METHODIST ON ANGLICANS AND AN ANGLICAN ON CALVINISTS THERE MUST BE ROOM FOR HUMOUR

ALWAYS GOOD FOR A LAUGH
ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
SOON TO RETIRE - WHAT SHALL WE DO WITHOUT HIM?

Here we present for your gentle amusement some verses, the first are quoted by Frank Sheed in one of his now out of print books,entitled "The Church and I "( published in 1974). I found the book rather unpleasant in tone in parts, but could not resist this, by an English Methodist in 1923 casting a baleful eye on Anglicans after a sly opening shot at Catholics:


(sung to the tune of O God Our Help In Ages Past)


"The Pope who is infallible
          And seldom goes far wrong
Has always taught that time is short
          Eternity is long.


And in the East the Patriarchs
           Are singing this same song
That time's comparatively short
            Eternity quite long.


And Lambeth thinks there is a sense
            In which 'tis not too strong
To say that time to us seems short
             Eternity seems long.


But some there are who tremble lest
             The march of modern thought
May some day prove that time is long
              Eternity is short."




But, we must be ecumenical! Or in the dubious and meaningless phrase used in the Prayers of the Faithful in my Parish Church, "In the Spirit of Ecumenism"(!!) we present a single verse by the Anglo-Irish Protestant  Dean Swift (1667 -1745)aimed at the Calvinists :


"We are the sweet selected few
                The rest of you are damned
  There's room enough in hell for you
                 We can't have Heaven crammed."   




My thanks to the redoubtable Father Greg  Jordan S.J. ( the Good Jesuit) for setting me on he trail of the first.

THE GOOD JESUIT
AT A CELEBRATION OF HIS  RECENT 82ND BIRTHDAY
which merited Champagne indeed!

And my heartfelt congratulations to Father Jordan on his recent 82nd Birthday. If I am able to do and achieve the tiniest fraction of Father's 
incredible workload  in ten years time when I am 82  , I shall count it a miracle- and that of course is setting aside the sacramental work for which he is Ordained, the value of which is truly inestimable. Until the day I die I shall cherish the memory of the occasions on which I had the privilege of serving Father's Extraordinary Form morning Masses and hearing his learned homilies each day. Ad Multos Annos!!