Today in 1913, a mail carrier received and delivered an unusual package: a baby boy. "The boy was well wrapped and ready for 'mailing' when the carrier received him," The Times reported. Postage was 15 cents. https://t.co/5jk4toKdxQ pic.twitter.com/N1x1z6XlSl
— NYT Archives (@NYTArchives) January 25, 2018
Daily Archives: January 25, 2018
Today in History, 1913
(NPR) Amid #MeToo, Evangelicals Grapple With Misconduct In Their Own Churches
In the Andy Savage case, Jules Woodson alleged in her blog post that the senior pastors in whom she had confided did not discipline Savage adequately or report him to the authorities and even threw a going away party for him when he moved to another community.
Kelly Rosati of Focus on the Family insists it’s important to separate the evangelical belief about distinctive gender roles in the church from the exploitation of power differentials between a pastor and his flock.
“What you saw in that [Andy Savage] incident was a conflating of those two issues,” she says, “and a failure to understand that what one person might describe as a sexual incident is really about those other things, power and abuse and violation.”
The reaction among evangelical women to the #MeToo movement, Rosati says, suggests it may be a watershed moment for them that will end up “shaking out the ground a little bit in the evangelical community.”
(CT) How Protestant Churches Are Involved with Adoption and Foster Care
About 4 in 10 Protestant churchgoers say their congregation has been involved with adoption or foster care in the past year, according to LifeWay Research.
That may be because the Bible tells them to, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.
“Foster care appears to come naturally for churchgoers,” he said. “It’s not surprising, since the Bible commands them to care for widows and orphans.”
Since the early 2000s, many Protestant churches have commemorated Orphan Sunday every November to draw attention to the plight of orphans around the world.
In the past, they’ve often focused on international adoption and orphanages. But in recent years, foster care—both in the United States and abroad—has become a focus as well.
A Letter from Martin Sewell in Today’s Telegraph about the Church of England’s handling of the Bp George Bell matter
Letter from @SewellMartin in today's @Telegraph: pic.twitter.com/Gi1Rgt0hd2
— Archbishop Cranmer (@His_Grace) January 25, 2018
(ACNS) Canon Michael Jackson–The Diaconate – Renewing an Ancient Ministry
Some provinces of the Anglican Communion have been reticent about restoring the vocational diaconate. The most frequent objection is that ordained deacons clericalise lay ministry and in any case lay people can do anything that deacons can. Also, bishops and priests are already deacons, so a separate order is redundant.
But part from ignoring the historical roots of the diaconate, this approach negates the purpose of ordination. Deacons are officially commissioned to a leadership role by the Church, to which they make a lifetime commitment. A leading deacon in the US-based Episcopal Church, Susanne Watson Epting, has put it this way: “Even though ordained, [the deacon’s] primary identity remains baptismal and our ordination charges and vows serve only to expand, enhance, and urge us on in animating and exemplifying the diakonia to which all the baptised were called.” Experience with the renewed diaconate has amply fulfilled this assertion.
As for bishops and priests already being deacons, there are those, including myself, who turn the argument on its head. The Church should return to its original practice, end sequential ordination and abolish the transitional diaconate, which serves little purpose and inhibits the ministry of the vocational deacon. Food for thought!
(Psephizo) Ian Paul–On the C of E and welcoming transgender people
What, then, should the House of Bishops have done? I think the statement they issued says some helpful and positive things, and I particularly appreciate the focus on the primacy of identity in Christ that is effected by the baptism of believers.
The emphasis is placed not on the past or future of the candidate alone but on their faith in Jesus Christ. The Affirmation [of Baptism] therefore gives priority to the original and authentic baptism of the individual, and the sacramental change it has effected, allowing someone who has undergone a serious and lasting change to re-dedicate their life and identity to Christ. The image of God, in which we are all made, transcends gender, race, and any other characteristic, and our shared identity as followers of Jesus is the unity which makes all one in Christ (Galatians 3.27-28)
But it leaves both a theological and a practical question unanswered. The theological question concerns the meaning of ‘welcome and unconditional affirmation’ within the body of Christ. Jesus is often claimed to be ‘inclusive’ in the gospels, but there is plenty in his action and his teaching which suggests that his all-embracing call to repentance and faith does not align with contemporary understandings of ‘inclusivity’, containing an irreducible element of challenge and change, not simply in terms of lifestyle and action, but at fundamental levels of self-understanding. Paul’s writings continue this theme; the grace of God is ‘unconditioned’ in the sense of being offered to all, but it is not ‘unconditional’ in the sense that it demands a radical reorientation of our understanding of self and the world. That is true of all of us, and if Beardsley and others want the assumptions of transgenderism to be exceptions to this, then the case needs to be made.
