Joseph Armitage Robinson, Glastonbury and Historical Remembrance

This article discusses the relationship of history, theology and mythmaking with reference to the myths of Glastonbury. These related to the legends associated with Joseph of Arimathea’ purported visit to England, the burial place of King Arthur, as well as the quest for the Holy Grail. It draws on the work of Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858–1933), one of the most important Biblical and patristic scholars of his generation who, after becoming Dean of Westminster and later Dean of Wells Cathedral in Somerset, and close to Glastonbury, became a distinguished medievalist. After assessing the development of the Glastonbury legends and the use of early British history made in the earlier Anglican tradition, particularly in the work of Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504–1575), it goes on to discuss their revival in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries especially under the local parish priest Lionel Smithett Lewis (1867–1953). It concludes by showing that while there might be no historical substance in the myths, that there is nevertheless an important history to devotion and piety which is as equally open to theological and historical investigation as the events of history.

"Smuggling in Accidental Poetry": Cognitive and Stylistic Strategies of a Stammering Teen in David Mitchell's Black Swan Green

In this article, Constance Robert-Murail will explore the poetic »accidents« at work in two extracts of Black Swan Green (2006) by David Mitchell. The novel tells the trials and musings of Jason Taylor, a thoughtful 13-year-old growing up in a backwater town full of strange neighbours and middle-school bullies. Throughout the year 1982, the reader witnesses Jason mediating between the various personae of his fragmented identity: Unborn Twin, his faint-hearted alter ego; Eliot Bolivar, the nom-de-plume he uses to write poems for the local parish newspaper; and, most importantly, Hangman, a malignant personification of his stammer. According to Garan Holcombe, David Mitchell's own experience of stammering has provided the novelist with a particular »sensitivity toward the formal necessity of coherence and structure« (Holcombe, 2013). The extract I have decided to focus on dramatises the onset of Jason's speech impediment and acts as a »high emotional intensity passage« (Toolan, 2012) within the structure of the coming-of-age narrative. A close stylistic reading of this particular text highlights the juxtaposition of Jason's pathological speechlessness and his bustling, bubbling inner monologue. This opposition elicits a physical reaction within the reader, caught between frustration and delectation. I would argue that the multimodal nature of the extract generates what Pierre-Louis Patoine has called a »somesthetic« effect on the reader (Patoine, 2016). Stuttering, according to Professor Mark Onslow, is »an idiosyncratic disorder.« (Onslow, 2017). Word avoidance has led Jason to create his own grammar and lexicon: his youthful voice and palliative strategies allow Mitchell to smuggle in moments of »accidental« poetry. The cognitive exploration of Jason's stammer stands both at the core of the reader's response and at the centre of Mitchell's powerful poetics-and it is, last but not least, devastatingly funny.

Parochial Church Council of the Parish of Aston Cantlow, Wilmcote with Billesley v Wallbank [2003] UKHL 37, House of Lords

Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Parochial Church Council of the Parish of Aston Cantlow, Wilmcote with Billesley v Wallbank [2003] UKHL 37, House of Lords. The underlying substantive issue in this case was the question of whether the Wallbanks were liable to pay for the repair of their local parish church. However, this case note focuses on the definition of public authorities under s. 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). Public authorities are required to act in accordance with the HRA, and the Wallbanks contended that the Parochial Church Council was a public authority within the meaning of s. 6. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.

SOME EVIDENCE OF THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF THE SKOPTSY IN THE IRKUTSK PROVINCE (SECOND THIRD OF THE 19TH CENTURY)

The article examines the everyday details of the life of the Skoptsy of the Irkutsk province in the 30s-40s of the 19th century. The study is based on information from two cases of 1832 and 1848 on the disclosure by the priests of the local parish of a secret community of the Skoptsy in the village of Golumet’. Despite the rather close attention to the topic of non-traditional religious movements, many archival materials on this topic are still not in demand. The article presents the ritual and medical aspects of the life of Skoptsy: descriptions of methods of emasculation, characteristic self-restraints in everyday life, and even individual ideological views of eunuchs. Thanks to archival materials, it was possible to determine common, characteristic features of behavior for all members of the sect, their social portrait. According to the author, their survival was of particular importance for the sect, therefore, the issue of secrecy during meetings, conversations, ritual actions was given the greatest importance...

