I know the Reverend Richard Coles a tiny bit, and that sums him up perfectly.
Quote from: sickbeggar on September 14, 2021, 09:42:26 AMReminds me of a weird experience i had in a Birmingham pub years back when a drunk glaswegian Rangers top-wearing fan accosted me carrying a heavy looking scrap book. I was slightly nervous but he turned out to be tame, but the scrapbook just contained photo's of him following the Chelsea headhunters. No idea what was going on there except they have some vague hoolie link-up based on all that sectarian crap. Mind I once had a very drunk Celtic fan repeatedly ask me if I was Catholic or Protestant in a menacing way in another pub. Church of England seemed to confuse him and he went away. . As a recovering Catholic and atheist, I've always been a big fan of the CofE (whilst knowing nothing about it). It seems like a religion that sort of believes, but doesn't take it that seriously. As early Alan Partridge put it, he believes in God, but thinks of him as a kind of gas.
Reminds me of a weird experience i had in a Birmingham pub years back when a drunk glaswegian Rangers top-wearing fan accosted me carrying a heavy looking scrap book. I was slightly nervous but he turned out to be tame, but the scrapbook just contained photo's of him following the Chelsea headhunters. No idea what was going on there except they have some vague hoolie link-up based on all that sectarian crap. Mind I once had a very drunk Celtic fan repeatedly ask me if I was Catholic or Protestant in a menacing way in another pub. Church of England seemed to confuse him and he went away. .
Quote from: Sexual Ealing on September 14, 2021, 10:00:00 AMI know the Reverend Richard Coles a tiny bit, and that sums him up perfectly.He's the vicar in my sister's village. I see him on the train to London quite a bit, as he uses the same line I do to get to London. Had a chat with him once, and told him that I was a big fan of Bronski Beat and The Communards back in the day. He's a really lovely bloke.
Quote from: Risso on September 14, 2021, 10:09:19 AMQuote from: Sexual Ealing on September 14, 2021, 10:00:00 AMI know the Reverend Richard Coles a tiny bit, and that sums him up perfectly.He's the vicar in my sister's village. I see him on the train to London quite a bit, as he uses the same line I do to get to London. Had a chat with him once, and told him that I was a big fan of Bronski Beat and The Communards back in the day. He's a really lovely bloke.He's great.
Quote from: Sexual Ealing on September 14, 2021, 09:45:56 AMQuote from: sickbeggar on September 14, 2021, 09:42:26 AMReminds me of a weird experience i had in a Birmingham pub years back when a drunk glaswegian Rangers top-wearing fan accosted me carrying a heavy looking scrap book. I was slightly nervous but he turned out to be tame, but the scrapbook just contained photo's of him following the Chelsea headhunters. No idea what was going on there except they have some vague hoolie link-up based on all that sectarian crap. Mind I once had a very drunk Celtic fan repeatedly ask me if I was Catholic or Protestant in a menacing way in another pub. Church of England seemed to confuse him and he went away. . As a recovering Catholic and atheist, I've always been a big fan of the CofE (whilst knowing nothing about it). It seems like a religion that sort of believes, but doesn't take it that seriously. As early Alan Partridge put it, he believes in God, but thinks of him as a kind of gas.Ha, the thing I like about CofE/Church of Wales is that it's quite a broad church as it were. I struggle with censuses etc because I see my religion as atheist/Church of Wales. I don't believe in a magical sky fairy or such, but am quite happy with the concept of 'god' being a cover-all word for 'good' emotions (happiness, peace, love, ...). Once you remove the "magic" elements from it all, CoE-type christianity becomes just about being nice to other people, finding happiness in oneself rather than external things (possessions, power, money, ..), seeking love over hate ... basically, it's a heavily rave-influenced version of moral philosophy.--Anecdotally, when I was living in Scotland, I found that there were a lot of really nice "Rangers" supporters, but it was absolutely undeniable that any encounters with dickhead football supporters were 90%+ certain to be with Rangers fans. I do think the knobhead section of their support is a minority, and that by and large they're nice folk. But my word, when you get a bad Rangers fan they really are something else. Hibernian have a weird fanbase, I find -- they seem to go to real extremes, either safe-as-fuck great person or utter knobhead, with very little in between.
Quote from: algy on September 14, 2021, 10:22:32 AMQuote from: Sexual Ealing on September 14, 2021, 09:45:56 AMQuote from: sickbeggar on September 14, 2021, 09:42:26 AMReminds me of a weird experience i had in a Birmingham pub years back when a drunk glaswegian Rangers top-wearing fan accosted me carrying a heavy looking scrap book. I was slightly nervous but he turned out to be tame, but the scrapbook just contained photo's of him following the Chelsea headhunters. No idea what was going on there except they have some vague hoolie link-up based on all that sectarian crap. Mind I once had a very drunk Celtic fan repeatedly ask me if I was Catholic or Protestant in a menacing way in another pub. Church of England seemed to confuse him and he went away. . As a recovering Catholic and atheist, I've always been a big fan of the CofE (whilst knowing nothing about it). It seems like a religion that sort of believes, but doesn't take it that seriously. As early Alan Partridge put it, he believes in God, but thinks of him as a kind of gas.Ha, the thing I like about CofE/Church of Wales is that it's quite a broad church as it were. I struggle with censuses etc because I see my religion as atheist/Church of Wales. I don't believe in a magical sky fairy or such, but am quite happy with the concept of 'god' being a cover-all word for 'good' emotions (happiness, peace, love, ...). Once you remove the "magic" elements from it all, CoE-type christianity becomes just about being nice to other people, finding happiness in oneself rather than external things (possessions, power, money, ..), seeking love over hate ... basically, it's a heavily rave-influenced version of moral philosophy.--Anecdotally, when I was living in Scotland, I found that there were a lot of really nice "Rangers" supporters, but it was absolutely undeniable that any encounters with dickhead football supporters were 90%+ certain to be with Rangers fans. I do think the knobhead section of their support is a minority, and that by and large they're nice folk. But my word, when you get a bad Rangers fan they really are something else. Hibernian have a weird fanbase, I find -- they seem to go to real extremes, either safe-as-fuck great person or utter knobhead, with very little in between. Hibs fans, as any reader of Irvine Welsh will know, are a funny lot. They had one of the most active and feared 'firms' back in the day, but it was mainly (in my experience. God knows there will have been plenty of psychopaths) daft lads playing at being hard men. I half-follow them because I went to school in Hibs territory, my dad played for their youth team and it gives me an insight into what it must be like to be a Blues fan, i.e. permanently shite That's until they started being a bit better. And there's this, obviously.