Stephen Bullivant
@SSBullivant
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Professor of Theology and Sociology of Religion, @YourStMarys ; Professorial Research Fellow of Theology and Sociology, @notredameaus ; Director, @BXVICentre .
Joined August 2013
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Now available for pre-order...
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First Day - well, hour - of school, now all prepped for a double surgery. Longtime friends will know it's by no means his first rodeo (fifth, actually), but if you've any spare prayers for him..
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Prayers for our baby, Francis, please. Born yesterday. Currently in surgery; back to intensive care soon.
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Don't worry about Burke losing his apartment. It seems he'll always live rent-free in an awful lot of Catholic commentators' heads.
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With a heavy heart, I have just written to resign my hitherto very proudly - and I like to think productively - held (honorary) Fellow status of the
@WordOnFire
Institute.
"I don't think I'm being made fit for anything other than God..."
From my recent conversation with
@BishopBarron
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I like my whisky cocktails like I like my liturgy.
Long. Old fashioned. Spirit filled. On an empty stomach.
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Twelve years ago today, I was baptized (and the rest) at the Papal Basilica of St Paul's-Outside-the-Walls in Rome.
Thanks for having me everyone (cf. 1 Corinthians 15.8-10)
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Long day. Baby Leo been for X-Ray (not heard result) and started on antibiotics. Being kept "nil by mouth", I presume as a precaution. Spending the night in the High Dependency Unit, which we know well from F's early days. Joanna brilliant as ever.
Will see what tomorrow brings.
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"I have my third - and (hopefully) last - big operation on 19 July... Please will you pray for me?"
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Here's why, for those asking
With a heavy heart, I have just written to resign my hitherto very proudly - and I like to think productively - held (honorary) Fellow status of the
@WordOnFire
Institute.
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You know how you're always thinking, "Gee, wouldn't it be great if there were more little Bullivants in the world?"
Well... behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.
#GonnaNeedABiggerCar
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If all they wanted was to take the baby home to cuddle while he suffocates and starves to death, who could deny it to them? But when they have an Italian military helicopter, a word-class paediatric hospital, and the Pope - the bloody Pope! - waiting to spirit him away! No words.
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Canon law amended to make all parish websites have their (ACTUAL) Mass times on the front page. No downloading pdfs of weekly bulletins. No wading through pages and pages of photos from the 2004 summer fete. JUST GIVE ME THE MASS TIMES, DAMMIT.
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Learned something amazing today.
Graham Greene once had the opportunity to meet Padre Pio, but refused. He feared that if he did so, he'd feel compelled to change his lifestyle.
There's something sad and beautiful about that.
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On lighter note, I spent most of Mass thwarting 4yo daughter's attempts to introduce "Baby Shark" to the Church's treasury of sacred music.
Thank God I succeeded.
It would've been the least liturgically appropriate addition since, err, every Mass in the mid to late sixties.
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Trouble with the "priesthood of all believers" is that it's suffering its own vocations crisis.
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UPDATE: Francis had been moved from Intensive Care; now in HDU. Long road ahead - certainly days, and poss weeks, of it at wonderful
@OUHospitals
- but heading in the right direction.
Thankyou for your continuing prayers. It means a huge amount to us - far more than can express.
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Happy Feast Day to all my fellow "ph" Stephens.
Stevens: get your own protomartyr.
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Operation a success. Thankyou Twitter friends.
@BullivantJoanna
and I are genuinely touched. ❤
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Out, woke up for a bit, and now napping; thanks all. Main op itself a success, though also revealed new things to worry about, hope to rectify, and potentially bring him back in here again. Poor little lad. The adventure continues..
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Ten years ago I was baptized at St Paul's Outside the Walls and received into the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
Thanks for having me, everyone!
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Just imagine how Noah must feel.
The LGBT Pride flag represents a hard-fought battle for fundamental human rights. It’s reinvention as a ‘Thank You NHS Flag’ is contentious for some in the LGBT+ community.
My latest in
@ForbesEurope
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If could spare a prayer when see this, would be most grateful.
Francis (4) soon off to theatre for emergency op. Only short (longer op in 6 weeks), but needing a general anaesth. Regular readers know he's a seasoned pro at these things. I asked him how feeling this morn: "Great!"
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# Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?... #
#paperback
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Happy 3rd birthday to Francis Benedict Bullivant!
HOW IT STARTED: HOW IT'S GOING:
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Grace (7) heading out the house for her first Confession...
"I've been practising my sins, daddy!"
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Gotta say, a man could get used to Sunday Mass with
@BishopBarron
. Best homily I've heard in some time.
Friends, we so appreciate you joining us online for daily Mass from my chapel. We hope to see you tomorrow for Sunday Mass beginning at 8:15AM Eastern time. I will be presiding.
Find all past videos at
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"The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services."
