Another Box of Delights

                                      
As I do, from time to time, this is where I've been over the last six months...

Walk 63:   Teeton - Guilsborough - Hollowell - Cottesbrooke - Creaton - Teeton ( 17 km.)

Walk 64:   Winwick - Elkington - Cold Ashby - Thornby - Winwick ( 15 km.)

Walk 65:   Cottesbrooke - Naseby - Haselbech - Maidwell - Cottesbrooke ( 21 km.)

Walk 66:   Naseby - Sulby - Welford - Sibbertoft - Naseby ( 19 km.)

Walk 67:   Sibbertoft - Marston Trussell - East Farndon - Gt. Oxendon - Clipston - Sibbertoft ( 22 km.)

Walk 68:   Maidwell - Kelmarsh - Arthingworth - Harrington - Draughton - Maidwell ( 23 km.)

Walk 69:   Gt. Oxendon - Braybrooke - Brampton Ash - Dingley - Braybrooke - Gt. Oxendon
( 21 km.)

Walk 70:   Rushden - Wymington - Knotting - Yelden - Newton Bromswold - Rushden (21 km.)

Walk 71:   Barton Seagrave - Kettering Christ the King - Warkton - Weekley - Kettering All Saints - St. Andrew's - St. Mary's - SS Peter & Paul's - St. Michael's - Barton Seagrave ( 16 km.)

Walk 72:   Kettering - Broughton - Great Cransley - Mawsley - Loddington - Thorpe Malsor - Kettering ( 25 km.)

Walk 73:   Loddington - Orton - Rothwell - Desborough - Rushton - Glendon - Loddington (21 km.)

Walk 74:   Weekley - Geddington - Little Oakley- Gt. Oakley - Newton - Geddington- Weekley
( 18 km.)

Walk 75:   Cranford - Twywell - Slipton - Grafton Underwood - Cranford ( 16 km.)

Walk 76:   Brampton Ash - Stoke Albany - Wilbarston - Ashley - Sutton Bassett - Brampton Ash ( 21 km.)

So...that's now a grand total of 1418 kilometres on the tramp, and I'm about two thirds of the way to Peterborough. See you there! And as you'll see from the introductory pic, looking more like a vagrant with every successive mile.

Well, the Church of England, Peterborough Diocese, made it into the pages of The Times a week or so ago, and not for a good reason. You remember Kings Sutton? All ain't well in those parts. 'Vicar's wife boycotts church in row over women priests', ran the headline. A parishioner is quoted as saying; 'I resigned because I thought the PCC was out of touch with the wider community. The church is now looked upon as exclusive and out of touch with the parish...' ( The PCC is split on the issue of women clergy, and the church warden used a casting vote to maintain the embargo.)

Kings Sutton is a sizeable settlement, and SS Peter and Paul ( a lovely building) serves all its people. There's a little church from the same benefice down the road in Newbottle so those who disagree with the PCC can find a temporary home but as opposed to the case in a large town where arguably there's room for a single, High Church, 'Forward in Faith', anti-women clergy congregation, I'm not sure it's right to effectively disenfranchise the majority in a community who have no problem with chromosomal difference.

Archbishop Justin has told General Synod to give up cynicism for Lent, and renew love for those with whom we differ within the Church, and I think this is both a very good line, and right. But the Anglican Church is working through the same dilemmas inhabiting the two major British political parties. If the C.of E. is to keep its structural integrity, if it has any future at all, can we continue to allow a 'broad church' (see how the politicians borrow the phrase) and let minorities dictate who does what? In this case, love may not be enough. The premise of this blog has been 'Better Together', but there are times when I doubt it. Maybe we have to let some people go.