An Obadiah Slope column
Let’s hear it for evensong: It was a busy evening – evensong for ascension day in the cathedral, then onto a play – that turned out to be a study of contrast.
At Evensong, we prayed for a restoration “for those who are penitent, according to the promises declared to mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord: and grant, O Merciful Father for his sake, that we may lead a godly righteous and sober life, to the glory of thy Holy name.” The rest of the service was accompanied by music that undergirded a life of faith and hope.
After a walk to the theatre, we entered into a very different world the Sydney Theatre Company play “The President” portrayed. Somewhere in central Europe, a First Lady and the President are living lives of fear and desperation.
A life lived in fear of assassins, of rancid “ambition amd hate,” of torturing the vulnerable – the first lady her maid, the president his mistress.
It was hard to tell which life was the emptiest, the first lady’s ( the first act) or the president’s (after the interval.) Plus, the play was tedious. Evensong, by contrast, was a slice of heaven.
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Unsocial media: Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog column (actually older than the other Media Watch) makes a point about revealing your true self on Facebook, Twitter/X etc “Media Watch Dog is a follower of the modern version of the saying “you will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:16). Which, in modern parlance, translates to “You will know them by their late night posts”
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Deposed: The Sydney Morning Herald has done a good investigative journalism piece on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, revealing a complaint against him. He’s the Bishop that was stabbed in a Western Sydney church by an alleged teenage assailant. The magistrate in the complaint case criticised the Bishop, who had been accused of an aggravated indecent assault, but found the charge unproven. It was previously known that he had been suspended from his role in his previous church, the Ancient Church of the East, and had started a breakaway congregation. It’s unknown if the alleged aggravated indecent assault led to the Church of the East acting against the Bishop, causing him to leave. Obadiah still admires the Bishop for forgiving his alleged teenage assailant who stabbed him, with the bishop losing an eye.
Another example, one of many, of a sinner forgiving others, Obadiah thinks.
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Re-brand: More useful to pray for Russell Brand, the English comedian baptised this week that to write about him.
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Public Service Announcement: from Facebook…
