Terry Tastard

Catholic priest. Former journalist who still loves to write. FRHistS.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@vicarkaren @PhilHs10 @RevBrettMurphy @revwickland @BishopDewar It looks to me like the photo is a montage, with the Bishop superimposed on the backdrop, which may even be AI generated.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@gerrylynch You mention these figures in your article today in Unherd which I thought was excellent. In fact I rather wished I had written it myself.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@UrbanHermit15 I was amazed that the Catholic Church in England and Wales allowed a private hall in Oxford to slip away. But I gather that the university authorities were not helpful with the rescue plans that were devised.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

Online and in broadcast news @BBCNews refers to 'Hassan El-Khawas, 55, his partner Zeina Alayn, 37'. Yet the statement issued by the Palestinian Embassy about this tragedy describes her as 'his wife'. Is the BBC dismissing marriage on the grounds that all relationships are equal?

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

In my new book https://t.co/Y1eFSgWdYi I ask how ordinary people came to understand who Jesus was

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

Sunday Times: 'Only 549 priests under 35 [in CoE] ... only two members of the clergy under the age of 25.' Given the dire shortage of priests in the Catholic Church it is fascinating to discover it's an issue in the CoE also. So it's not as simple as celibacy or no women priests.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@johnmilbank3 This would seem to imply that with dementia we lose the image of God as our rationality decreases. And that those born with severe disabilities such as microcephaly never have the image to begin with. From here it is only a short step to clinically managed execution.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@theveindoc I’ve never seen London as looking happier or healthier. London is like Paris with all this endless sunshine. But yes, brick built houses or flats make for tricky sultry evenings when the temperature is over 30 C day after day

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@AllisonPearson @NoLongerTheFuzz God bless you, Allison. You write well and don’t need to use the name of Christ as an exclamation to emphasise your point.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@gerrylynch Well, one of the points of the story seems to be that Jesus reaches out to Saint Peter exactly when Peter‘s faith fails. It says to me that you don’t have to be a saint for God to hear you. It’s exactly in the muddle of our lives that God is known.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

I realise that in a tiny way I too suffer in the post-Arday fallout. I have seen a couple of sneering references to 'PhDs from post-1992 universities'. Hurtful. Mine is from Hertfordshire and came from extensive archival research, strictly supervised, tough viva. The real thing.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

I asked Chat: When you ie ChatGPT speak in French do you use 'vous' or 'tu'? Reply: Generally, I use vous … though ChatGPT can adapt to the user ... If someone consistently uses tu with me, I may reciprocate with tu, since continuing with vous could then sound rather stiff ...

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

What would the medical report have looked like certifying the death of Jesus? One of the stories in Voices from the Fringe https://t.co/VoPXTPuo3d

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@xAviation I take it this is Mount Hampden. Incidentally isn't this kind of thing a daily occurence for beachgoers at St Barts in the Caribbean? https://t.co/ruyGkWBVfC

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

@JulianMalins That’s all very well, but there is one big difference. A barrister is impersonal. His or her personality does not come into the brief. They can be hired to argue either way. A priest – or for that matter a minister - brings their humanity.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

Roads not travelled. This was a road I did travel, Highway 191 in Arizona, towards Safford. May 1989. I loved the wide open spaces of the south-west so much. A priest asked if I would like to see the bishop. I said no. I knew he would invite me to stay and I knew I would say yes.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

Now this is thought-provoking: Michael Pakaluk in https://t.co/kFTC7VGwhF 'Should we say that no one should spend more minutes on social media during the day than he has already spent in prayer?'

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

Actually, published 1962
Incidentally Alec Vidler even adds a note to Ed Sanders. Taking a peashooter to a cannon.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

Published 60 years ago. Used to be in every liberal vicar’s study. Interesting how the essays have aged. Habgoood on religion and science, irrelevant. Harry Williams on Freud thought-provoking. Ed Sanders on NT nicely balances honesty and orthodoxy. Alec Vidler insufferably smug.

[Terry Tastard @TerryTastard]

Nicely balanced Breviary evening intercessions:
Give patient tolerance to all who are no longer young; open the hearts of the young to accept from them understanding and love. ///Give courage and strength to the young. Help them to choose their work, and make the right decisions