KEV67

I am quite excited about my TBR list. I am currently reading only two books: Harrius Potter et Lapis Philosophi, and Hyperion. The books I have to read are as follows: Lamb of God Jesus' Atonement for Sin by Ralph F. Wilson - I think I read this before and I was very impressed. The Celts by Barry Cunliffe - Present from my Irish mother. False Alarm by Bjorn Lomborg - I have read a lot of books about climate change and renewable energy; this one is written by a sceptic. Looking Backwards Over Burma by Dennis Spencer - War memoir by a Beaufighter navigator. Over Fields of Fire by Anna Timofeeva-Egorava - War memoir by a female, Soviet Sturmovik pilot. The Owl and the Nightingale by Simon Armitage - A book of poetry by the Poet Laureate. Famine Inquiry Commission Report on Bengal - A report into the 1943 Bengal Famine, which Churchill gets some stick for. Arnold Bennett Lost Icon by Patrick Donovan - A biography of an author who was big in his day but now nearly forgotten. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky - I really think this is the one that will change my life. The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope - John Major's favourite book. The Lost Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope - Did not want to risk not be able to buy the last book in the series from the same set. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas - Picked up from my late stepmother's bookshelves.

As worked out by foreign book critics and academics for the BBC in 2015: linky What did you think? I thought it was quite an interesting and varied selection. For me it had four too many books by Virginia Woolf. I have read all the top twenty except for The Waves by V.W. My favourite remains Great Expectations. Next might be Tom Jones. I have read forty-six overall.

The problem I have with gay marriage in church, and even women priests, is that the Bible, in particular the New Testament prohibits it. How can something be wrong for hundreds of years and then be right? Which parts of the New Testament do you feel free to override and have you informed God? Religion is supposed to be about eternal verities. It is not supposed to follow social mores. Some social mores have only developed since medical or technological innovation, so how can they be eternal? I first turned religious about twelve years old when I started reading the Gideon Bibles they distributed at schools. My schoolboy conclusions about Christianity: Being good is about not doing what you want; God is always right (even if it does not seem that way to you); Life is only a test for the afterlife. My understanding from reading the bible was that the worse time you had this life, the better time you had the next, or at least the more likely you were to get there. God has stiffed a lot of people, not just homosexuals. If you do not actually believe in any sort of afterlife then sure, do what you like, but why bother going to church? What is the point in following a discipline that only prohibits what you do not want to do anyway? Then again, my understanding was also that you were supposed to give away all your money, live a life of poverty, and spend your time proselytising unbelievers. I never fancied that. I think there has always been a certain amount of hypocrisy in the church right from the beginning, because a lot of Jesus's teaching were too hard for most people to follow and were incompatible with maintaining a stable society long term.

I tried looking up St Mary's Castle Street Church of England Continuing on the Charity Commission website. I could not find them. I did find a charity entry for St Silas (Continuing Church) Trust, which is one of the other three congregations. Their total income was £4,662 and outgoings were £2,076. I looked up their trustees, and several of them were also trustees of The Association of the Continuing Church Trust, whose total income was £3,720 and outgoings £3,826. It does not look like there is a lot of tithing going on. These figures are less than for the maintenance company for my block of flats. I gave them £20 last week, if I do that every week it would make a significant difference. I doubt the vicar is being paid. I doubt they are paying building insurance. If they are then that is taking up most of their income. When I was at the Unitarians meeting, they said that they had gone to see a talk by Karen Armstrong at this church the evening before. Karen Armstrong is an ex-nun who writes very learned books on religion. So learned in fact, that I had a great deal of difficulty understand a previous book, History of God. She was promoting her new book. Maybe the church gets a bit of money from events like that, but it cannot be much.

Maybe, but I wonder whether the CofE is headed for another split. The Anglican Church is predominantly African these days. They do not hold with homosexuality. There was another Lambeth Conference recently, in which resolution I.10 was reaffirmed, which bans gay weddings and blessings in church. The Methodist Church is in the process of splitting over gay marriage. It probably would have happened already, but for Covid.

Went to Our Lady and St Anne Roman Catholic Church this morning. Another Irish priest. It was alright. The sermon was about how Jesus advised dinner guests not to take the most honoured position at the dinner table, because the host might move you down in favour of a more honoured guest. Instead he advised his disciples to take the least honoured position so that the host might move them up. I do not really agree with all the advice Jesus gave. If everyone followed that advice, everyone would fight for the least honoured position at the table, and other guests would be humiliated by being moved down. Surely, it would be better for everyone to arrive, work out where they should be, then if anyone arrives late, he should have the good manners to say, "No, stay where you are. I will sit at the end here." Later I made an idiot of myself, because I noticed a Latin motto that said "Benedictus Fructus Ventris tui Iesus" over a picture of the Virgin Mary. How many bellies did she have? I posted on a Latin forum that it was odd that ablative plurals were often used in place of singular ablatives, such as 'de profundis', 'Pater noster, qui es in caelis'. Only ventris is not the ablative plural of a second declension noun, it is the genitive singular of a third declension noun: venter, -tris m. In the evening I went back to the Church of England (Continuing) church. I was amused by Psalm 136 where it went, "Who smote Eygpt with their first-born: for his mercy endureth for ever;" The vicar seems to delight in picking impossible to sing hymns. A Christian friend accused me of being pharisaical for preferring the 1662 liturgy to the version the CofE uses now.

Yes, but he is open about it. He is not going to do it and pretend it wasn't him, or needle someone else in to doing it. Besides, Imogen's husband, Posthumus, sent his servant to kill Imogen when he thought she had been unfaithful (if I understood right). Posthumus was forgiven.

