Order of the Bath

I know I am straying on to dangerous ground here as there are many that know much more about this subject than I do, but I have been asked what they are and could find no good cross-denominational reference.

A sacrament (literal meaning “a sacred thing or mystery”) is the symbolic act or ritual that the church uses to outwardly express and practice the faith. There are seven that are commonly practised by Catholic and Orthodox traditions and most Protestant churches (except perhaps the Salvation Army and the Society of Friends) accept the first two even if they don’t use the word. I am not entirely sure why, in the case of the Church of England, some are accepted and others not even though we adopt most of the practices, but I suspect that it is more than mere terminology.

Baptism (or Christening)

This is the rite of initiation into the church as originally practised by John the Baptist using water (John 3:22–24). In the Anglican (Church of England), Catholic, Orthodox and some other churches this can be as an infant where the vows are made on their behalf or they can be made in person if the candidate is old enough. In some protestant denominations this is called the “Believer’s Baptism” and is only available to those who can declare for themselves.

Eucharist (Holy Communion, Mass or The Lord’s Supper)

This is the regular ceremony where Christians re-enact the “Last Supper” as commanded in the Gospels (e.g. Luke 22:14–20). At the Eucharist the consecrated bread and wine are sometimes referred to as the “Blessed Sacraments”, particularly if some is kept for later use (known as the “Reserved Sacrament”).

Confirmation

An infant who has been baptised later confirms their faith for themselves in this public act before their Bishop. In different traditions this can take place either before or after they receive their first communion. Although practised by the Church of England, it is not regarded as a Sacrament.

Matrimony (Marriage)

Although Protestant churches practice marriage in Church, it is not seen as a Sacrament yet it doesn’t lessen their view of marriage as having been given and blessed by God.

Ordination

A person who wishes (with a “Vocation” or “Calling”) to formalise their ministry in the church, both pastorally and in preaching, may go to their Bishop who, after suitable training, may ordain them, first as “Deacon” (servant to the church) and (perhaps) later as “Priest.” In many denominations, only the latter can preside at a celebration of the Communion. Particularly worthy priests may later be “Consecrated” as Bishops, though this is not a sacrament.

Penance (Confession or Reconciliation)

Unlike the other sacraments, this is very much a personal affair between the penitent and God, often with the assistance of a confessor or priest. Practice varies from a routine attendance at a confessional some time before Mass to an occasional and prayerful confession and renewal or baptismal vows in time of need.

Extreme Unction (Anointing the Sick or Last Rites)

Adopted from the passage James 5:14-15 “Any one of you who is ill should send for the elders of the church…” the Sacrament offers the grace of the Holy Spirit to overcome anxiety at times of weakness. Sometimes a similar anointing is available to all-comers at festivals, particularly (with ashes) at the start of Lent and (with oil) on Easter Eve.

A Catholic view of the sacraments can be found here and here

This schools page demonstrates all that is wrong with religious education.

I have only this to say to those who are criticising Dr. Rowan Williams for apparently advocating that Sharia Law be adopted in the UK; Read the lecture and the interview transcript. If you can’t be bothered to do either, and the former at least is not easy as it was intended for an audience of academic and legal minds, then for goodness sake, read a commentary written by someone who has.

Some extracts from the lecture…

…there are large questions in the background about what we understand by and expect from the law, questions that are more sharply focused than ever in a largely secular social environment. I shall therefore be concentrating on certain issues around Islamic law to begin with, in order to open up some of these wider matters.

This lecture will not attempt a detailed discussion of the nature of sharia, which would be far beyond my competence; my aim is only, as I have said, to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state, with a few thought[s] about what might be entailed in crafting a just and constructive relationship between Islamic law and the statutory law of the United Kingdom.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about football, or any other sport for that matter.

Judging only from snippets of news reports overheard, I understand that the manager of a football team (probably better described as head coach) is very important to the success of the team. This is to the extent that if a team performs badly, it is the manager that gets the boot on the grounds that he didn’t pick a good enough team to do the job or train them well enough.

If that is the case, why is it that the same nationality rules don’t apply to the manager and the rest of the coaching staff as they do for the players themselves?

I’m a bit behind on this news but it shows how good Virgin are at keeping their customers informed about what is going on. They have now come clean about how they manage traffic for their heaviest users. I have checked the Acceptable Usage Policy and Terms of Service again and nothing has changed there so I still don’t think it is justified, but at least we now know what is being done. It seems that on the (L) package I am allowed a maximum of 800MB down or 325MB up between 4pm and 9pm. But some things do get better:—I see that I am now only paying £16 for the service which was £25 and it has just been announced that they are to uprate it to 10Mbps (and 512Kbps up) some time soon.

I don’t think that I am likely to hit the limits but I now wonder how I can monitor my usage—somehow I need to watch traffic through my router as there are multiple machines using it. The 800MB limit amounts to only an average of about 350Kbps over the 5 hours. It would be quite easy to exceed that with a torrent running and even easier to exceed the upload margin.

Update: Virgin media is a strange organisation. When I checked my account I found that I was still being charged £25. The Customer Care desk didn’t know anything about the £16 price so they forwarded me to customer relations. They checked the web site, consulted the supervisor and said—”That’s fine, we will apply it to your account straight away.” Not just the £16 per month but the £11.50 for the first year special offer, and a rebate on the month just paid in advance as well. I suppose that because they are over charging the many people that don’t know about it they can afford to be generous! The only small catch is that a 12 month contract starts again but at that price I am not at all bothered.