Harlots and responsibility. Here we go again!

More allegations of  financial irregularities in M.P.' s expenses.
The onus is now very much on the press and The Daily Telegraph in particular (which on the whole is one of the best of the bunch) to explain to us, as they seem to be intent on discrediting each and every politician as they take office, in whose interest all these "revelations" actually are. They are certainly not in the interests of stable government or the management of a desperately ailing economy.
But nothing changes. Wasn't it Stanley Baldwin who said of the press of his day that it displayed "power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot down the ages."
I'm sorry if this offends our very British puritan sensibilities (although the 17th Century 'rule of the saints' during Cromwell's Commonwealth wasn't all that successful; it would be even less so today, given the absence of a common ethical narrative) but if we are waiting for our politicians to be whiter than white in all aspects of their lives (and we even seem to be demanding 'retrospective' probity now) we will have a very long wait indeed.
Now that the expenses system has finally been reformed and all the former "grey areas" and inconsistencies and downright idiocies (in which, we should remember, successive governments and the entire political class colluded - both for good and bad reasons) have been removed, it's time to draw a line and move on. Proper scrutiny is one thing, this kind of random destructiveness quite another. (Is it entirely random and disinterested? I can't be the only one to sense the settling of old scores in what is essentially a very incestuous relationship between journalism and politics.)

The Visitation

Fra Angelico: The Visitation

"But the joys that the Virgin Mother had, were such as concerned all the world; and part of them which was her peculiar, she would not conceal from persons apt to their entertainment but go publish God’s mercy towards her to another holy person, that they might join in the praises of God; as knowing that it may be convenient to represent our personal necessities in private, yet God’s gracious returns and the blessings he makes to descend on us, are more fit, when there is no personal danger collaterally appendant, to be published in the communion of saints; that the hopes of others may receive increase, that their faith may grow up to become excellent and great, and the praises of God may be sung aloud, till the sound strike at heaven, and join with the hallelujahs, which the morning stars in their orbs pay to their great Creator"

         Jeremy Taylor

The Most Holy Trinity: "Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas"

David Laws: an honourable resignation

Whatever our view may be of the new coalition government, we can all recognise a personal tragedy when we see one. I hope no one will gloat over this - bad judgement perhaps (that's debatable), but for understandable and not unworthy motives. At the very least we can say that honour and dignity in political life is not a thing of the past and the Prime Minister's letter reflects this. The real question is why anyone should want to enter public life at all, given the ever closer scrutiny of a 24 hour news cycle and the cynically hypocritical and crazily prurient contradictions of modern British society.
Seen to be beyond reproach perhaps, but would Caesar's wife have made such a very effective politician?
I wholeheartedly agree with Ancient Briton here (a post written before the latest news broke)

Our Lady on Saturday

Poulenc's Litanies à la Vierge Noire, written in 1936 after a pilgrimage to Rocamadour on his return to the practice of the faith. 

Congruities and incongruities. End of the week updates & comments

Rome and Moscow to co-operate in the re-evangelisation of Europe
A sign of things to come? From Sandro Magister
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1343399?eng=y

Liberal Protestants all?
It's interesting to see the trajectory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the U.S. so closely mirroring that of TEC.  From First Things: 
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2010/05/lutherans-in-search-of-a-church

A world gone mad?
I'm never quite sure what to make of Melanie Phillips. Sometimes worth a read anyway.
From the U.S. National Review Online
http://article.nationalreview.com/434521/melanie-phillips-on-a-world-gone-mad/interview

Unhelpful?
A truly terrifying news story about an accused (and self-confessed) serial killer in the north of England who seems to be enthralled by the "glamour" (in the true sense - as the baptism rite would have it) of his own evil actions. Report here . Why do people find this kind of horrific crime - the staple of so many films and T.V. series - so utterly but unhealthily fascinating?
So I hesitate to say this in the context of what has happened, but why does the BBC news constantly use this phrase about the murdered women - "who worked as prostitutes?" Am I the only person to notice the incongruity, or perhaps just the only person with enough bad taste to mention it at this particular juncture?
But in some ways I do understand why the story has been reported in this way (it's clearly a deliberate policy) and have more than a little sympathy for the reasoning behind it. Being a prostitute - and very few resort to prostitution in any voluntary sense whatsoever - is no reason to be regarded as somehow less worthy of life or of the protection of the law, or as beyond normal human compassion and understanding. As we might say, whatever they may have been driven to do because of addiction, desperation or the violent coercion of others, they are made in the image and likeness of God and have immortal souls like the rest of us. Truly, 'there but for the grace of God go I.'
But "working as a prostitute?" It makes it sound like a job like any other. And it just isn't. I'm not sure it helps anyone - those driven to sell their bodies, or society itself - to pretend that it is.

