Saturday, March 7, 2009

Why I would never go to church in Sydney

Who would want to spend hours on Sunday morning with all those gloomy misanthropic Calvinists and Roman Catholics when you could spend the day doing this?  Agape and eros are just busting out all over in the streets!  Who needs the Jensens when you could have lovely young Matthew Mitcham, this year's parade king?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thing is, Doug, I'd like to bring faith---real Christian TEC faith---TO Sydney Gay Mardi Gras. There's no reason to make it "Either/Or", no matter what "The Family Firm" and "Pell the Smell" (Thanks, MP! ;-p) say.

Brian R said...

Actually this morning at the sign of peace one of our congregation, being very casually dressed, told me he had just come from Mardi Gras. I was at the 2nd Mardi Gras 30 years ago. It was legal, the first resulted in police fights and arrests which in those days would have had me lose my job as a teacher. I think I attended most of the next 20 sometimes as a marshall, one or twice as a participant but now find the long time standing and the long (80km drive home too much so have not been for 10 years

Brian R said...

Can I be a blog whore
http://brianaralph.blogspot.com/2009/03/matthew-leads-mardi-gras.html

Anonymous said...

Hey, I just came home from Church in Sydney and it was fun. And as Brian gently points out the Mardi Gras is held on a Saturday Night.
Obadiah Slope

Counterlight said...

I've never been to Sydney. I have friends who have been there and they all love the place (all of them gay and all of them quite secular I should point out). I don't know that any of them have been to Mardi Gras there, but the reputation of that street party reaches all the way to this side of the globe.

I'm sure that I'm generalizing about ecclesiastical experiences there, but the church news from Sydney does tend to be dominated by the Calvinist dynasty and by their Roman counterparts. Likewise, religiously liberal (though not quite secular) New York has its pockets of very hard religious conservatism, even in the Episcopal Church.
I salute the courage, and especially the faith, of those liberally or humanely religious caught between right wing religious establishments, and the hostile anticlerical backlash that I'm sure they provoke. You are the living witnesses to the greatness of the Christian faith, as something larger and better than Calvin and Loyola, or that equally dogmatic secularism preached by Dawkins and Hitchens.

I agree with JCF.
The Episcopal Church could probably do well in a place like Sydney. All those revelers could use a message that's something other than that they're sick and degenerate, and that we all inherit sin like blue eyes and sickle cell anemia; or the message that there's no God, it's all superstition, so ignore those stirrings in the soul which you don't really have.

Brian R, you can blog whore here as much as you like. Good on you for being such a long time marshall and participant in the parade. In New York, we usually provide rides (rented cars or buses) for those long time marchers who just can't quite walk the whole 5 mile route anymore. They might have the same thing there if you're still interested.

Glad you enjoyed church, Obadiah.

One of these days. I'll make that 20 hour plane flight to Sydney and visit the place and see for myself. Michael has been there, and loved it.

Brian R said...

I would be glad to make you welcome Counterlight, That is if I am still living here which is unlikely. We do have a few churches who try to withstand Jensenism. Ours has the statement "We are a progressive community that welcomes all people regardless of age, race, sexual orientation or religion" on the front of all pew sheets and other publications.

Göran Koch-Swahne said...

This Micham fellow is beyond hansom, such poise such dignity, such sweetness.

Anonymous said...

Church in Sydney and it was fun

I was trying to compute "Church in Lent" with "fun" . . . and then I remembered this is JensenLand. Do you even DO Lent, Obadiah, or is that considered Popish?

Now admittedly, it MIGHT be hard to translate Lent to Sydney Gay Mardi Gras . . . which begs the question, why are our gay revelers 10 days too late? [Except going back to the fact that they've been taught that their lives have nothing to do w/ God (except provoke His Wrath) anyway, so why even bother to observe Mardi Gras on its actual date? Whereas as a proper Gay Lent, would teach one to be more faithful to one's same-sex partner, for example. How does that work for ya, Obadiah? >;-/]

MadPriest said...

I hear it was a rather boring Sunday in the Jensenite churches. Hardly any of the younger, male members of the congregation turned up. Evidently, most of them had been up very late the night before.

toujoursdan said...

When I have gone to Sydney I have always gone to St. Luke's Enmore. Great parish. You'd feel comfortable.

Anonymous said...

At one stage I ran a team with serveral gay staff. I always rostered them off for up to a week after Mardi Gras.
Obadiah Slope