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Text of the page (random words):
ty well it isn t if it was i wouldn t be writing this when i joined i made a promise to keep three things secret in each ceremony namely a sign of the i m a little teapot variety a handshake and a word i can tell you that they exist but not what they are it was only a promise not a solemn blood oath but it is something to be taken seriously nevertheless you could torture it out of me i suppose actually a swift sight of the thumbscrews would probably be enough i would break the promise in a court of law if the alternative was to be found guilty of contempt and if it would save a life i d tell you in a heartbeat but otherwise i made a promise and i intend to keep it just as i hope you would if i asked you to society with secrets yes illuminati no so why did i join it the same reason as many people do i think i got to know some people who were masons and jonathan baker was one of them found them to be good people whom i admired and decided to join myself i am immensely glad that i did i don t think i have gained any material benefit from it at all quite the opposite in fact but i have no doubt at all that i am a better person for it the reason for this is that although freemasonry most definitely is not a religion it does provide a rule of life the best way to illustrate this is to suggest that you read some of the ritual for yourself if you click here you will find a google document containing a speech that is given by one of the members of the lodge from memory to a relatively new mason the conceit is that as you move up through the three grades starting off as an apprentice you get progressively more complex tools to learn how to use these are the ones for the second degree give it a read and then please tell me what you find morally objectionable or incompatible with christianity this post was originally titled part 1 part 2 was supposed be an attempt to deal with the other objection that people raise about freemasonry namely that it is actively damaging this twitter post from a priest in the c ofe is an example of what i mean i ve seen and experienced the sinister side in my ministry the threats the spiritual ties and the spiritual fallout in lives the person that i am quoting protects his tweets so i haven t linked to him but i had hoped that either he or anyone else with a similar experience would be able to reply to this post and let me know about their experiences the conspiracy stuff with which i began is really a side issue it s the perceived damage that i would like to engage with especially since it seems to run counter to everything i know about freemasonry in general and my experience of it in particular unfortunately i haven t heard anything back as of 8th july 2011 the offer still stands though posted by justin brett at 14 04 10 comments tuesday 8 february 2011 on votes rules and resistance yesterday for no doubt excellent reasons the powers that be attempted to make an end run around the constitution which had been set up for the dioceses commission it didn t work there s more on the general synod blog here if you are interested the point that i did my best to hammer home in the debate is that if you have a set of procedures then you ought to follow them if they prove themselves unfit for purpose then you change the procedures what you don t do is circumvent them because that weakens your whole system that was yesterday then today we have what looks on the surface like a similar situation the business committee of general synod is the body that decides synod s agenda it is mostly i think either directly or indirectly elected by synod itself the rules that govern it state that its chair must be one of the six people elected from general synod to the archbishops council one of these people is nominated by archbishops council in consultation with the appointments committee and the name sent to synod for approval as things have fallen out this time round the person in question is the bishop of dover needless to say this has caused some muttering among those for whom a purple shirt often serves dual purpose as a red rag one person has even congratulated me on what i said yesterday and then gone on to say that something must be done about the bishop of dover being chair of the business committee given the amount of influence the house of bishops already has upon the synod agenda i can t say i m wild about the idea either but my point yesterday still stands there is always an argument from expediency for ignoring bits of the rules you don t like it is very unwise to allow such arguments to prevail anyway what would normally be a synodical rubber stamp this afternoon to confirm the bishop s appointment as chair of the business committee turned instead into a debate and as a result a procedural motion was put to adjourn and it passed the point of the adjournement was to avoid the situation of having an appointment rejected that had been proposed by one of the archbishops in the presence of the person to be appointed it has of course resulted in the ironic situation that it is now up to the business committee acting chair the bishop of dover to decide when the proposal comes back i abstained on the question of adjournment i think although i am not quite certain that if that motion had not gone through i would have voted in favour of the bishop of dover s appointment it s the same point as i was making yesterday the procedure for appointment was followed and it gave a result that people didn t like that s life if there are enough people on synod who don t want to see a bishop chairing the business committee then they need to change the synod standing orders to that effect however in terms of what one might in rather grandiose fashion describe as synod power politics the last couple of days have turned out to be quite interesting synod despite the fact that we are right at the beginning of the quinquennium has been really rather feisty there was a certain tension during the last synod over questions of authority and accountability and a feeling occasionally that they were making decisions in advance and just relying on synod to roll over and do as it was told it looks to me as though this has carried over into the new quinquennium i do hope that they whoever they are have taken note of the last couple of days attempts whether real or imagined to pre empt decisions of the whole synod or assumptions that it will do as it is told may well be greeted with rather more resistance than we have seen in the past perhaps this hasn t been such a dull session after all posted by justin brett at 10 17 no comments thursday 23 september 2010 general synod election address it s taken me long enough i know but here is the text of my election address in your situation as someone reading these election addresses there are three main questions that i would hope an address to answer so that is what i shall try to do here who am i my name is justin brett i am a teacher and i live just outside brighton with my wife and seven year old daughter i was born in 1971 and brought up in rural gloucestershire i went to boarding school in cheltenham and it was there that i became a regular churchgoer when i was 13 and was confirmed about a year later i went from school to exeter college oxford in 1989 to study classics at exeter i sang in the chapel choir resulting in a lasting love of the words of prayer book evensong i worshipped in a variety