Ruth Gledhill of The Times on those American ordinations
Essentially the fallacious 'second order' argument yet again - it's a done deal and not that important.
So get over it. Here
But a sane and traditional response:
http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/05/18/for-the-sake-of-god-must-we-surrender-sexual-morality/

"I'm Spiritual, not religious"
Lastly, from Rod Dreher: - it's what we often long to say to people, but somehow always bottle out....
Here. Biretta tip to A Conservative Blog for Peace (again!)

George's plans for the bank holiday weekend.

Mine are less inactive!

That ship sailed some time ago

There seem to be a great number of people expending vast amounts of nervous energy in the expectation that "someone," whether it be the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates of the Anglican Global South or whoever, is going to do something to halt the onward rush of apostasy within the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. and, as a result of what is happening there, in the rest of the Communion.
It's not going to happen. There are many reasons why, ranging from the noble desire to avoid schism and to preserve what unity still remains in the Anglican world, to the ignoble dependence on TEC dollars, and taking in on the way the nature of global Anglican structures which militate against any kind of exercise of doctrinal discipline and that so un-anglican concept, "authority."
Many people's hopes of some kind of definitive action centred around the awaited Pentecost Letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury, "Renewal in the Spirit."  Read it here.  As always with Archbishop Williams, it is profound, thoughtful and gentle, reflecting on the nature of Christian communion and on the divisions within worldwide Anglicanism. It is full of regret about the damage being done to ecumenical relationships [too late]  and in some ways doesn't pull its punches in its rebuke to the lack of restraint prevailing in TEC. However, some of us will be tempted (rightly) to argue with what we may see in the letter as yet more evidence of the abandonment of an objective standard in the determination of theological truth and, amid much talk of times of transition and radical change, a disturbing analysis of the signs of the times, and a honourably patient, yet in the circumstances completely unrealistic, faith in the value of "conversation, exchange and discussion" and the building up of structures which aim to support it.
I suspect that for those theological "conservatives" still in the Communion, "Renewal in the Spirit" is about as good as it is going to get. There seems little real evidence here, despite an identification of the problems facing us, for anything other than an indefinite continuation of the current drift. So don't expect anything much to happen. Sadly, I think that ship sailed some time ago.

Dunkirk

Lest we forget. Snatched from the jaws of defeat.
On the seventieth anniversary of the evacuation from Dunkirk, a tribute to those whose heroism and sacrifice  made possible our own generation's unimagined freedom of expression and opinion.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis



Music from Dario Marianelli's score for the film Atonement

Bonhomie or the keeping of promises? St Augustine of Canterbury: a view trans Sabrinam

My colleague Fr Mark has a fascinating post here on the subject of St Augustine of Canterbury (he has only an optional memoria here in Wales) meeting the Celtic (Welsh or Romano-British) bishops at Aust in what is now Gloucestershire.
Our information on this encounter comes from Bede's History of the English Church and People. The first meeting could be characterised as difficult. The atmosphere seems to have been one of mutual incomprehension and suspicion and, despite a healing miracle and a recognition that Augustine's teachings and credentials were impeccably orthodox, there was a pronounced reluctance on the part of the 'British' bishops to abandon ancient customs without the consent of their own people.
The Celtic 'patrimony' (although Latin in origin - and, of course, in its liturgy and doctrine - these were no anachronistically proto-protestants or 'Anglicans' in embryo) had developed organisationally and in many of its customs in geographical and ecclesiastical isolation from the rest of the Western Church following the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Interestingly, one of the sticking points seems to have been Augustine's insistence that the Celtic Christians join him in the mission to convert the English, who for the 'Welsh,' were the hatred pagan invaders and despoilers of Roman Britain.
But if the first conference had gone badly, the second meeting (somewhere in what used to be called Flintshire) was a complete disaster. The British bishops and their advisors had taken counsel from a 'wise and prudent' hermit. This is St Bede's account:

