I was half awake listening to the 6 a.m. Radio 2 news this morning and heard something about Rowan Williams being a tad irritated that politicians (I think) saw religious belief was something for 'oddities, minorities and foreigners'.  I might well not have heard properly and it was undoubtedly out of context and I am 100% certain the arch bish has no problem with any of the above people-groups, but it made me think (even in my blearly minded state!).

Without the oddities, minorities and foreigners my church would be pretty empty on a Sunday.  Sure, I have many, many folk who are stable and able, and even a majority of White British Scots.  But actually the church (and I'm sure RW would agree wholeheartedly) chooses to embrace the odd, minor and foreign, to be a bit marginal and liminal and radical and such like.  If the powers that be dismiss that as lesser, well that's their loss... just maybe they'd do well to look back at a bit of history to discover that it was those odd/minor/foreign folk who began public education, hospitals, hospices, prison reform, credit unions, etc. etc. etc.

As for me, well hey, a white English female Baptist minister in Scotland... that's pretty odd, foreign and minor!!