Is the liberal tide in the Church of England beginning to ebb?
In contrast to the bad natured meeting of July last year, this week’s General Synod of the Church of England has passed off not only peacefully, but also with a significant step forward for those who want to see the Church of England recover its confidence in the gospel. A motion by lay member Paul Eddy affirming the uniqueness of Christ was agreed with 283 votes in favour and only 8 against.
Its significance was not lost on journalist Ruth Gledhill of the London Times who was quick to claim, under the headline ‘Anglicans called on to convert non-Christian believers’, that ‘The established Church of England put decades of liberal-inspired political correctness behind it in a move that led one bishop to condemn in anger the “evangelistic rants”.’ …
– Charles Raven writes at Anglican SPREAD. (Photo: C of E website.)
Hospitals betray their history by banishing prayer
“The long withdrawing roar of the sea of faith seems to be getting louder: nurses cannot pray, the Creed cannot be recited at Christian services for fear of offending non-believers, Christian marriage counsellors are removed because they believe in Christian marriage and Christian adoption agencies cannot be publicly funded because they believe that children are best brought up in a family with a mother and father to look after them.
It seems certain that no other faith would be subjected to such strictures and, indeed, to the benign neglect to which the churches have become accustomed. A place for Christians in the public square must be reclaimed. …”
– Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali comments on the recent case in the UK where a nurse was suspended for offering to pray for a patient. In The Telegraph. (h/t Anglican Mainstream. Photo: Joy Gwaltney.)
Church Society General Secretary on the Primates’ meeting
Another meeting of Anglican Primates has come and gone, nothing of substance has been done or decided. The problem the Communion faces is not with one or two individuals such as Gene Robinson who unfairly has become the focus of our problems, but rather with false teaching. Those who teach that sexual immorality is acceptable are leading people to destruction. …
There was a brief time when combined outrage might have translated into action but Rowan Williams headed this off and now it seems that the body of Primates as a whole will not do anything. …
– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society, comments on the just-concluded meeting in Alexandria.
‘Out of Egypt I called my son’
“The gathering of the GAFCON movement last June and its Jerusalem Declaration represented a decisive rejection of the spiritually compromised control of the Anglican Communion by the Lambeth based instruments of unity. Yet there seems to be little sign of the GAFCON Primates asserting their new found authority and some might even question why they are at Alexandria at all. Are they going back to an ecclesial Egypt?…”
– Charles Raven at SPREAD encourages prayer for the GAFCON Primates in Alexandria.
Bus slogan generator
For a bit of light relief, try the Bus slogan generator.
(h/t John Richardson.)
Mark Baddeley has some more serious thoughts at the Sola Panel.
Rowan Williams and Revelation wrapped up
“Last Sunday, 25th January, the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered a sermon at Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge, England as the Diocese of Ely launched its 900th anniversary celebrations. Although barely noticed by the press, it was an event which brought a lamentable truth into sharp focus — that despite centuries of Christian heritage, what now passes for Anglicanism in England has drifted far apart from the faith which GAFCON reaffirmed last year in the Jerusalem Declaration.
While it is the part the Archbishop has played in the advocacy of homosexual lifestyles over the past twenty years which has attracted the most controversy, the heart of the problem is his understanding of the doctrine of revelation. …”
– Charles Raven at SPREAD reflects on one’s attitude to holy Scripture.
You can read the Archbishop’s Hulsean sermon at his website.
It’s interesting to read something of the history of The Hul’sean Lectures. They began in 1777 with four or six sermons preached each year at Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge.
Some of the sermons are available online, such as this 1867 book of four sermons by The Rev. Edward Henry Perowne in which he upholds ‘The Godhead of Jesus’. He wrote about his own aim in fulfilling the purpose of the lectures –
“It is the duty of the Christian minister to resolve the doubts of others, not to engender them by parading his own. … I shall endeavour to shew from the Gospel narrative that the Jesus, of whom the Evangelists wrote, is very and eternal God.” [pages 5–6]
‘If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all liberally. Only let him ask in faith, nothing doubting’ the goodness or power of the Most High. It was with the hope of helping such persons to a right conclusion that this Lectureship was established, no less than to confute the assailants of our Holy Religion. My object will be, in the three succeeding Lectures, to state concisely some of the grounds on which we may rest a defence of this doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ.” [page 17]
Split in church is tragically real
“Recent opinion pieces published in the Gazette about divisions in the Episcopal Church reveal more than intended.
