Live from Golgotha

A rather charming and typically self-deprecating Easter sermon from Archbishop Justin at Canterbury Cathedral; I’m beginning to like him. His subject was the inevitability of disillusion with things like governments and councils and ‘regulatory bodies’ and indeed Archbishops of Canterbury who are all bound, in the end, to be fucking useless (although this was not how he put it).

I was seated in one of the pleb pews and rather hoped he might have taken a leaf out of that Argentine left-footer’s book and wandered over and washed my feet. They’ve become unaccountably scaly of late and for some reason now resemble the claws of a Galapagos tortoise; a bit of ecumenical bathing might have done them some good. Never mind.

The only nod towards George Carey’s attack on Cameron came during the prayers for the Intercession, when we were asked to pray for those Christians who are a persecuted minority. ‘Like right here! Now!’ I could hear George howling. Sticking up a bit for Christians might be good advice for Justin, after the thoughtful prevarications of Rowan Williams. We need a counterblast to these smug, secular and humanist middle class Londonistas, of which Rowan – in all but title – was one.