials is like punching the guy who looked at your sister while three other women are being held at knifepoint. One memorial a week for small sums of metal. Put your hands up if you have had a journey delayed because of metal theft (more than one a week I suspect). Clergy friends: any of you unable to get insurance because your lead has gone more than three times? Anyone else had a funeral of a metal thief for whom it all went wrong (a colleague took one this week)? Anyone had significant leaks afterwards? Lightning conductors gone? Schools- how about your gutters? Anyone lost their phone connection (my parents and 20,000 others for a couple of days following men...

Morning one and all. Well I am back from holiday and in a particularly shoot from the hip place! So today's topic of tirade is poppy fascism! Its a strong comment but I think its where we have gotten to as a nation. As I tap away many folks are getting in a little tizzy about the fact that England can't wear poppies on their shirts on Saturday. FIFA is being pilloried as if they had run over the Queen Mother's cat in a hummer whilst playing gangster rap! What FIFA is actually doing is holding to the line that stops Israel celebrating the 1967 land grab, or Iran commemorating its losses in the last thirty years. Or actually more comparatively, it stops there being a Comic Relief shirt, or a Children In Need one.. or some other charity. Because in our latter day tyranny where one gets stared down if one doesn't wear a poppy, we have forgotten that the Poppy campaign is just that. It is a charity fundraiser. I am not saying that the British Legion is not worthy of ra...

Ok: so my little preamble is that Church of England clergy are asked to show respect for one another by not pulling down other clergy or parts of the church. In reflecting on that- and trying to genuinely honour my brothers and sisters in this strange calling that I haven't said too much about the St Paul's stand off. Today I was heartened in a strange way that Giles Fraser felt he was able to resign. I feel heartened that on first comments his diocesan Bishop appears to be exercising appropriate care over his staff and is perhaps going to see him alright. But I am sad at the wider situation. As I type there appears to be something going on (riot vans or something nearby). I can't help but feel a little glum about what has happened- but there is a strange sense of inevitability about it all. Because St Paul's Cathedral lives right on the fault line of several dilemmas faced by the Church of England. The first is that of having a place of worship that is also a touri...

Sometimes I'm not very good at remembering who I am. I get all caught up in either feeling very special, or very not special. That, at my worst, can be entirely dependent on how well something is going. When it gets bad I usually need rest and to do normal things and be around normal people. This weekend I didn't get a whole heap of rest but I did do some normal things.. I read a book: The Blasphemer by Nigel something.. rubbish.. trying too hard to be profound and missing by a country mile! I watched a film.. the Help. Beautiful.. anger making and over the heads of many of the audience. Lots of choosing to laugh at the angry character... Civil Rights was my special subject- say no more. I went for a walk.. I hung out with friends- lunch in Liverpool, dinner in Manchester, breakfast in Leeds.. I'm starting to feel more normal. I'm starting to remember that I am special, but not because of what I do. I can see that I am unspecial, in that I am a sister in this mes...

I am sure that all Church of England clergy and officials occasionally find themselves hiding behind their hands as one of our colleagues takes to the screen. In a fast moving media age any one of us could fall foul of a bad few moments on camera- and in reality we have colleagues who don't always share the most 'normal' of views. And so I have been pleasantly reassured this morning: as one of the clergy from St Paul's (Giles Fraser to name) was interviewed by Sky News. Speaking in normal English, with no pastoral head tilt, Revd Fraser said clearly and concisely that he supported the Occupy protestors right to protest and that he had asked the police to move in from the steps of the Cathedral. Good job sir: the most lavish of cathedrals sitting amidst that most wretched Square Mile, but still speaking for the rest of us. (Westminster Abbey and its golden dome proposals might want to take note.. ) Add to that that all 26 bishops who were present, voted against the hurr...