One writes that only ‘four bishops’ have left the church and that ‘the vast majority of Episcopal churches’ don’t want to leave. This is the Episcopal Church’s oft repeated mantra — division in the church is numerically minor, therefore wildly overblown. This rhetoric fuels the crisis it seeks to deny. It isn’t helpful to claim that there is some smoke but no fire when there are flames everywhere. …”
– Suzanne Schwank, Chairwoman of the Diocece of South Carolina’s Department of Christian Faith Formation writes in The Beaufort Gazette.
(Photo from the Presiding Bishop’s visit to South Carolina in 2008.)
Just where is the church?
Today I was briefly looking online at a paper by a certain Colin Podmore, titled The Governance of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, to be presented at the next General Synod in February. In it we find what I consider to be the ‘institutional revisionist’ understanding now dominant in the Church of England …
– John Richardson responds to the assertion that ‘the church’ = ‘the diocese’ – at The Ugley Vicar.
Disconnecting Gene Robinson
“Gene Robinson is not confused. He knows where he is going. On hearing the news that Rick Warren had been invited to lead the invocation he told the New York Times that ‘it was like a slap in the face,’ adding that ‘the God that he’s praying to is not the God that I know.’…”
– writes Charles Raven, Director of The Society for the Propagation of Reformed Evangelical Anglican Doctrine.
Doing my part for the Listening Process
“On Sunday, January 11 Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori visited my old parish for a one-hour question-and-answer session as part of her visit to the diocese of Mississippi. …”
– Greg Griffith of Stand Firm reports on Katharine Jefferts Schori’s responses and reflects on the impact of her visit. (Photo: Greg Griffith.)
Atheists play their hand — Probability
The news first broke last year, when atheists in Great Britain announced the intention to put their message on London’s famous city buses. Atheist celebrities including Richard Dawkins and A. C. Grayling joined the campaign and enjoyed the publicity. Now, the atheists are taking their advertising campaign throughout Britain, with 800 buses carrying their message. …
In some sense, this campaign almost looks like a joke on atheists planned and performed by believers in God.
– Al Mohler is not convinced.
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
“Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it’s Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood.…”
– The Times columnist Matthew Parris makes some interesting observations.
(Photo: Times Online.)
Goodbye Larry King, hello Jerry Springer!
The hoo-hah over President Elect Obama’s choice of Rick Warren continues unabated, with most of the critics focussing mainly on Warren’s attitude to homosexuality and gay marriage. …
As Don Carson commented recently, American Christians have yet to wake up to the fact that the gospel really is despised by the world. And I would add: in a culture where everyone seems to need to be liked, affirmed and, above all, agreed with, that realisation is going to be very hard and challenging for the evangelical establishment to take on board.
– Carl Trueman writes at Reformation21. (Seen at Between Two Worlds.)
Why the Church of England cannot lose its ‘Head’
“Even if the Church of England were disestablished, even if Prince Charles became King and took the title ‘Defender of Faith’, even if his son converted to Islam and duly became our first Muslim monarch, the situation would be unchanged …”
– John Richardson writes at the Ugley Vicar.
The Tragedy of the faux-Evangelicals
Matt recently pointed us to a post by Christina Rees, chair of the women’s ordination pressure group WATCH (Women and the Church). The piece by Rees is one of several in the last week for the Guardian newspaper’s “Comment is Free” section.
Last week the question was raised “What should evangelicals believe?” This is, of course, a key question. Much of the fracturing amongst those who are opposed to the innovations of TEC and others in the Anglican Communion comes about because this simple question cannot be answered clearly. …
– David Ould writes at Stand Firm.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…