General Chat

'Oppression' can arise in many other spheres of life. (Excerpt from last week's 'The Tablet' - International Catholic Weekly publication.

‘Thirteen years ago, Jeffrey John, the then dean of Southwark Cathedral, had been named as Bishop of Reading. John was in a long-term, albeit celibate, relationship with another man.

Orchestrated protests from some evangelicals and African bishops over a period of weeks put considerable pressure on the then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, some threatening to leave the Anglican Communion if John’s consecration went ahead.

John was surreptitiously called in to Lambeth Palace one Saturday morning and forced to stand down, despite the protests of his current and appointing bishops at Southwark and Oxford.

The response to the current Bishop of Grantham’s recent announcement that he is gay reveals that the Church of England has shifted in its stance, particularly under Archbishop Welby

Perhaps the most surprising thing about last weekend’s Guardian interview in which Dr Nicholas Chamberlain, the Church of England’s suffragan bishop of Grantham, became the first member of the episcopate to announce he is gay, was how little upset it caused.

The conservative evangelicals, who are usually the section of the Church quickest to express outrage, were strangely muted. Even the African bishops of the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon), the group set up especially to oppose any accommodation with gays in the worldwide Anglican Communion, confined themselves to a declaration that Chamberlain’s consecration 10 months ago had been a mistake.

No one had told them and so they had not noticed at the time. It was a fait accompli'.

The property is Portcullis House.

How sharia avoids usury
say you want to buy a car on credit; fine
the bank buys the car which it rents to you
with the final payment over, say, 24 months, you have the option to buy the car (from the bank) for £ 1.

and so on
apart from the stats being at the end of the day the same as classic interest charging loans the bank owns the car and thus makes sure it is serviced properly - if it doesn't you have a comeback against the bank.

It is fairly easy to get a sharia mortgage in the UK whatever your religious faith (if any). Mohammed was, first and foremost, a businessman. They compare pretty well with classic western mortgages. It is dramatically easier to get business finance from a sharia bank. The borrower is in the position of tenant and the lender of landlord.
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Dermot, has The Tablet yet said when we can expect to see the Roman Catholic Church ordain women priests?

I may have missed a statement owing to my snoozing through life after retirement.

So nothing's changed then, Rollo. Usury still works in the way I learned many years ago.

I was just surprised to see UKGov take advantage of that kind of loan. But, as always, (I hope), it will be all down to money. Do you know who brokered the deal?

If my memory serves me right, the HSBC bank was the first in the UK to offer mortgages acceptable under Islamic law.

Before I retired I used to keep apprised of this kind of thing but when you don't have to keep up-to-date you tend to chill out completely .....

I recommend retirement. :-D

JoyLouise - joking, aren't you! Not in my lifetime - whatever is left of it.

From the top down, the Catholic church continues to be run by a supposed celibate hierarchy from which women have been & still are excluded.

Dermot, I was indeed pulling your leg. :-D

I'd love to know what the mothers, wives and daughters think of the clergymen who defect to the RC Church. Aren't I a devil? :-S

From AD 325 the Christian church was indubitably an instrument of opression against women. They only got a break when some mad monk banged his thesis on a church door in 1517 or thereabouts. That created a schism which endures to this day.

As rome has had 500 years to change its views without doing so don't hold your breath.

JoyLouise - There is one such fellow in our parish, settling in well to the RC way of life with one exception - his wife & two teenage children have also 'transferred over'.

A lovely bunch of people.

I have edited my previous post, Rollo, to ask you another question.

I never ever hold my breath for anyone or anything. :-D

Well, bless me, Dermot. :-0 :-D

I do know of a few who have transferred too but I have never known what their female relatives think.

for JL

The National Audit Office NAO has published a report on Portcullis House which gives the project a clean bill of health. Nevertheless MPs are complaining of all kinds of faults as well as no beer. Evidently the possibility of rain was not fully take into account.

In our mother of democracies access to P.H. is tighter than a duck's a-s but don't fret they have a virtual tour.

On the architect's side Henry Buxton was the go to man for finance.

Given the degree to which the UK is living on tick ( 8% balance of trade deficit, trillion £ mortgage bubble financed by foreign banks, Portcullis House, hospitals, schools financed by PFI, BOfE QE funny money, nice new train sets inc HS2, state of the art nuclear power stations and so on ) it is fascinating to see just how post Brexit UK will finance itself. No wonder May has become the soul of reticence.

Going back to the previous page, and Rollo's 'Statement' about the situation in Saudi I would like to point out that situations change, nothing is ever 'set in stone'.
My father lived in Saudi for over 10 years, mingled with the locals, and lived away from the 'Western Block'. He even became a follower of Islam and taught religion.
I also stayed out there from time to time, but will not pass comment, as, If I contradict Himself, he will probably, yet again try to dismiss me as 'bitter & twisted' - and what would I know anyway??
Women oppressed by men? Not just in the Middle East, but here, on GR!!

However I AM confused about his reference to ISL having any influence in Saudi.
Who is/are ISL?

acronym sometimes used for Islamic State of the Levant instead of ISIS.
often referred to as al Daesh.

Although ialways denied this organisation gets significant funding and political protection from the al Rashid clan in Saudi.

highly recommended :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Kingdom-Robert-Lacey/dp/0099539055

Oh! I Googled ISL Recruitment - and came across a recruitment agency in Bristol.

Not a commonly used acronym, for ISIS or DAESH then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRxIAnduy7c

May is right to be tight-lipped.

My curiosity is aroused Rollo. I am going to have to do some reading (between the lines methinks).

But it won't be this weekend as there's too much going on.

And I thought I was enjoying a leisurely retirement. A curious child never changes her spots. :-S :-D