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Now, I don't think anyone any can accuse me of being anti-TLM/EF. But I must say, with three kids under 10, halfway through the Passion narrative in Latin the thought did cross my mind that perhaps some judicious use of the vernacular might not wholly detract from proceedings.
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Just been alerted to this: Letter to the Editor in tomorrow's
@thetimes
- an update to the famous 1971 letter, signed by various artists and writers (inc, most famously, Agatha Christie) in support of the Latin Mass
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5yo daughter: "Sometimes Jesus talks to me in the night."
Me: "Really?? What does he say?"
5yo: "Errr, I dunno. Maybe "hello" or somefin? I never really listen to him, to be honest."
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Here's my own tell-all expose of those nefarious "Latin Mass cultists"
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Very proud that Francis has inherited my ability to "not look like a total tourist" on holiday.
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Our 3-day old son, Francis Benedict Bullivant, was baptized in hospital this morning. Proper photos in due course, but here's his baptismal font: NHS standard-issue. Never will you see a more beautiful one.
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Francis has now been promoted to the Low Dependency Unit - up from Intensive Care this time last week, and High Dependency for past 6 days - so moving in the right direction. Still no real idea when we'll all be home. Big sisters resolved to "bring Christmas to him" if needs be.
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"Daddy, please can we say the 'Hail, Holy Queen' instead of singing the Salve?"
Enjoy them while they're young. They grow up into Modernists so fast these days.
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"Bishop John Shelby Spong wrote a book in 1999 entitled Why Christianity Must Change or Die. The Episcopal Church has, largely, followed Bishop Spong’s lead. It has changed and it is dying."
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Happy Feast Day to all my fellow "ph" Stephens.
Stevens: get your own protomartyr.
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Sitting in the park on a sunny day, reading Mass Exodus, beside the remnants of a stiff gin and tonic.
Francis Benedict Bullivant: living proof that a life-threatening congenital birth defect is no bar to living the dream life.
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Thanks everybody! Op successful. Recovering with milk, toast, and people playing with superhero toys on Youtube.
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Eeek. All this furore over what counts as "authorship".
I'm just praying that no one ever finds out about encyclicals.
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50+ yrs of typical Sunday Mass attendance, ordinations, receptions, marriages, and baptisms in England and Wales, expressed as % diff. from 1960 level. Data from Catholic Directory (h/t to
@trisagion
and
@latinmassuk
for compiling).
NB: total E&W pop. grew 25% from 1961 to 2016.
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So Leo was readmitted to hospital yesterday, and is likely to be in for at least a couple of nights. Poor
@BullivantJoanna
- only one of us is allowed to be here between 8pm and 8am - is as exhausted as she is brilliant.
#TooMuchBabies
#WorldsNaughtiestBoy
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"HOW McCARRICKS HAPPEN"
#LongRead
article now up at
@CatholicHerald
. A LOT of work went into this one. You might want to pour yourself a strong drink, then another. Then possibly a third.
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"Do you ever miss being an Anglican, Joanna?"
"No. Not ever. Not even during guitar Masses."
(Reader, I married her.)
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Going to get a T-shirt made for wearing to Mass:
"WHY YES, IT SO HAPPENS HAPPENS THAT I AM A TERRIBLE PARENT... BUT SHE IS *ALSO* AUTISTIC."
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Thanks all for prayers/messages. Paramedic out last night, but O2 levels etc. fine, so no danger.
Mostly lying in bed, being waited on, reading, and playing PC strategy games from the last millennium.
Alice baked me some cupcakes, but waived usual £5 charge. Ominous sign? 🤔
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Alice (6): "Daddy, if I were you, I'd be a bit worried that mummy will leave you."
Stephen: "Errr, really? Whyyy?"
Alice: "Well, she *is* VERY pretty. And you *are* VERY annoying."
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Fourteen years a Catholic.
It's been a wild ride. Classic comically- mismatched buddy-comedy material.
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Thanks again to my and
@BullivantJoanna
's Twitter friends for their prayers, rosaries, Masses, et al. for Francis Benedict B over the past 9 months - and to
@OUHospitals
' medical and chaplaincy staff for their amazingness.
Three big operations later he is now in (rude) health.
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Had half hour between meetings in Oxford and, on whim, stopped by
@PuseyHouse
for midday prayer. So glad I did. First time there in maybe 20 years. "Change and decay in all around I see" but Pusey, delightfully, changest not. A significant place for me and others.
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Francis a year ago, & yesterday (1st birthday).
Not quite case that this year all our troubles are out of sight -
@BullivantJoanna
's back at hospital with him today - but the Bullivants will be having ourselves, & wishing you all, an extremely Merry Little Christmas nonetheless.
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Apparently, Queen Victoria required that sermons preached in her presence be "orthodox, short, and intetesting". Sound.
