The Practical Parson

 In recent months, I have found myself being forced by society to bear witness to an ongoing saga of insanity being played out in the public square.  The debate surrounding the Transgender ideology and its purported rights and privileges have become topic of violence and hatred; truly ironic in light of the fact the people who promote the ideology claim to do everything in the name of "love" and "acceptance".  I have never cared much either way about whether a man or a woman wishes they were the opposite sex, and whether they decided to mutilate their body in order to satisfy that desire for validation; that is entirely within their own right to do so as an adult citizen of the nation in which we live.  However, seeing an increased number of people demanding that children under the age of 12 be subjected to (so-called) "gender-affirming care" in the way of life changing surgeries, puberty blockers, and enough supplemental hormones to damage their brain cel...

Over the past 4 or 5 years, I have sat back from my chapel porch and watched the world go by; as it is wont to do.  I have watched flowers grow, the trees in my garden sprout new branches and fruit, the grapes in my small vineyard grow and produce their first batch of wine.  I have also watched other things around the churchyard which have needed intervention- weeds which needed pulling, peeling paint which needed re-touching, stains on chapel carpeting which needed cleaning.  There has been much that has gone on here, though most of it only noticeable to my own eye as the one who is caretaker of it.  In this, I feel a connection with the eternal Father: who watches over the whole of creation like the great gardener and caretaker of the universe which He is, and I begin to understand the problems of this world through an empathetic place with our Lord. Our world today demands ever-increasing progress: Progress for "rights", progress for technology, progress for moral...