Sunday, September 21, 2003

This day in ancient history

One of the features of the RogueClassicism blog that I enjoy is "This day in ancient history". I've no plans to do the same thing here, but might from time to time mention the regular feature "Today in History" on the Ship of Fools Web Site. Among the offerings for today, this day in 1792 became Day 1 Year 1 in revolutionary France's de-Christianized calendar; it's St Mary Magdalene's day; today in 1823, Joseph Smith found the Book of Mormon on gold plates in a stone box buried on top of a hill in Ontario County, New York; and in 1984, in the heart of the miner's strike, the then bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, in the words of the web site, "made himself more notorious than ever by - in his own enthronement sermon - accusing Ian MacGregor, the boss of the mining industry, of being an 'imported elderly American'". Yes, I remember that. I wonder if the new bishop of Durham (with one intervening between him and Jenkins), Tom Wright, will be as controversial? Unlike Jenkins, he certainly won't be announcing his scepticism about the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection -- we can be sure of that. As it happens, I did hear a brief mention of him yesterday morning on BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme. Apparently he is one of those supporting a group called "Fulcrum", from the sound of it a kind of progressive evangelical group within the Anglican Church.

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