AN OUTSIDE VIEW

London's new bus would be even better as a tram, would it not?

My view on gay marriage is that the idea is a nonsense because marriage is something that can happen only between a man and a woman. If people want to set up a household together, that is another matter and nothing to do with the state. The rationale for civil partnerships relates primarily to property rights - ownership, inheritance and taxation. These affect any two people who are living together - siblings, for instance. The solution to the problems and anomalies caused by bad or unjust legislation is to deal with the legislation. It did not require a re-categorisation of certain household arrangements so as to put them on the same footing as those of a married couple. Which brings me to the Cardinal's outburst. He is right to object to the re-definition of marriage by an act of legislation. But marriage is about families, children and the creation of a stable and nurturing environment. A few weeks ago, Fr Blake of St Mary Magdalen's, Brighton, published on his blog a film c...

Over the past couple of years, all possible variants of the Mass were tried at St Mary Magdalens's, Brighton, including vernacular mass with the priest facing east. The general conclusion that from the congregation's point of view it was actually less "elitist" for the priest to be facing the same way as everyone else. It wasn't a question of the priest turning his back, but rather, the priest leading a procession or pilgrimage towards the Lord. From the priest's point, it was less distracting. Furthermore, the priest was in the habit of scowling at the congregation when he got distracted, which was even more off-putting all round. The orientation of the priest towards the liturgical restores the clarity of the architectural arrangement whereby there is a sequence of spaces and objects from nave, to sanctuary to altar, tabernacle and cross. This removes the spatial ambiguity that arises when the priest is standing between the altar and the cross. It also em...

The "Ordinary Form" (OF) of the Mass, normally celebrated in the vernacular, has been around for the past forty years. Following the declaration a couple of years ago that the 1962 version of the Tridentine Mass had never been abrogated, its use is becoming increasingly widespread under the title Extraordinary Form (EF). When the OF Mass is celebrated in Latin and the priest is facing the same way as the congregation, there is little to distinguish it from the EF, the most noticeable difference being the extended period whilst the priest is reciting the Canon of the Mass (consecration prayers) aloud, which in the EF form are recited silently, whilst the choir, if present, is singing the Sanctus and Benedictus. Thus the OF Mass tends to take about ten minutes longer than the EF. But when the vernacular is used, the potential for things to go wrong is considerable. If, as often happens, the priest is celebrating the Mass in another language, he is liable to be struggling at ti...

Gatwick Express Class 73 73208 Clapham Junction , originally uploaded by dwb photos . It is hard to believe that it is fifty years ago since these locomotives entered service. They are 1500 hp electric locomotives running on the third-rail system and have an auxiliary diesel engine of 500hp. This makes them extremely versatile. Not only are the majority still intact and working, but there are plans to refurbish some to keep them going. Whilst not the most elegant things on rails - apparently they are known as "shoe boxes", they embody the excellent principle that everything should be compatible with everything else on the system. Thus they could haul anything and could be controlled from the cab of all of the other multiple unit diesel or electric trains that were coming into service on the Southern Region at the time. This strategy of compatibility continued until the early 1990s when new types of stock were brought into use which used entirely different control system. Nowa...