Beginnings

Chapter 1 explores the various factors that shaped Carlson’s identity as a working-class Catholic young woman who was committed to social justice. These included her natal family and childhood neighborhood, her local parish, her women religious teachers, and the impact of World War I and the 1922 shopmen’s strike. Through her experience of World War I, as a working-class Irish and German girl, she had come to question government authority and the 100 percent Americanism that vigilante groups imposed on the community in St. Paul. As a result of her father’s experiences during the shopmen’s strike, she deepened her understanding of the importance of worker solidarity. And Grace came to appreciate early on the importance of education for the development of her autonomy. It was not only her mother, Mary Holmes, who instilled that lesson but also her women religious instructors in high school. The Josephites reinforced the value Grace placed on higher education as a route to economic independence for women and set her feet on the road to a professional career.

The Marian Apparition of Seuca/Szőkefalva in the Context of Religious and Ethnical Interferences

Seuca became a known place for pilgrimage due to a blind Gypsy woman's public visions about the Virgin Mary in the first years of the new millennium. The author presents both the history of the ethnical and confessional co-existence in the village and the economic and social problems which affected the whole community. Then, the attitudes towards the apparition of the different denominations are highlighted by also presenting the way the seer attempts to question the different denominational opinions. The legitimating strategies of a Gypsy woman significantly influenced the aspects of the vision of the Virgin Mary from Seuca. In the history of Seuca, we find the practice of ethnic groups making well-defined boundaries between them, functioning as important parts of the communities. The artificial change of the ethnic structure during the Communist dictatorship changed the patterns of relations between the ethnic groups and made ethnic coexistence more problematic. The local parish that tried to expropriate the Marian apparitions has successfully integrated their messages into the ideology of ethnic reconciliation. The traditional onto- logical systems of religion in the communities still work and the frequent crossing of the ethnic and denominational boundaries have also promoted the strategies of the Church. In addition, the apparitions in Seuca earned the village a distinguished reputation in the region where enormous changes have taken place and where people have been forced to develop more complex strategies, or ways of life, without any pre-existing concrete models.

Parochial Church Council of the Parish of Aston Cantlow, Wilmcote with Billesley v Wallbank [2003] UKHL 37, House of Lords

Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Parochial Church Council of the Parish of Aston Cantlow, Wilmcote with Billesley v Wallbank [2003] UKHL 37, House of Lords. The underlying substantive issue in this case was the question of whether the Wallbanks were liable to pay for the repair of their local parish church. However, this case note focuses on the definition of public authorities under s. 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). Public authorities are required to act in accordance with the HRA, and the Wallbanks contended that the Parochial Church Council was a public authority within the meaning of s. 6. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.

“CicloExpresso das Barrocas”: a Portuguese example of promoting physical activity

Issue Active travel to school is one of the main forms of physical activity for children, contributing to attainment of several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Young people who travel to school in an active way increase the overall amount of time they spend being physically active each day. Description of the Problem In 2017 the association Ciclaveiro created the 'CicloExpresso das Barrocas” in Aveiro. The 'CicloExpresso das Barrocas” is a “bike train” comprising a group of children cycling to their school - Escola Básica das Barrocas - accompanied by parents. It is organized by a group of parents, with the support of the local parish council and school parents associations. The main objective was to promote sustainable mobility and get children to go to school in sustainable and healthy means of transport. Results Since 2017 more “train lines” were created to different schools, involving more children and parents. In the near future, the aim is to increase the numbers of “train lines”, schools involved,”trains” per week and children and parents who use them regularly. Physical activity has not only health benefits and contributes to a child's physical, mental and emotional development but also has potentially broad social and academic gains. Additionally it contributes to social cohesion, which in turn can boost confidence and self-esteem. Lessons The promotion of active travel to school can be challenging and may require support from sectors other than education. This example shows it can be implemented successfully through collaboration among relevant sectors. CicloExpresso have been getting public recognition. In Aveiro it received a “family-community involvement award for his work with CicloExpresso”.This example of good practice can provide inspiration for policy-makers, schools and researchers. They provide an overview of actions taken to increase physical activity among children and adolescents. Key messages Children who travel to school in an active way increase the time they spend being physically active each day. Active travel to school can be challenging and may require support from many sectors.