Also liked this quote: Mine eyes were not in fault, for she was beautiful;

Have to say, the bits where Innogen dresses as a man, calling herself Fidele, with all the men she meets not understanding why they took such a liking to the young fellow; well those bits reminded me of Blackadder Goes Forth when General Melchett took an unaccountable like to Private Bob.

Alfred Lord Tennyson liked this bit from Cymbeline most. He was buried with the book open at the page. ‘Hang there like fruit, my soul, Till the tree die,’

He does not try to ingratiate himself with anyone. What you see is what you get.

Finished, I made a mistake. Apparently we won, but King Cymbeline decided to pay the Roman tribute anyway. The best bit of verse from the play is this bit from Act 4, Scene 2: Fear no more the heat o’ th’ sun Nor the furious winter’s rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages. Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. Fear no more the frown o’ th’ great; Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke. Care no more to clothe and eat; To thee the reed is as the oak. The sceptre, learning, physic, must All follow this and come to dust. Fear no more the lightning flash, Nor th’ all-dreaded thunder-stone; Fear not slander, censure rash; Thou hast finished joy and moan. All lovers young, all lovers must Consign to thee and come to dust. No exorciser harm thee! Nor no witchcraft charm thee! Ghost unlaid forbear thee! Nothing ill come near thee! Quiet consummation have, And renowned be thy grave! which is the bit that reminded me of A.E. Houseman.

I think John Polkinghorn writes books in this area, although I have not read anything by him.

And still it's not in the bookshops.

What is the long 19th Century?

Scene 5.4 was the most curious so far. Not sure what to make of the dream sequence. The verse meter (if that's what it is) changed. I did like the jolly jailer though.

A battle was described in Act 5.3. I think we lost, but Arviragus, Guiderius and Belarius put up a good show. Where did Shakespeare get these names from? Anyway, from reading the introduction, I gather the best bits (apart from Iachimo getting out of his box) is in the last two scenes. Some of it is a bit A.E. Housemanish I thought.

She's a deep sleeper.

I wonder whether it was supposed to be pronounced Kymbeline or Symbeline? I am guessing Kymbeline as 'C' was always hard in classical Latin. I am not sure about Welsh names. I read Tennyson liked the play. He was holding a copy of it when he died. Apparently Virginia Woolf quoted it in Mrs Dalloway, although I do not remember. The author of the introduction. Valerie Wayne, says Jane Eyre was influenced by the story. A young woman goes out into the country to protect her honour and happens upon her closest relatives.

This is interesting. The church I liked most so far is Church of England (Continuing). It is independent of the Church of England. It continues to use the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. I wonder if they hold with female clergy. The similarly named St Mary the Virgin Minster Church is currently flying the latest gay pride flag, and someone has hung a banner welcoming refugees, saying Reading not Rwanda. Way, way too woke for me. Edit: that church (St Mary's Castle Street) is one of only four congregations left that split from the Church of England in 1994 over women priests and continued use of the old liturgy from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. They also hold onto the Thirty-Nine Articles. I wonder whether the modern Anglican Church does. That explains a lot. St Mary's meets in an old church building, although rather an odd one with stone columns out the front. St Silas's meets in a former synagogue in Wolverhampton. St John's meets in a retirement building complex in Colliers Wood, London. Holy Trinity Church meets in a community centre in Frinton-on-Sea. I think we have a winner. I will continue to explore the other churches in walking distance, but I will go to the Sunday evening services at St Mary's.

There are bits and pieces from his other plays. Mistaken identities, drugged sleep, sexual jealousy. I have not read King Lear, but it is set in a similar era. Several of Shakespeare's plays are about Romans. Quite a number feature Italians. It is difficult to imagine what Cymbeline's court is like. It is Iron Age Britain. The Romans have not yet conquered. For a royal residence it is probably not very grand.

Scene 4.2 was rather long. I was sorry about Cloten. I was just beginning to like him.

I planned to go to Our Lady and St Anne Roman Catholic church this morning, but I was in the pub late last night and overslept. Then I considered St William of York Catholic Church, which does Latin mass, only that was a forty minute walk, and I had not pressed my shirt. Then I considered Carey Baptist Church. That is only five minutes' walk away. I could have got there if I had got a wriggle on, but I did not want to rush. Then I considered Argyle Street Community Church, which is ten minutes walk away, but that started 10:30 as well. Then St Andrew's United Reformed Church. They started 11:00, but that was at least twenty minutes walk away. In the end I went back to St Mary's Church, which is old style Church of England service, about five minutes walk away. We prayed for rain again, but only moderate rain. We prayed for the Queen and the Royal Family. I noticed in the Book of Common Prayer, that even though all the wording is 17th Century, we pray for the Queen. That means that when the Queen eventually passes on, they will either have to get new books or get their old books out of storage from seventy years ago. There was a thirty minute sermon on who was the rightful king of Israel. Whether Saul, Solomon, David or Samuel, I was not clear, but it definitely was not one of the others whose names I was unfamiliar with. They did not send a collection plate around, but at the end someone brought up a plate of envelopes to the vicar. I suppose some of the congregation turn up early and stuff them with notes or cheques. How much, though?

My book says George Bernard Shaw did not like it, nor Samuel Johnson. The poet Keats said it was his favourite Shakespeare play iirc. So far the best bit for me was Iachimo getting out of his trunk to have a good look at the sleeping Innogen. I have not come across any famous quotes yet. I still have Acts 4 & 5 to read. Personally, I do not really get Shakespeare, and have difficulty telling his good plays from his bad plays. In the last three years I read a history, Richard II, a tragedy, Othello, and a comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream in order to understand, and even like Shakespeare. I still cannot see what the fuss is about. That said, I can still remember the opening lines of MacBeth, which I did for O level 40 years ago.

We prayed for the Queen. Well, she is the head of the church. And we prayed for rain, which must have worked. It is forecast thunderstorms and lightning.