I’m aware that I’ve been neglecting my loyal reader again.
Of course, this being Lent, I’ve had to come down from my ivory tower and live in the desert for 40 days. As there are no proper deserts nearby I’ve had to settle with a pilgrimage to my birth town Stoke on Trent (some people may say that there is not much difference). All the snakes and scorpions are in Westminster so we should be okay.
Complaints that Cadbury have dropped the word ‘Easter’ from their latest campaign have reached my wilderness camp (Ironic because the word ‘Easter’ isn’t actually in the Bible either (and few people have a go at ‘God Ltd’ for that)).
I can imagine the conversations up and down our post-Brexit country following the PMs (over) reaction:
Child: “Daddy, what is Easter all about?”
Father: “It’s the time we celebrate the death of Jesus, son.”
Mother (interrupting suddenly with look of horror): “How can you say such a thing? No, no, no, we don’t celebrate that, we celebrate him being alive – that’s horrible. How could you even think that?”
Father (crestfallen) thinks: ‘This is your fault again God.’
You probably should know that the Church of England (apart from complaining that some people don’t like to mention Easter) has a new campaign planned for the 25th May – 4th June called ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. In a nutshell the idea is that it will organise people into praying for the country to somehow fill churches again. They say it is a cross-denominational, inclusive initiative.
Just think of all those Christians praying for the people of Britain (whether you like it or not). Filling the post-Brexit vacuum of division and sporadic violence with an atmosphere of love.
Will it work? Sheesh, who knows. But anything that holds back demon-inspired racism and violence has to be a good thing doesn’t it? Anything that lifts up the vulnerable and oppressed in this country sounds okay to me.
Of course, the efficacy of prayer is always up for debate and few people expect a paradigm shift.
So that appears to be the Church of England’s plan following Brexit. ‘Pray’. It probably took about 1000 meetings to come up with that one.
‘Surely someone, somewhere has a proper plan?’ I hear you think.
Nope. Hope the world doesn’t end. Don’t immanentize the eschaton. Pray. Try to stay alive. That seems to be the plan.
Think happy thoughts.
Nick White Writing 