Seeker

A determined stroke cuts only air and blossom. Loss is inevitable

I'm sorry to hear about your cancer. This sounds like a great thing to be doing under the circumstances. As an aside, may I recommend a book: "I heard the owl call my name" by Margaret Craven. I've never officiated at a wedding (although I've been to a few), so take this with several grains of salt -especially if the more experienced members disagree with me. The traditional opening usually includes something like "We are here to witness the joining of Seamus and Elanor as man and wife." You can't go far wrong with that. Don't be afraid to be obvious. It's a ritual, and it should be made clear to everyone what's going on. You are the master of ceremonies, but the couple are centre stage. You need to talk to them in some detail about what style they are looking for. Do they want you to bring your Catholic background, or are they looking for something new age? Mystical or mundane? Formal, informal, or somewhere in-between? That doesn't mean getting them to write the ceremony, but you need to have a good idea what sort of thing they are looking for. It may help to start with the vows they plan to make. The rest of the ceremony exists to put them in context. I'd suggest leaving the black Irish humor to the best man. Your role is to to provide a serious and reflective context for them to make their commitment, and to bless and celebrate the marriage once it has been made.

So you're the anathema!

ULC denomination is "a cult do in nomine". Or maybe just an Unclaimed notion. Just sayin'

Not just a named group, but specifically a named subgroup within a religion. As I said, I don't think we fit the standard model, but IMHO it would be more of a stretch to call us a denomination than to call us a religion. As Pete pointed out though, some of us would not agree that they were religious. I don't think we'll find a totally satisfactory term, and I don't think it's important. Too much time is wasted trying to tie people down with labels as it is.

No. I don't think "just" is appropriate - hunger is a more fundamental issue. It's not one I referred to, however. I have no idea what you mean by this. If my words aren't good enough for you, try Bro Kaman's reply... Misogyny and homophobia (and general out-group vilification) are real problems. Those attitudes are what lead to the obsession with sexual status, not the other way round. Their first sexual experience is a big deal for most people, and that does not necessarily make them a party to oppressive attitudes. Attacking that reality is counter-productive. It's the hateful attitudes which are tacked on which should be the focus. The whole thrust of the article is based on treating the symptoms not the disease. This serves to divert attention away from the real issues, which is why I consider it harmful.

They're not hymns, but several of the tracks from the Osibisa album Woyaya are quite spiritual and uplifting in tone. I'm thinking particularly of Woyaya itself but also of Beautiful Seven and Spirit Up Above.

The term denomination is not restricted to Christianity. Le Wiki she say... (my emphasis) They give examples from within Islam and Hinduism. Since we draw from several religions, I would agree with the previous replies - we are not a denomination. Possibly an "association" or as Fawzo says an Interfaith Organization, although either term suggests to me we are not one Church. I don't think we quite fit the standard model!

My point was that virginity per se is not the issue. There are quite enough genuine problems around without focussing energy on derivative targets.

In the UK, most denominations seem to have main services of around 1 hour or slightly longer, including around 20-25mins of music. I'm used to (and prefer) the Quaker tradition of meeting in silence, hence no music within worship. (Some Friends elsewhere do have music and sermons, etc. I believe.) There is often music in social contexts, but not in meeting. One potential issue I see for those with a strong doctrinal base - do the words of any songs accurately reflect the doctrine? I know of several people who refuse to sing certain verses, whole hymns, or have been put off altogether by some lyrics. ------------- Mark - purely for info - I believe the Japanese term used for pure land would be jōdo bukkyō.

Nonsense. The rest of the article is similar BS. It attempts to show that the concept of virginity in some way causes all sorts of stigmatisation. This obfuscates the (very real) issues, rather than leading to understanding. Sexual status may very well be used in the context of heteronormative and/or mysogynistic attitudes, but to identify it (via a narrow and misleading definition) as an invented status is utterly bogus. Articles like this do more harm then good IMHO.

