We are informed by an almost certainly impeachable source that Our Lady of Walsingham, has miraculously appeared about 1,000 years to help the Anglican Communion through a crisis. To wit:
Your Grace,
I wish to send my most sincere, if overdue, congratulations to you, Archbishop Justin, on your election to the Primate of All England and the spiritual head of the Global Anglican Communion. Your story is rather inspiring; from oil man to Archbishop in no time. You surely have your work set out for you. Following in the footsteps of giants, holding an unruly communion together, and the care of some 80 million souls in this troubling age are no small tasks. That being said, there is one matter that must be discussed.
In your tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, it has come to my attention that your collar is in a perilous state. Whether speaking with the media or performing liturgical tasks, it seems to precariously hang from your neck: perhaps you are metaphorically mirroring the flexibility of Anglican practice or the loose bonds of affection found in the Anglican Communion.
Nevertheless, this is an intervention of love. For the sake of all in the Church of England and in our Communion, we ask that you properly adjust your clericals.
Follow the link at the top of this item to view the photographic evidence that has caught Our Lady’s attention.
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“Contrary to popular opinion, I do not appear at whim, and especially not with regard to trivialities such as appearances.”
Odd, I had an vision this morning from OL of Guadalupe: she warned me against concern trollery in the face of good-natured humor. Allow me to pass on the message!
Given the honestly weighty tasks of actual ministry, I suspect a bit of fun is perfectly acceptable. Unless you’d warn us against unprofitable speech, urging silence and keeping our vocalizations sparse, and seasoned-well with salt. But I doubt it.
Terry
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I am eternally fascinated by the idea that holding opinions about issues of admittedly minor importance, often casually dismissed as “externals,” must automatically come at the “expense” of more theologically weighty matters like women’s ordination.
If anyone were, in fact, seriously suggesting that Welby’s collar was more important than matters of the magnitude of women’s ordination, of course that would be a problem. But in this context, it seems to be more of a strawman argument than anything.
His collar often looks silly. It’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t affect his ability to minister. It just looks silly. Someone made a joke about his collar looking silly. That’s all. Just like Welby’s collar is not going to break the Communion, a joke about Welby’s collar isn’t going to make everyone forget about deeper theological matters.
JC, I think you’ll find that collars don’t break down neatly into Roman/Anglican styles. The priests at my parish wear what you’d call Roman callers (or maybe “Romish”), but even among the RCs there’s not one solitary style. Some of them wear the “Anglican” style, too. And I think that in the UK the tab type of collar is maybe more common among Anglicans than it is here, if photographs are reliable evidence.
Oh, and you forgot Lutherans in the impoverished Roman / Methodist wannabe category. Lots of them seem to have no problem at all with tab collars.
Bill Dilworth
May I humbly suggest a (properly-fitting, of course) Anglican collar? (the full-circle dog collar)
I thought only impoverished Romans {sniff, sniff}, or Methodist wannabees wore those tab things.
;-p~~~
JC Fisher
Yes, because nothing imperils the Communion more than an ABC with a skewed remnant of an undershirt!
Bro David