Sunday 28 November 2010

Choice or Design - A Bone Fido position?

Things have reached a critical stage already as we have entered into debate as to whether or not the drinking of coffee is a matter of choice or something much deeper. Some claim that they know they've been coffee drinkers from an early age whilst others have been led, dare I say 'groomed' such that they started drinking it as soon as it was socially acceptable for them to do so. There are even some among us who like to drink both tea and coffee!

We even have a member of the committee who although a tea drinker for years decided to start drinking coffee in his mid thirties, making a move that saw him leave his tea cups, tea pot and the lifestyle that went with it for ever. He claims now that he knew he liked coffee all along but the conservatives in his family forced him to drink tea. Tea was only ever offered after the services and anything else, other than squash (which is obviously for the children, was viewed with suspicion.

Mercifully, after a night of slogging over our Strongs' and Young's concordances and finding nothing to either deny or endorse the drinking of coffee and after a quick look at the Thirty-Nine Articles (we are after all, Anglicans) we found that in the Article VII (Old Testament) our salvation is to be found:

"The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore there are not to be heard which feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral."

What joy has overwhelmed us, for we find that not only does the Bible not mention coffee but that we are also free from the dietary regulations (one of the guys has just sent out for a prawn sandwich!) but also free us from the religious stuff too! Betty has just asked whether this rule stretches to women too. We in an egalitarian move have decided that it means everybody!

Seems that the Bible is to be the authority for us on all the moral bits. I'm sure this will be a great help as we start to make our progress into a full document outlining our aims and the ways that we can work together (separately of course).

What? It seems someone's just asked if we have any Bovril?

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