of churches as i moved around oxford but spent most time at st john the evangelist the church attached to st stephen s house following my degree i qualified as a teacher at st mary s college strawberry hill my first permanent post was at a prep school near slough i was very much involved in worship there preaching leading services and still singing during holiday times i worshipped at the local parish church in september 2001 my wife and i moved to berkshire where i spent some time working in the secretariat of the local council and taught in two different local schools it took a while to find a church where i felt at home but from 2002 onwards i worshipped at st john the evangelist newbury at st john s i became treasurer child protection officer and a deanery synod representative i was elected as a lay member of general synod by oxford diocese in 2005 and for three years was lay chair of newbury deanery i also held a bishop s licence as a lay preacher in september 2008 my wife was appointed deputy head at roedean school so we moved to sussex i am currently teaching at st aubyns school in rottingdean once again involved with chapel services as preacher and worship leader and worshipping at st margaret s church rottingdean where i have been elected to the pcc as a deanery synod representative in my spare time i am studying for an ma in social policy and criminology with the open university and my wife tells me i spend rather too much time on the internet why am i standing it looks as though there will be two issues over the next synod that will attract a great deal of media and public attention one is the consecration of women as bishops and the other is the continuing question of how the church deals with homosexuality further complicated by the development of the anglican communion covenant as far as the first is concerned although the legislation could be rejected at final approval my best guess is that within the next decade women will be consecrated as bishops in the church of england and personally i would be delighted by that outcome my real concern with this issue is how we keep the church united throughout the process i do not want to see women bishops at the cost either of losing the anglo catholic heritage so important in this diocese or of compromising the orders of the women who are consecrated the second issue that of sexuality is one which is current in this diocese for example in the survey on attitudes to same sex relationships now in progress in sussex while i am aware that the theological issues surrounding sexuality are complex and sometimes contentious i am certain that committed and loving relationships deserve in some way to be celebrated by the church again my hope is that we can find a way to keep the church united as this issue is inevitably dragged through the media over the next few years i am convinced however that the only way we will reach any resolution of either of these issues is by continuing to be open to different views and opinions even if we find them at times disturbing it is for this reason that i am concerned about the proposed anglican communion covenant it seems to me that the church of england as a national church is called to be welcoming open and available to all people regardless of their situation in life i cannot see how the constraints of a covenant designed to exclude those deemed to be unsound can help us in this important mission although these issues might cause the greatest publicity they are not the greatest challenges we face the current financial crisis is forcing us to ask ourselves what the church of england itself is going to look like in the future the next synod may well need to take a view on just what our churches are for and whether our current structures are correct and sustainable as with the other issues i have mentioned this is bound to cause some divisions and the way forward might not be immediately obvious i am not pretending to have any easy answers but i am willing to keep an open mind and look to solve problems by consensus why should you vote for me i am not offering myself as a candidate in favour of any particular issue nor am i a member of any particular church faction i do however have a deep love for the church of england in all its diversity and i believe that it has a continuing role to play in our society over the past five years as a representative for oxford diocese i have done the best i can to fight for the principles outlined in this address it was my amendment that encouraged the church to take a more definite moral line on trident and i have intervened where possible to speak in favour of openness tolerance and diversity i was also appointed to the steering committee for the ecclesiastical fees measure i have tried to report on synod proceedings as clearly as possible online and to my former deanery and diocese and i will continue to do the best i can to act as a link with my own deanery and any other to which the diocese might assign me if there is a simple summary of what i have written so far it is that i believe that the greatest need in general synod over the next five years will be for members who are prepared to be open minded creative and accommodating as a self confessed liberal who has nevertheless worshipped happily in a parish under alternative episcopal oversight and whose roots are in the traditions of the oxford movement i have sympathy and respect for a wide range of views within anglicanism too often elections such as this one result in the establishment of opposing camps whose side are you on my position is that rather than being on any side i am committed to a united and inclusive church which values all its members and treats their beliefs with respect i believe that its diversity has always been the strength of the church of england and i am very suspicious of any attempts to remove that diversity by imposing one particular set of values however sincerely they may be felt i am under no illusions that one lay member of general synod can change the world but if like me you feel that to be an anglican is to be part of a community that is welcoming inclusive caring and tolerant i would urge you to give me your first preference vote if there is anything i have said here that you would like to discuss or if you would like to know about anything i have not mentioned please feel free to contact me you can e mail me at justin brett yahoo co uk or telephone me on 07876 746074 and leave a message on the answering machine for me to call back you can also find my reports from the previous general synod on alastair cutting s general synod blog http gensyn blogspot com thank you for reading this address if you want to see it in all its properly typeset glory thanks to my friend graeme who is very talented at all things typographical then you can find the pdf here posted by justin brett at 11 23 no comments labels covenant elections general synod monday 19 july 2010 what the papers didn t say this is a republication of a two part guest post for the church mouse s excellent blog what the papers didn t say part 1 perhaps after five years at synod i should no longer be surprised at the extent to which the media misreport what they see and hear some of it is simple ignorance but some of it is also the desire to make headlines at any cost be that accuracy or depth of reporting nevertheless as you can guess i am cross three generic headlines have annoyed me over the last few days the first is the variation on c...