"This being decreed, there came, it is said, seven bishops of the Britons, and many men of great learning, particularly from their most celebrated monastery, which is called, in the English tongue, Bancornaburg, and over which the Abbot Dinoot is said to have presided at that time. They that were to go to the aforesaid council, be-took themselves first to a certain holy and discreet man, who was wont to lead the life of a hermit among them, to consult with him, whether they ought, at the preaching of Augustine, to forsake their traditions. He answered, "If he is a man of God, follow him."— "How shall we know that?" said they. He replied, "Our Lord saith, Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; if therefore, Augustine is meek and lowly of heart, it is to be believed that he bears the yoke of Christ himself, and offers it to you to bear. But, if he is harsh and proud, it is plain that he is not of God, nor are we to regard his words." They said again, "And how shall we discern even this?" – "Do you contrive," said the anchorite, "that he first arrive with his company at the place where the synod is to be held; and if at your approach he rises tip to you, hear him submissively, being assured that he is the servant of Christ; but if he despises you, and does not rise up to you, whereas you are more in number, let him also be despised by you."

They did as he directed; and it happened, that as they approached, Augustine was sitting on a chair. When they perceived it, they were angry, and charging him with pride, set themselves to contradict all he said. He said to them, "Many things ye do which are contrary to our custom, or rather the custom of the universal Church, and yet, if you will comply with me in these three matters, to wit, to keep Easter at the due time; to fulfil the ministry of Baptism, by which we are born again to God, according to the custom of the holy Roman Apostolic Church; and to join with us in preaching the Word of God to the English nation, we will gladly suffer all the other things you do, though contrary to our customs." They answered that they would do none of those things, nor receive him as their archbishop; for they said among themselves, "if he would not rise up to us now, how much more will he despise us, as of no account, if we begin to be under his subjection?" Then the man of God, Augustine, is said to have threatened them, that if they would not accept peace with their brethren, they should have war from their enemies; and, if they would not preach the way of life to the English nation, they should suffer at their hands the vengeance of death. All which, through the dispensation of the Divine judgement, fell out exactly as he had predicted."  [from Book Two, Chapter 2]

Lessons drawn from history and legend are notoriously subjective and are probably best left unmade. Over the centuries this particular episode has one of great comfort both to romantic Celtic ecclesiastical separatists and those who have a more generally instinctive anti-Roman theological bias, although the point is well made in Bede's account that the 'bottom line' of the mission entrusted to St Augustine from Pope Gregory was one of evangelism at all costs and the conversion of an entire land and all its peoples.

Me? Risking all the dangers of interpretation, I would prefer to trust an invitation from someone who, whilst respecting elements of our patrimony and, in fact, protecting and preserving them, was nevertheless well aware of the great authority entrusted to him, than I would all the false courtesy and bonhomie of those who fail to keep their promises.

Now what could I mean by that?

St John's Church at Aust

John Henry Newman on St Philip Neri

".....But it required to live in Rome to understand what his influence really was. Nothing was too high for him, nothing too low. He taught poor begging women to use mental prayer; he took out boys to play; he protected orphans; he acted as novice-master to the children of St. Dominic. He was the teacher and director of artisans, mechanics, cashiers in banks, merchants, workers in gold, artists, men of science. He was consulted by monks, canons, lawyers, physicians, courtiers; ladies of the highest rank, convicts going to execution, engaged in their turn his solicitude and prayers. Cardinals hung about his room, and Popes asked for his miraculous aid in disease, and his ministrations in death. It was his mission to save men, not from, but in, the world. To break the haughtiness of rank, and the fastidiousness of fashion, he gave his penitents public mortifications; to draw the young from the theatres, he opened his Oratory of Sacred Music; to rescue the careless from the Carnival and its excesses, he set out in pilgrimage to the Seven Basilicas. For those who loved reading, he substituted, for the works of chivalry or the hurtful novels of the day, the true romance and the celestial poetry of the Lives of the Saints. He set one of his disciples to write history against the heretics of that age; another to treat of the Notes of the Church; a third, to undertake the Martyrs and Christian Antiquities;—for, while in the discourses and devotions of the Oratory, he prescribed the simplicity of the primitive monks, he wished his children, individually and in private, to cultivate all their gifts to the full. He, however, was, after all and in all, their true model,—the humble priest, shrinking from every kind of dignity, or post, or office, and living the greater part of day and night in prayer, in his room or upon the housetop.

