Posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 6:06 pm by Philip Devitt
It was a spare of the moment decision; should I go home, or should I pop around and see my old friend Cllr Mullen. As it happens I was quite lucky to just catch him coming home from the Labour Conference. With great excitement he informed me that for the last couple of days he’d been hanging around with the stars of Emmerdale and Coronation Street as well as those two shifty blokes named Blair and Brown. Forgetting about foreign policy or the state of the economy, his primary concern was who’s sleeping with who in Emmerdale.
The councillor yesterday experienced a few more of his 15 minutes of fame when a cunningly placed sign with the daubing “Pick Me” held above John’s head, was picked out by the host. If someone can find a clip of his moment of fame (repeated on BBC Parliament, apparently) please forward it on.
It looks like Hannah has finally got a date for her Christening; unfortunately the original choice of Godmother will be out of the country for the actual event (bobbing around the US and generally getting up to no good) so it looks like Hannah will be the lucky owner of two Godmothers — one who will be at the event, and another who’ll be there in spirit. From a Godfather perspective this is quite a good turn of events, ’cause it means there will have to be two booze-up’s — thus doubling the opportunity to get them very, very drunk… (only kidding S & K 
)
Of course the drinking is not the only reason for the ceremony, the real reason is to provide the child with a moral and spiritual rolemodel. As part of the Christening deal, the little churub has to be presented to a congregation eager to take on fresh blood; this basically involves carting her down to church and hoping that she doesn’t decide to scream the place down.
In recent years I’ve only been to church on a few occasions; christenings, weddings, funerals, bahmitzvahs (strike that last one) — I don’t believe that going to a large hall every week and praying to a God automatically makes you a better person; for the faithful, your reward will be based on how you lived your life, and how you treated others, not by how closely you follow religious dogma. The most prominant reason for not turning up for regular mass was recalling the hours of fire & brimstone given by past priests. So I was rather surprised that the current priest made the hour long service fly-by — at one point I did actually check the clock to see if I’d really been there an hour. The resident GJ (God-Jockey) Fr Manock should be praised for the upbeat manner in which he puts across God’s message, especially his use of song during the service. For those wishing to find out more about the ministry, and especially those wishing to donate to the “New Church” appeal, please visit www.radcliffecatholic.org.