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Just got the green light to write "Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction" for OUP, with my good buddy Shaun Blanchard. 😀
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TFW when you drive past a water treatment works and - honest to God - your instinctive first thought is "Oh, I didn't know there was a Catholic Church here." 😕
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A gin and tonic doesn't count as "flaking off on Lenten abstinence a week in" if it's taken for (mental health) medicinal reasons, yes? That's totally a thing, amirite?
#selfcare
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The doctrine's unchanged. We're just applying it in a more pastoral way.
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Beginning next week, I'll be Professorial Research Fellow in Theology and Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, Australia (
@notredamesyd
) - a 0.5FTE post for 3 years.
The other half of my time I'll still be at St Mary's, UK.
FOOTAGE OF MY COMMUTE:
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THREAD.
A Liturgy-themed RomCom based around a priest-monk (Fr Hugh), researching a thesis on the 1965 Missal, who encounters a liturgy PhD student in the library. She's HOT, but because she wears glasses and likes books, neither she nor anyone else has ever noticed.
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Filling out online Census - obv a task I tave v seriously.
The form *knows* Francis is 3 yo. It then asks me: "How would Francis Bullivant describe his national identity?" So I ask him.
Me: "Francis, how would you describe your national identity?"
Francis: "We hit people."
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Hey, you know that thing about "never judging a book by its cover"?
Rules were made to be broken!
#AsGoodAsItLooks
Due out in May from
@OUPReligion
. Preorder it now!
@U_Unbelief
@BSASocrelSG
@BXVICentre
@StMarysIoT
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BBC: "France is mourning a cultural and historical loss."
Sure. Sure. Not a religious loss though too, right? 🙄
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If I were the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, I'd... err, apologize that there'd been some terrible mistake. I'm not a member, know almost nothing about it, and - to be perfectly honest - it's not really my place to "primatificate" about it on Twitter let alone lead it.
If I were the Pope, I'd ordain women and married men, democratize the church, sell its wealth, and transform its teachings on sexuality.
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Just got back from short service welcoming
@StBernadetteUK
#relics
to Immaculate Conception, Bicester. Church packed. 400+ people, easy, and hard to think what other event wld attract such a demographic mix - age, ethinicity, socioeconomic, national background.
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New book manuscript submitted... Pretty pleased with this one.
@CTSpublishers
@bernadurcan_
@hannah_vspruce
@stmarystheology
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Question for Catholics: what form does "the Peace" take in your parish now? My experience (UK) is that, except poss for family, Covid's killed the shaking of hands. It's an awkward bob of the head, or namaste/wai-style slight bow with hands together. Pls RT and say where you are.
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HAGIOGRAPHER: "Aged only 3, Francis Bullivant once screamed and screamed at Mass in sorrow at not being allowed to receive Holy Communion."
REALITY: He thought the Host was a massive Milky Bar button.
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As regulars - "I call you friends" - will know, little Francis Benedict had a rough ride in his early months.
@BullivantJoanna
and I, forever grateful for your prayers/good wishes/Mass intentions, thought you might like this. F a year ago, after Op 3, and on first foreign hols.
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You know what? I just CANNOT RISK contracting malaria on top of everything else going on right now.
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Doctrine of THE TRINITY in 1 Tweet:
1. There is only one God.
2. F, S, HS are each God.
3. F, S, and HS are not the same.
#TrinitySunday
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10yo: "The teacher told us not to genuflect before receiving [at school Mass]. But I always do, so I did it anyway."
Like the stopped clock being right twice a day, sometimes - rarely - her defiantly awkward contrariness yields a win.
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This is the exact same "excuse" you hear from undergrads - I.e., "I must have got my notes mixed up". And it's, frankly, total bollocks. There's just no way in hell that this kind of thing is negligence and error, rather than deliberate theft and fraud.
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Taking book-promoting publicity stunts to an absurd extreme, it now appears that I have COVID-19.
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Just learned that "Tekakwitha", as in St Kateri Tekakwitha, is Mohawk for "She Who Bumps Into Things."
I didn't think I could love her even more than I did already. But I do, I really do.
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Tarsus man, now a critic of persecuting Christians, used to be in favour of stoning deacons.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, a critic of the
#AmazonSynod
, used to be in favour of ordaining married men
In 1992 he wrote that it "must be possible to ordain religiously proven and theologically educated family fathers"
Via
@The_Tablet
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*Finally* sent the final, final version of the manuscript off to the publisher... due out some time next year!
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Big operation for baby Francis tomorrow, followed by a decent spell in hospital. Poor little duck.
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Never giving up on -ize suffixes and the Oxford comma.
They'll have to prize them from my cold, dead, and third-adjective-to-make-the-joke-work hands.
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When your 1 yo son goes round the house shouting "Orderrr, OrDERRRR" at his sisters, a la
#JohnBercow
... time to admit that you and
@BullivantJoanna
have an, errr, "unhealthy relationship" with
@BBCParliament
and
@BBCPolitics
? 🤔
#BabyBercow
#Francis4Speaker
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