And when he died, a continued stream of people, says his biographer, came to see his body, during the two days that it remained in the church, kissing his bier, touching him with their rosaries or their rings, or taking away portions of his hair, or the flowers which were strewed over him; and, among the crowd, persons of every rank and condition were heard lamenting and extolling one who was so lowly, yet so great; who had been so variously endowed, and had been the pupil of so many saintly masters; who had the breadth of view of St. Dominic, the poetry of St. Benedict, the wisdom of St. Ignatius, and all recommended by an unassuming grace and a winning tenderness which were his own. "

from a Sermon preached on January 18th  1850 at the Birmingham Oratory on the occasion of its first anniversary.

Not exactly what we mean by 'Anglican patrimony'

Go here if you want your hair to turn white (or in my case now, whiter.)
Watch it all - it has a deadly fascination. Those of us who have pretensions to orthodoxy and are still hanging around (rather aimlessly, some might say) in the Anglican Communion seem increasingly like rabbits caught in the headlights. After this, ecclesiastical satire is henceforth dead and buried - and concreted over.
StandFirm's heading says it all "Mother Earth, Pagan Rituals, Ancestor Worship, Dancing Girls—the Consecration of Mary Glasspool"
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.
Coming soon to a church near you!

Protection v overreaction

The case of the two ten-year-old boys now convicted of the attempted rape of an eight-year-old girl is provoking a great deal of comment in Britain this morning. It seems if reports are true http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7760986/Boys-convicted-of-attempted-rape-branded-criminals-for-playing-doctors-and-nurses.html
this may have been (although the evidence presented is so confused we simply do not know) little more than a game of 'doctors and nurses' which, like it or not, has always gone on among young children and, presumably, always will.
The case is an strange one, heard in the Crown Court (although with the usual rules of evidence suspended) rather than the juvenile court system, and appears at the very least to be a massive overreaction, but one with serious consequences and grave injustice for all those involved.
All of us who are parents are terrified of failing our children, of not protecting them enough from the dangers of the world outside. As a society we are preoccupied with the appalling scourge of child abuse which seems to have been of a far greater magnitude than any of us imagined.
But certain questions should be asked in the light of this particular case. In whose best interests is it to try children in an adult court for something which could so easily have been dealt with at a lower level, if it needed to come to trial at all?  In whose interests is it for these two children to be criminalised and included on a sex offences register, something which will undoubtedly destroy their lives and those of their parents? In whose interests is it to put an eight-year-old girl through a terrifying legal ordeal as a result of an incident the seriousness of which she seems to be have been quite unaware and the details of which she may even have exaggerated?
This all adds up to a worrying series of errors; we have witnessed repeated abdications of responsibilty, and a truly  frightening loss of nerve on the the part of the criminal justice system.
We are also guilty of  hypocrisy on a grand scale. We bombard our children and young people with 'adult' sexually explicit messages, because for the elites who run our western societies the worst of all crimes appears to be censorship - that kind of censorship anyway. We are in the process of inventing a secularised and largely experimental code of values which, it seems, no one in the adult world (least of all the 'iconic' celebrities held up as society's role models) has any intention of living by, and we expect our children to be unaffected and unharmed by what they all too clearly see and hear going on around them.
Obviously it's not all doom and gloom, but we are clearly failing our children in so many ways. Compared to the recent past, this is not a good time in which to be growing up.
We seem to want to be our children's friends and best mates rather than their parents. We are terrified of seeming fuddy-duddy or repressive. We shrink from imposing rules and boundaries. The worst of our schools settle for being exercises in crowd control and family life, however we choose to define it, is increasingly impermanent, fragmented and confusing. Sexual imagery is everywhere - it sells things, we are told - and children are taught to imitate their elders in all kinds of unnecessary ways. Even our primary schools hold 'discos' for seven-year-olds who are encouraged to (under)dress and behave not like level-headed children but irresponsible adults. Silly mothers even in largely 'middle class' primary school playgrounds (I've heard them) encourage their precious offspring to pair off and to date each other, and we wonder why childhood disappears and the consequences of adult behaviour fall heavily on the immature shoulders of those who are completely unable to deal with them.

"We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff's edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased."

