Vicar of Dibley on Youtube

After reading the discussion on Susan Russell's blog, An Inch at a Time about the discussion about women becoming bishops in England, one commenter mentioned the Vicar of Dibley, and specifically the first episode....

I'm not sure how long these videos will stay up on youtube, but while you have a chance, you should check them out. If you're not familiar with this wonderful BBC series, you are in for a treat. In the small British town of "Dibley" there is a new "Vicar" (priest serving a parish, sometimes with the salary paid in part by the bishop) at the local Anglican (what we in the U.S. call Episcopal) Church. To many people's horror, the new vicar is.... a WOMAN! And, what a wonderful person she is,...in many ways! As the English Church is now debating whether there should be female bishops in the church, it is quite interesting to look at the first episode of the Vicar of Dibley (just click below). If you go over to youtube, you can see the remainder of this episode by clicking HERE.

I'm a big fan of the show, and yes, I do know that it is not necessarily an accurate description of the clergy in England, but it is still a great deal of fun!

Check it out,

~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Archbishop of Canterbury's Sermon at York Minster

Archbishop of Canterbury's Sermon at York Minster

Sunday 06 July 2008

General Synod, July Group of Sessions

Any congregation might be forgiven for wondering what are we going to hear about this morning. Members of Synod in particular (but perhaps members of the Church of England in general) may have the slight sense that there's rather too much to be hearing about, that we're suffering somewhat from issue fatigue. So perhaps we ought to begin where we always ought to begin, in listening to what the Word of God has to say. And scripture says, 'Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion. I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit". And today's scriptures say, 'Who will rescue me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord'. And scripture says, 'Come to me all you who travail and are heavy laden. My yoke is easy and my burden is light'. In a way, the pivot for understanding all this is provided in the epistle today. Paul in the letter to the Romans gives us the key.

We live under law, different kinds of law. The law of God, which is for our health, and the law we make for ourselves. We long to be masters of our future, and so we become the prisoners of our past. We long to take control of the world we're in. And because we are who we are, and our histories have been what they have been, we dig ourselves deeper and deeper into unfreedom. The will that we want to use to conquer the world, is a will weakened and bruised by the legacy of self-love, going back to the very roots of the human race. The effects of that legacy work themselves out as relentlessly as any oriental karma. We want to take hold of our future and we are gripped, paralysed, by our past.

We find ourselves in that 'waterless pit' of which Zechariah speaks....

Read the rest HERE.