The new archbishop of Canterbury

[sp1814]

I've been reading up on some of his views and am quietly pleased that such an apparently progressive ABC has been elected...except...

...am I the only person who finds it weird having an Archbishop of Canterbury called Justin??

It's a bit like having a king called Trevor or Queen Kylie.

[Baldric]

sp, Ok will do.

[DTCwordfan]

Not that long ago, sandy. He was a star.....

[plautus]

Oh what memories! Cosmo Gordon Lang! Vilified for his criticism of Edward VIII on his abdication.

My Lord Archbishop what a scold you are!
And when your man is down how bold you are!
In Christian charity how scant you are!
Oh! Old Lang Swine, how full of Cantuar!

Very clever use of words.

[sp1814]

DTcrosswordfan

For someone who is so great with words, that was an abominable pun.

[DTCwordfan]

I know, sp, it takes "talent" - ahem........

The real geniuses around here are bibble and oldred - those two are phenomenal at xwords - dannyk too.

[plautus]

Not my words it was current in 1936. There are alternative versions, which you must google if interested

[sandyRoe]

But those 4 lines quoted by Plautus are like a nugget in a heap of spoil.

[DTCwordfan]

Well I wish him well - though I disagree with many areas of CoE thinking, the Church needs him desperately to provide a moral compass, take a leadership issue on many aspects of evangelism, society at large, and the pressures of both Rome and Mecca - as well as some common sense to their financial position and asset management.

The previous one, may he rest long and hard and graze on a Welsh mountain side, though he is to end up cloistered in Cambridge (thank goodness, my old alma mater didn't get him as the Chair of Divinity, rather Wellby's predecessor as Bish of Durham).

[jno]

I'm been well acquainted with Justinian in my travels. There's also a mosaic portrait of him and his wife (allegedly a former prostitute) in Ravenna, not very flattering but rather lifelike

http://cache.virtualt..._Theodora_Ravenna.jpg

For all that, there were emperor Justins too, and perhaps they're just as likely to have popularised the name in centuries gone by.

[sandyRoe]

Theodora looks as though she might have made a few bob as a dominatrix. She has that stern look about her.

[jno]

by the way, this is Sta Sophia

http://www.asiamania..../2010/12/P1090964.jpg

utterly magnificent, and built in the 530s.

[jno]

people in the church did take against her, sandyRoe, and this may have influenced the portrayalas of her.

Of course Helena, Constantine's mother, was also suspected of being a former bargirl, but she was considered to have made up for it by discovering the True Cross, and thus to have become a model of Christian Redemption.

It was believed in Britain in the Middle Ages that she had been the daughter of Old King Cole. This is now thought not to be the case.

[sandyRoe]

If she secured a piece of The True Cross for posterity she would have been forgiven for any earlier sins.
with his pipe, and his bowl, and his fiddlers three, you might wonder when he found the time to travel to the Middle East to sire a daughter

[jno]

Constantine was serving in Britain when proclaimed emperor. It was assumed such a fine chap would have taken a wife from the local nobility, and a daughter of King Cole was thought the likeliest. (He was imagined to have given his name to Colchester, as it didn't occur to anyone it might have got its name from the Colne river running through it).

Alas, it appears Helena came from Illyria rather than Clacton, and the line of Essex royalty may be imaginary.

[emmie]

he looks like a character out of Wallace and Gromit.

[sandyRoe]

And shouldn't Princes of the Church be plump, well-rounded, men? This one has a lean and hungry look.

[emmie]

Rowan wasn't like that either, he always looked as though he was in need of a good meal and shave..