 G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter 9

Postscript
This is relevant. We can argue over the conclusions but the analysis is compelling
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/jun/01/00006/
Biretta tip to A Conservative Blog for Peace

Not just Abba, Ikea and 'free-schools' then

An extraordinary story from Sweden where the Established (Lutheran) Church has condemned a princess's marriage plans for wanting to be "given away" by her father.
Full story here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/7750368/Swedish-princess-emulating-sexist-British-tradition-of-giving-bride-away.html
As we know from their other ecclesiastical "developments," the Swedes could certain teach our own beloved Anglo-Saxon liberals (and these days for all intents and purposes culturally that includes the Celtic element as well - sorry, chaps) a thing or two about radical revisionism. Why do you think Porvoo has been so popular among establishment Anglicans? I'm very glad that when the Church in Wales' Governing Body, meeting then at Lampeter, ratified nem con that particular doctrinally compromising piece of pan-protestant triumphalism, I was eating an ice cream on the beach at nearby Aberaeron. It was a distinctly passive form of protest, but satisfying at the time.
The head of the Swedish State Church, Archbishop Anders Wejryd, has recently said:
"Being given away is a new phenomenon which occasionally occurs in the Church of Sweden. I usually advise against it, as our marriage ceremony is so clear on the subject of the spouses' equality. The couple know where I stand on this matter," he said.
And, obviously, have taken a great deal of notice.
But lots of things are not 'traditional' in Sweden, of course, which historically is far from the cuddly, permissive, social democratic paradise of popular myth. State sponsored (and national church supported) eugenics programmes anyone? Shh! That was a while ago.
Perhaps what I really mean is that, unlike in classically 'liberal' forms of democracy, an obsessive degree of government regulation and a sinister eagerness for social conformity are  merely necessary prerequisites for the flourishing of social democracy anywhere at all. Or have the last thirteen years got to me?

This day will not come again

Glorious Whitsun weather over the last few days - cloudless skies and temperatures hovering in the high twenties celsius. Summer ordinary time begins!
Here are a few 'domestic' photos from the Vicarage garden: a pauwlonia tree in full bloom, citrus plants soaking up the sunshine outside the kitchen doors and a clematis montana flowering against the deep blue of the sky.
Carpe diem quam minime credula postero

'Dynamic' or deconstructed

Have you noticed that there is a certain kind of Christian believer, evangelical and full of commendable (and somewhat humbling) zeal for the Gospel, who loves to dress things up - adjectivally, that is , rather than sartorially.
I've just received an email advertising a period of "dynamic prayer" in a "fast moving style with up to date Worship songs."
Not quite "my scene," as (some of) the children of the '60s would say, but even less so is an equally bemusing flyer for a local deanery youth service, described as a "deconstruction of evening prayer." I don't think somehow it's a reference to Jacques Derrida - or maybe it is.
But that's the future of Anglicanism summed up perfectly, dynamism (of a kind) or deconstruction. Unless another route can be found......?

Where is Henry VIII?

A fascinating snippet today from Christopher Howse in the Daily Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherhowse/7738882/Has-Rowan-Williams-damned-Henry-VIII-to-hell.html
This is the salient passage
'King Henry VIII might be in hell, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested the other day in a sermon.

There was an intake of breath among the congregation, yet I wondered if I'd misheard the Archbishop. I hadn't, for the text is on Rowan Williams's website: "If Henry VIII is saved (an open question, perhaps) it will be at the prayers of John Houghton."
John Houghton was the Prior of the Charterhouse in London, where Dr Williams was preaching, on the 475th anniversary of the martyrdom of him and 15 other monks at the instigation of Henry VIII. Prior Houghton was declared a saint by the Pope in 1970.'

I don't think the Archbishop's remarks will shock too many Anglo-Catholics, although the more charitable among us might even be tempted (like the Archbishop?) to consign that particular tyrant to purgatory, a belief in which is something both we and Henry himself might be said to have in common, unlike it has to be said, most of Rowan's post-reformation predecessors. However, an examination of the cause for which St John Houghton died might give us all pause, as the politicians might say, "to consider our present position."

This is a photo of one our resident blackbirds in the Vicarage garden. He has, I have to admit,
a rather clerical air about him ... could it be the Roman collar I wonder?