Remarkably few major gigs for a music lover. I've tended more to go and see local bands, which there's little point listing. A few stand out gigs were... Yes (1975, Relayer tour with a Roger Dean stage set) Run Rig at Fife Aid Osibisa and Marillion at Fife Aid II Rick Wakeman in Newcastle Sirocco in Brisbane - a free gig on a lovely late summer evening. Janis Ian at the Queens Hall. (I later saw her again at the same venue, but she was clearly unwell, and off form) Eric Bibb at the Bath Guitar Festival. A couple which stand out for the wrong reasons... John Martyn at Berwick - he could barely stand, and was so out of it he couldn't tune his guitar. Still managed some great sounds some of the time, to be fair. Jane Siberry (supporting Mike Oldfield at Edinburgh Castle) - stream of consciousness lyrics, stream of unconsciousness music. "Why are you laughing?" She finally got a sardonic round of applause for "Goodnight".

Warm cinnamon smells. Outside, in a whitewashed world a lonely robin

Dan52 - you seem quite happy to pay the bill to keep them locked up, so I don't see how you can have an objection in principle. Why are you so opposed to the idea of saving money by reducing the chances of them re-offending?

You are not the sum of your experiences - you are the sum of your choices.

I wish you and yours all the best - difficult times. Coming back to the smoking thing... I tried several time to give up before finally succeeding. There are lots of different approaches, and different people will respond best to different ones. If you try and then relapse, don't fret it. Try something a bit different next time. For example, I had tried quitting cold, and I had tried tapering off. Neither worked. The final time round the loop, I Tapered off to as low as I could without going doo-lally, then stopped. I held out for a bit, then went back to having a few a day then tapered off again. This time when I quit, I stayed quit. (There were a few other factors beside). My point is not to extoll the virtues of that particular method, but to show that small variations can make a difference, and to encourage you to keep at it! One final point - watch your weight once you do quit.

Unfortunately, "ignoring" them doesn't stop the spam popping up as new content.

I took a quick look. I have a few (hopefully helpful) comments. The overall impression is good, but I think you have a bit of colour confusion going on. In particular, I don't think the brown is doing you any favours at all. It over-emphasises the warm colours, and makes the whole effect rather chocolate-boxy. I would suggest picking up on the green from your central image instead. I've done a mockup using the darker end... In the process I noticed that you have styled the "Frequently Asked Questions" headline using a font tag within the HTML. This is not a good idea. Use the HTML for the content and division into logical blocks, use the CSS for styling. The questions and answers are not properly aligned. You might consider using a definition list to keep them linked. Finally, a niggle on the content here - you explicitly cover vows in the last question, so it seems excessive to mention them in the question above. I would also use "traditional" rather than "standard", since different traditions use different vows. Good luck with the site and with your ministry.

My stack is mostly SF. I've recently finished re-reading 40,000 in Gehenna by C J Cherryh. Not her absolute best, but pretty decent. The story of a failed colony deliberately planted across battle lines to tie up enemy resources. The long abandonment gives rise to interesting interactions with the local wildlife. (For CJC fans, it fits into the Alliance/Union sequence alongside Cyteen, etc., but works as a stand-alone.) Now re-reading Galactic North - a semi-linked collection of short stories and novellas by Alistair Reynolds. Highly recommended. I think he is one of the best hard SF authors writing at the moment. This volume fills in a lot of the early history of the Cojoiners and Demarchists and provides background on many of the characters who appear in his other novels. Despite these links, any of the stories reads well in isolation.

Somewhat off-topic, but do you folks with a Catholic background have any particular concerns or insights on Francis I?

All universal rules are wrong.

I think he had his own agenda, which is distinctly different from what we know of Jesus'message.

We are part-ape, part-angel. Let's just try to be the best of both, not the worst.

There is a pinned topic in the legal FAQs for non-US marriages. Please note that Scotland has different laws (see http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/regscot/getting-married-in-scotland/index.html)

& is just a way of writing & in html (in contexts where & would otherwise be used to indicate the start of a special character or sequence).