Friday 18 July 2008

Does this encapsulate Britain's view of the Church of England today?

Grace hands her birth and marriage certificates to an administrator at her New Job, in order to verify her identity and eligibility to work in the UK.

ADMINISTRATOR: Grace, thank you. Right, then... so you were born Grace This and married to become Grace That. And now your place of birth... Lambeth... hang on, Lambeth?

GRACE: It's a London borough, just south of the Thames.

ADMINISTRATOR: No, but I've been hearing the name Lambeth on the radio all week... I don't know why...


Does this encapsulate your average non-Londoner's view of the Church of England today? It made me smile, anyway...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must be too much of a northerner. I didn't realise it was a borough of London :D

Robb

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

I'm trying to decided if this indicates a view of the church, or just says something about how unconnected people are to anything outside their own little circle. Either way, I was surprised by your story.

grace said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
grace said...

http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/AboutLambeth/

Enjoy!

Erika Baker said...

I loved the story but am not surprised by it. In fact, I expect that even within my own church community there are some who associated "Lambeth" with the Archbishop's palace and not with international church politics. However much we believe that everyone is fascinated by all of this - many in my own church are more concerned about getting the toilet built, getting a neighbour to the doctor's on time, and making sure that someone has put the publicity for the next coffee morning out.

That's not necessarily displaying disinterest, it's also a case of getting priorities right.

When we recently presented the Inclusive Church's "Gift of Communion" declaration to the PCC for consideration, they all agreed to sign it, completely astonished that any of it was contentious!

It's a wonderfully affirming place to worship for me, my children and the woman of my life.

grace said...

"However much we believe that everyone is fascinated by all of this - many in my own church are more concerned about getting the toilet built, getting a neighbour to the doctor's on time, and making sure that someone has put the publicity for the next coffee morning out.

That's not necessarily displaying disinterest, it's also a case of getting priorities right."

Exactly. I've just had the following text from a friend

"hi grace almbeth [sic] sounds cool culd u babysit 2moro?"

Anonymous said...

Hehehe!

I like it.