Just don't expect too much

This is the end of a fascinating week. I know many will disagree with me, but I have to say broadly and with a degree of caution that the new Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition seems to be a positive development - if it does what it says it will do. The ending of the ID card scheme and the rolling back of the surveillance state is to be welcomed, as is a fairer taxation system which may indeed benefit those on the lowest incomes who have suffered most during the thirteen years of the last administration. We may see a rolling back of that slow but steady (and spectacularly counter-productive) process whereby the State has infiltrated and sought to control increasingly larger aspects of our lives. Any measures which may be taken to reduce the power of the executive and to encourage far greater scrutiny of proposed legislation would also result in our being better governed.
Yet this is still the most secularised society in Europe and that is something which won't change any time soon, and (regrettably) we can expect our elected politicians to continue in many ways to reflect that social reality.
We can, though, anticipate a certain change of tone and rhetoric and perhaps a greater readiness to acknowedge the claims of  religious conscience (would that our part of the Church may follow suit - pause for hollow laughter) and the strengthening of the rights of our children to receive a religious education.
But whereas this may well end up by being seen as the start of a new era in British political history, let's not go over the top.
It's not a new dawn, it's not a new day, it's just a new government.
Let's learn the lessons of 1979 and 1997 and not place too much faith in the things which will inevitably pass away and, probably, long before that, bitterly disappoint us.

Ten out of the twelve?

This is now rather old news (forgive me, I'm still catching up), but The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7114628.ece
reports earlier this week that that "ten out of the twelve" women tipped in official C of E circles to become bishops have indicated that they would be willing to comply with the code of practice (the announcement could come as soon as tomorrow - "take out the trash day," for devotees of the West Wing) likely to be imposed on traditionalists by the Church of England General Synod.
What a relief - that makes it O.K., then!
But I'm glad something is now out in the open. Let's hear no more nonsense about the action of the Holy Spirit in the selection of candidates for the Anglican episcopate.
Appropriately enough on General Election day, it's all politics now.

Modern politics makes cynics of us all.

At long last it's Election Day! It has been a fascinating if not particularly edifying campaign, and what has been made most clear after weeks of seemingly endless debate is the extreme volatility of the electorate, 40% of whom, we are told, have still to make up their minds as to how they will vote.
Yet modern P.R. and the 'black arts' of  the political spin doctors have made us all cynical. There are some fairly good reasons for that. There is a definite aversion on the part of politicians of all parties to answer any direct question, and the 'presidential' style  public appearances of all the party leaders, decorative spouses in tow, only serves to highlight their failure to address the real crisis facing our economy and society alike.
What stands out about this election? Speaking of cynicism, I have to admit that my own reaction to news of David Cameron's all through the night campaigning was to assume it had been arranged by the party managers not to increase contact with the voters but to make him seem young and vigorous in comparison to the older, greyer Gordon Brown. You see, it gets to us all.
In the aftermath of the 'bigotgate'  incident, the Prime Minister's own assertions that he had "misunderstood" what Mrs Gillian Duffy had said to him earlier in Rochdale hardly had the ring of authenticity about it (again, rather than taking his word for it, I'm preferring the cynical response) and one actually fears for the future of the democratic process when "celebrity endorsements" are considered to be a factor in swaying people's voting intentions. Eddie Izzard, Michael Caine? Some girl from the cast of Eastenders?
And in the interests of balance, isn't there something rather curious about parading Professor Richard Dawkins as a supporter of the LibDems, the successors of the party once supported by Father Stanton and G.K.Chesterton? Who are they hoping to appeal to, the bigoted, ill-informed, aggressively atheist community?  Definitely one to keep quiet about.
Anyway, I've made my cynical way down to the village hall and cast my vote. I'm told business has been brisk. Now comes the interesting bit.

May Morning

Te Deum Patrem colimus,

Te Laudibus prosequimus,

qui corpus cibo reficis,

coelesti mentem gratia.

Te adoramus, O Jesu,

Te, Fili unigenite,

Te, qui non dedignatus es

subire claustra Virginis.

Actus in crucem, factus est

irato Deo victima

per te, Salvator unice

vitae spes nobis rediit.

Tibi, aeterne Spiritus

cuius afflatu peperit

infantem Deum Maria,

aeternum benedicimus.

Triune Deus, hominum

salutis auctor optime,

immensum hoc mysterium

orante lingua canimus.