I’ve been spending the last few days with some other church-y folk, and one of the things that we generally agreed upon was how important food is in the C of E. I have always found that eating together is one of the best ways to relax together and get to know people, and it’s an important scriptural principle – we see it in the Old Testament, the practice of Jesus and the disciples, and of course in our central act of worship. Certainly one of my golden rules is that if you’re holding a meeting of any significant length, it always helps to provide nibbles to some degree or another.
But I do wonder if we might be taking a bit far. For instance, the lastest report on the situation with women bishops is to recommend Transferred Episcopal Arrangements, or TEA. This in itself is not too bad, until you consider that the process by which the Church of England assesses potential future ministers is called a Bishops’ Advisory Panel on Selection, or BAPS. I’m sure with a little bit of thought we could have ended up with TEA and CAKES instead of TEA and BAPS – the ‘K’ is a bit tricky (as I don’t suppose “Kommission” would be allowed).
Oh, I know – Clergy Of the Future’s Final Episcopal Evaluation. TEA or COFFEE, anyone?