Very trying....

For an English cricket loving Charlton fan, not a good day. After India effortlessly knocked off nearly 400 runs in the 4th innings to take the First Test, I then watched the pain of my side denied a first victory in 13 games with a goal scored with virtually the last kick of the game. 

Still I'm trying to look at this way: for an Indian cricket supporter living in (and supporting) Derby County, today life must feel pretty good. 

I have felt for some weeks that the game is up for Charlton this year. Sometimes you feel that it doesn't matter what you do, the end result will always be the same. What the club really needs now cannot be bought for love nor money - its a bit of luck. Just enough to give the players and management a lift; to re-instill some self-belief; to give them some hope that they can start winning again.   But if not: well, we had a good run whilst it lasted and we can look back on the good times  if the lean times do come. 

If Charlton's cause looks lost, the same cannot be said of Anglo-Catholicism. In place of the Indy I read the latest "Forward in Faith" on the way in to work today. The front page was a great read - a series of quotes from the Anglo Catholic community speaking out against the proposed code of practice. Actually it was a front page worthy of the Indy itself. 

In nearly all respects I regard myself as a liberal. In matters of faith, I am unapologetically traditional.  I am not sure  the values I hold in everyday life need necessarily extend to spiritual life. So I am not convinced that because, for example,  I support  equality and diversity in the work place  that need necessarily mean I should automatically belong to a church that has signed up to women priests.  Surely religious views are a matter of moral conviction - and they are very personal. I don't dissent that others should see it differently: simply that my views are seen as valid. For me the strength of the Church of England has been its capacity to embrace diversity. Having the Anglo Catholics in the church at a time when synod has given the go ahead to the ordination of women bishops is tough all round. But the church has accommodated ambiguity in its structures before - I think all that is being asked now is that it continues to do so. Properly. The problem with a code of practice is that every breach would doubtless be met with a tut-tut and a shaking of heads - but no more. I think the church needs to find a better answer than the one on offer here. I pray that it does so.