{"id":20437,"date":"2015-10-27T10:31:02","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=20437"},"modified":"2015-10-27T10:31:02","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:31:02","slug":"the-vicar-on-lady-bishops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/10\/the-vicar-on-lady-bishops.html","title":{"rendered":"The Vicar on Lady Bishops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"A<\/a>Guest blogger, The Rev\u2019d Humphrey Blytherington is former\u00a0Vicar of St Hilda\u2019s, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and was, until retirement,\u00a0an avid member of the Great Snoring Morris Dancers. He is now honorary assistant priest in the parish of Dagwood Bumstead in the Gloucester Diocese.<\/em><\/p>\n

I must say, I was very gratified to receive such a warm welcome at Evensong last Sunday, and what a delightful village pub you have here in Dagwood Bumstead! In my former parish the local was the Goose and Garter, and what a jolly time I used to have there quaffing the occasional half pint of lager shandy with the lads!<\/p>\n

I must admit, its one of the things I missed most during our time in France. Daphne and I were all set up to enjoy our cottage in Normandy, but when I went down to the local auberge, of course they were all chattering away in French. My schoolboy Franglais was not much appreciated I can tell you. So it was rather lonely out there, and when Daphne\u2019s health took a turn we started to think better of it. Found the French hospitals a bit too much like sick bay at school\u2026.all suppositories, a skimpy breakfast and sleeping with the windows open.<\/p>\n

We were very lucky to be given Cranmer Cottage to live in. They tell me it was the former coach house\u00a0next to the old Vicarage. How things have changed! In the old days Daphne and I would have been in the Vicarage, not the coach house. Never mind. Our Lord was born in a stable, so I suppose it\u2019s not too bad to end up where we are. Mustn\u2019t complain. As it happens\u00a0the Archdeacon is an old college friend of mine, and when Daphne\u2019s ticker started to act up he suggested we move back here.<\/p>\n

Mrs Vicar seems to be recovering, the village is just my cup of tea, and I\u2019m delighted to take on a few duties at St Oswald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

What do I think of the\u00a0new Bishop of Gloucester?<\/a> He\u2019s quite a good chap I suppose, very up to date as he seems to be one of those fellas who wants to come across as a woman. Calls himself \u201cRachel\u201d. Wears necklaces and other sorts of jewelry, but I can\u2019t see why that\u2019s necessarily a bad thing. I remember Bishop Brackett used to be quite fond of his silver pectoral cross and his episcopal ring. A bit of ornamentation is all well and good as far as I\u2019m concerned.<\/p>\n

I reckon his dressing up and calling himself \u201cRachel\u201d is pretty good for attracting the young. They all seem quite intrigued by the idea that you can be a fella one day and a girl the next. As far as men dressing up as the ladies, in boarding school it was quite the done thing. School play would come along and one of the younger boys would always be chosen to play the girl parts. \u201cHark, Hark, fair Rosamund!\u201d You know the sort of thing.<\/p>\n

I can get my head around\u00a0a chap wanting to dress\u00a0up as a woman now and again. That\u2019s understandable. We\u2019ve always had those sorts in the Church of England. Anglo Catholics were often quite fond of that sort of thing\u2026collecting china teacups, being a bit overly concerned about wallpaper and going to Italy for their hols. If they liked to dress up a bit we just wrote it off as their particular form of churchmanship.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s that you say? The Bishop of Gloucester\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>a woman? Well, knock me down with a feather! Are you quite sure? I mean to say she doesn\u2019t\u00a0look\u00a0<\/em>much like a woman. I thought she was a chap dressing up. But then with the long robes is often difficult to say one way or the other.<\/p>\n

You say they changed the rules while we were away? \u00a0Are you pulling my leg? Do you mean to say my new Bishop really is a lady? Not too sure what to do about that, I mean how does one address her at confirmation, \u201cMost Reverend Father in God I present to you\u2026\u201d I suppose we\u2019ll have to say, \u201cMost Reverend Mother\u2026\u201d but that\u2019s what they call an\u00a0abbess isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Well, never mind. I suppose one has to keep up with the times. Can\u2019t see that it make so much difference. When they were having a to-do about this before we beetled off to France, Daphne use do say it didn\u2019t matter one bit if the Church of England had women bishops as she reckoned the whole thing had been run by a lot of old women for some time.<\/p>\n

Why thank you Gerald. Mine\u2019s a Scotch. Would you mind terribly making it a double?<\/p>\n

Very kind, and it\u2019s been grand to meet all of you.<\/p>\n

Do they have a games night here at the Staggering\u00a0Sailor? Tuesday evenings? I might just toddle along and join you. That\u2019s Daphne\u2019s evening at the RC Church and I could get outside\u00a0a Shepherd\u2019s Pie and a pint.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest blogger, The Rev\u2019d Humphrey Blytherington is former\u00a0Vicar of St Hilda\u2019s, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and was, until retirement,\u00a0an avid member of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":20438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-vicar"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Vicar on Lady Bishops<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guest blogger, The Rev\u2019d Humphrey Blytherington is former\u00a0Vicar of St Hilda\u2019s, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. 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