News from a southern county

It seems like years - it almost is - since I last wrote anything here. And life has changed immeasurably. No longer trying to teach those who don't want to learn. Now serving the public at a youth hostel where the youth rarely appear and even when they do, rarely willingly.

But the issue is still there, the misuse of the word issue. And the lifestyle is still there, still gay to the core, but irritatingly straight on the outside.

My PhD is coming to an end, except for a serious case of writer's block. And it is nohing like the proposal I first made six years ago. Now it is about patronage and social anthropology, business and commerce.

James Joyce is still at the top of my reading interests and Finnegans Wake has still not been surpassed.

The Church of England is gradually falling apart as the evangelicals refuse to admit gays into the company of the saints let alone into the priesthood or the episcopacy. Rowan Williams is trying to preserve God-knows-what but I am sure it is not worth it. The church will still be there when he longer has anyone to be arch over.

Meantime, I am still reading at my local church and even about to undertake some teaching of other readers, which is all very ironic as I would not be allowed to follow any of them into the priesthood which is where many of them would really prefer to be.

At the weekend i went to a Metropolitan Community Church service and found it refreshing and attractive. It makes a bit difference to know that there is no-one there who questions the validity of one's sexuality. It is good to be valued as gay rather than in spite of being gay.