Language and the Church

Two posts in one day... something must be up!

My other post today is meant to be serious, this is a little more humorous (I hope!)

Within the Church, and the Church of England in particular, certain words seem to have developed certain meanings, which are quite different from what they seem to mean.

For example

"I value women's ministry"

contains the following implication

"...making tea and coffee and running the creche"

Or the following words and phrases are synonyms:

traditionalist

catholic

anglo-catholic

seeking sacramental assurance

orthodox

anglican use

sound

Unfortunately they seem to be synonymous with "we hate the gayz and the wimin"

Similarly,

liberal

inclusive

anglo-catholic

seem to be synonyms for "gay"

(Serious point follows!)

So I'm white, male, straight, middle class, and I believe the Church should consecrate women to the episcopate, and I believe that there is an equal place in the Church for men and women of all sexualities within the Church (i.e. I support the consecration of Mary Glasspool as a Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles on a political level, I know next to nothing about the woman or the diocese so couldn't tell you how well she'll match the job, just to be clear how I'm misusing my words). I also accept the two traditional creeds of the Church. I say I go to mass on a Sunday, I would describe myself variously as reformed, catholic, protestant, orthodox and traditionalist. I also quite like dressing up to serve at mass. I even regularly go to Eucharistic Devotions and Benediction, and am sometimes heard to say an Angelus on occasion.

What am I?

To those who claim particular uses for these words, can I give some advice from Humpty Dumpty? "When I make a word do a lot of work like that, I always pay it extra"

--

Humpty Dumpty speaks to us via the medium of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 6.

PS - Please email me, and I will help you make suitable arrangements for paying your words properly :P