Vanessa ✝️ 🎹 🪗 🎸

In the run-up to Easter every year some part of the organ goes wrong. Another cipher this morning, on the swell for a change & luckily only temporarily. Stainer’s Crucifixion next Sunday evening - I need every bit of the instrument working!

Have a Good Friday!

Talk about a religious revival is focussing on quantity. I'm more interested in quality. A small number of people can change the world. I'm thinking of twelve men in particular two thousand years ago.

Interesting to see the overlap between people who believe individual silent prayer near an abortion clinic is an act of deliberate intimidation, and people who believe mass ritual prayer taking over a public space is unworthy of comment.

If you feel powerless about the horror of abortion culture in Britain today, one very easy thing you can do is to sign the heartbeat bill petition before the end of today. It needs less than 1,700 signatures to get a government response. If it doesn't get those signatures by tomorrow, the petition dies. It will take you 1 minute to sign. (And if you're squeamish about heartbeat bills because you think they're a waste of time and/or that they contravene your abolitionist principles by including too many "exceptions", please read my article linked below.)

I struggle to think of anything more tolerant or diverse than a crowd of concerned parents outside a school in Batley calling for a teacher to be killed. Simply doesn't get more British than that.

A motion declaring Zionism is racism has been selected for debate at the Green Party’s conference. If adopted, it would be the first UK party to define Jewish self-determination as racist, and the first UK party to have hatred of Jews as its core value. thejc.com/news/politics/…

Why Britain pays more for power than almost any other developed nation! British households face electricity prices nearly three times higher than in the US. What can be done about it? Sack Miliband & Labour! thetimes.com/article/f75af7…

@TheKentAcorn I love curly fern season. They make for wonderful photographs.

Pteridium aquilinum - The former means ‘little wing’ and the latter ‘eagle’ Eagle Fern is so much better than Bracken, because when mature, the large outstretched fronds resemble an eagle's wingspan

@Artemisfornow Your daughter's art is outstanding. Absolutely achingly beautiful.

@GHWTowler Was "Kirkless" a deliberate typo - a Scottish-style judgement on a Islam-captured council?

The last 24hrs have left me raging, our culture and society are under attack from all directions. comment.press/strangledbrita…

@InsideLucysHead This post made me laugh and the replies made me laugh even more. I needed this! Thank you, Internetty bods.

How would the Church of England deal with the statement that "The cat sat on the mat" if it appeared in the Bible? The liberal theologians would point out that such a passage did not, of course, mean that the cat literally sat on the mat. Also, cat and mat had different meanings in those days from today, and anyway, the text should be interpreted according to the customs and practices of the period. This would lead to an immediate backlash from the Evangelicals. They would make it an essential condition of faith that a real physical, living cat, being a domestic pet of the species Domesticus, and having a whiskered head, a furry body, four legs and a tail, did physically place its whole body on a floor covering, designed for that purpose, and which is on the floor but not of the floor. The expression "on the floor but not of the floor" would be explained in a leaflet. Meanwhile, the Catholics would have developed the Feast of the Sedentation of the Blessed Cat. This would teach that the cat was white, and majestically reclined on a mat of gold thread before its assumption to the Great Cat Basket of Heaven. This is commemorated by singing the "Magnificat" and "Felix namque", lighting three candles, and ringing a bell five times. This would cause a schism with the Orthodox Church, which believes tradition requires Holy Cats Days (as it is colloquially known) to be marked by lighting SIX candles and ringing the bell FOUR times. This would partly be resolved by the Cuckoo Land Declaration, recognising the traditional validity of each. Eventually, the House of Bishops would issue a statement on the Doctrine of the Feline Sedentation. It would explain that traditionally, the text describes a domestic feline quadruped superjacent to an unattached covering on a fundamental surface. For determining its salvific and eschatological significations, we follow the heuristic analytical principles adopted in dealing with the Canine Fenestration Question (How much is that doggie in the window?) and the Affirmative Musaceous Paradox (Yes, we have no bananas). And so on, for another 210 pages. The General Synod would then commend this report as helpful resource material for clergy to explain to the man in the pew the difficult doctrine of 'The cat sat on the mat.'

Why is it that all the worst Government policies were not in Labours manifesto? Abolishing Jury trials one of the greatest attacks on our Justice system will not receive a favourable hearing in the Lords

Scrapping jury trials is as dark as it gets. Everyone should be entitled to be judged by their peers. It’s in the Magna Carta for fucks sake

@ghost_wales It definitely is. They are the worst appeasers ever. There's no blasphemy laws in this country and nor should there be. Certainly not ones that protect only one religion, whilst condoning by inaction the anti-semitic filth that has been spouted on the streets recently.

@HazardWarning The acceleration towards Islamist totalitarian extremism is being facilitated by the Labour government.

Has the North of England fallen to Islam? I’m asking because schools have been advised that children’s drawings could be considered blasphemous under Islamic law. Guidance issued to teachers by Labour councils in northern England warns that images made by pupils in art lessons may be seen as “idolatrous” under sharia. The advice, designed to help teachers adapt to religious sensitivities, also warns that music and dance classes could be contrary to the teachings of Islam. It adds that diversity in the classroom can be “a great source of strength”, but that schools “will want to be flexible in catering for religious difference”. The guidance was issued by local authorities across the North of England, including Kirklees, the council area that covers Batley Grammar School. Are you happy your children are having their education restricted to accommodate religious sensitivities?

The attack on ancient British liberties continues as MPs vote to curb the right to trial by jury. This whittling away at everything that made our country great is only going to make the backlash bigger. Roll on 2029.

@SpeechUnion Surely any Christian has to believe that Islam is a false religion. If asked directly, the answer our faith requires would put us at odds with UK law. Christians could be persecuted for their faith as a result. I thought that was illegal?

The Communities Secretary is set to announce the long-awaited official definition of Islamophobia today. We are also due to get an Islamophobia tsar. While Parliament voted to abolish blasphemy laws 18 years ago, this government is reintroducing them via the back door. The official definition of Islamophobia — now repackaged as “anti-Muslim hostility” — will silence legitimate criticism of Islam. It will also deter public officials and news outlets from speaking out on topics like Islamist extremism and the grooming gangs scandal. In a free society, no religion should be shielded from legitimate criticism or challenge, nor offered greater protections than any other. The UK has a proud history of religious tolerance, and existing laws already protect all religious groups from discrimination and hatred. Rather than waste taxpayers’ money and risk inflaming community tensions further, the government should focus on enforcing the laws we already have. The Free Speech Union recently exposed in our investigative briefing that all five members of the Working Group tasked with drafting the definition of Islamophobia have links to Islamist organisations. It raises the question — who will be our Islamophobia tsar?

@benonwine I have many bibles, in lots of different translation.

Bible sales surge to highest level on record as Britain's Christian revival continues. Do you own a BIBLE? ✝️🇬🇧🙏

Impressive speed with which “free Palestine” protesters have switched to “don’t free Iran”.