A study of how local communities responded to changes in local authority youth services between 2010-2015 : A Foucauldian and Baumanian perspective.

Following economic crisis in 2008, a new Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government came into power in 2010 and introduced various measures and policies which prioritised reducing the national debt. Such measures and policies impacted county council funding which in turn meant that the county of Treescape decided to focus its services on the most vulnerable. This resulted in the local authority youth service being disbanded, with all open access youth work, as well as the majority of infrastructure support and associated services stopping and buildings closing. A new targeted youth support service was thus created. If local communities in Treescape county wanted open access youth work, it was their responsibility to provide it. This thesis undertakes a comparative study exploring the response of individuals and local parish/town councils from four communities, who proactively secured forms of youth provision in their area. Through the conceptual lenses provided by Michel Foucault and Zygmunt Bauman, the findings reveal that individuals and local parish/town councils responded to the challenges by exercising forms of neoliberal governmentality and discipline in order to achieve local solutions. In so doing they have created a unique mix of neoliberal and business-based approaches with local values that privilege the importance of relationships. I call this the ‘loconomy’. Given the precariousness and insecurity felt by individuals and youth providers, I discovered the presence of a ‘situational dynamic’ where youth providers needed to consider how much to invest in a local community in order to strengthen their case to be a parish/town councils’ preferred provider, which meant keeping both the young people and funder contented. However, this was not easy as youth work had become financialised, with finance limiting what could be offered at a local level compared with what was previously available via the local authority youth service. This resulted in varied forms of youth work, all of which had experienced shrinkflation.

‘Met wijsheid, voorzichtigheid en gematigdheid vooruitgaan’ : De (im)materiële erfenis van een eeuw georganiseerd retraitewerk door Nederlandse jezuïeten, 1900-2000

Between 1908 and 1966 the Dutch Jesuits founded five retreat institutions in the Netherlands to support the laity with spiritual care and to enable them to undergo (a part of) the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius van Loyola (the founder of the Jesuits). Notwithstanding the enormous popularity of these retreat activities, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, this phenomenon has hardly been subject to academic research. With this article, being a part of my postdoc-research project at Tilburg University, I hope to give a start to this study. At the turn of the century, the group retreat work the Dutch Jesuits introduced for the male laity in the Netherlands originated in Belgium and France. During the years to follow this work became exceptional popular among Catholics living in the southern provinces of the Netherlands. Due to a high organisational level of Catholic social and political institutions and the involvement of the Catholic upper-class and local parish priests the propaganda of the Jesuits for their retreat work in the Southern provinces was extremely effective. The (industrial) employers as well as the Jesuits regarded the retreat work as a splendid opportunity to ‘civilize’ the Catholic working-class and to keep them away from communism and socialism. As a consequence of new theological and spiritual insights, after World War II things started to change in the traditional retreat work. In the fifties and sixties the retreats were transformed into meetings of spiritual reflection and counselling, at last becoming socio-cultural training courses from the seventies onwards. The lack of a straightforward underlying theological vision for these transitions on which all Jesuits could agree on, the rising costs, and the declining number of Jesuits members, resulted in 1974 in the ending of their participation in this group-organized work. However, retreats given on an individual basis continued and from the nineties new initiatives were launched to popularize the Spiritual Exercises using digital techniques and the internet.