The practical question is what it means to adapt existing liturgy to respond in a ‘creative and sensitive way’. Like the unhelpful phrase ‘radical Christian inclusion within the Christian tradition’, it seems to me that this offers the invitation for clergy to do what they wish, and further undermines the role of bishops as teachers and guides.
The overall effect of this double move—to vote for the motion as it was first presented, then to reject the request for new liturgy—has probably diminished the standing of the bishops on all sides. Those wanting radical change see this as double dealing, whilst those wanting reassurance about the bishops’ commitment to historic understandings of sexuality and marriage see too many loopholes. I think the wise thing to have done would have been to take seriously the words of both Richard Frith and John Sentamu, and insisted on a two-part motion, similar to the one that Nick Land proposed. This would have offered greater clarity and coherence, and would have protected against accusations of hypocrisy.
(Barna) Who is Gen Z?
“First, why are we calling them Gen Z? Well, you may remember that Millennials were originally called Gen Y because they were born after Gen X, before they became Millennials. The same is probably true for Gen Z. Eventually, they’ll get their own name, once the particularities of their generation become clear. You may hear some people already referring to them as the ‘iGen’ or ‘digital natives’ because of their relationship with technology. Others called them the ‘homeland generation’ because most of them were born after 9/11. You may also hear ‘centennials’ or ‘founders’—but for now, the most widely accepted title is Gen Z.
“Gen Z was born between 1999 and 2015, making the oldest of them 18 this year. Most of them are in their teens and childhood years. Gen Z is the second largest generation alive today. In the U.S. there are 69 million of them, compared to 66 million Millennials, 55 million Gen Xers and 76 million Boomers. The parents of Gen Z are Gen X and Millennials. They are most ethnically diverse generation alive today, and they have, for better and worse, grown up with technology at their fingertips. The smartphone was invented before most of them were even born.
(Christian Today) Archbishop of Canterbury blasts ‘inward looking’ Church of England
Thy Kingdom Come is part of a broader trend of churches around the world, previously split by division and disagreement, working together, he said.
It is designed to unite more than 50 denominations across 85 countries through ten days of prayers in May.
‘One of my biggest frustrations in the church, as indeed in most institutions, is it is much easier to talk about what is going on inside it than what is going on outside,’ an exasperated Welby told an audience of clergy and representatives from different churches around the UK at Lambeth Palace today.
‘It is not more satisfying. In fact it is unbelievably frustrating. Someone once described a meeting as where a group of people can decide on something about which not a single one of us agrees.
‘In the church we can get together to meet, to pray, to worship and we absolutely focus inwardly. We leave thinking, “that is not how we want to be” and every single person there thinks, “this is not how we want to be” but they still do it.
Archbishops of Canterbury and York launch Thy Kingdom Come 2018
Among the stories arising from the initiative – many of them deeply moving – is one from a couple who had not seen their son for 22 years. ‘We pray every day obviously for him but during Thy Kingdom Come he was one of the people we prayed for as a group,’ they say. ‘We put his name on the altar before God and… yesterday he came home.’
This year also sees some digital developments including a brand-new website and a Thy Kingdom Come devotional app created by leading Christian publishers SPCK. Both products will be translated into several languages including Spanish, Korean, and Swahili and will be launched in time for Easter.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby said:
“The business of being witnesses to Jesus Christ and of praying to be witnesses compels us to look into the world around us. It compels us to seek, to experience the compassion of God for a world caught up in lostness, in sin, but also in suffering and pain, in oppression of the poor, in cruelty, in abuse, in outrageous inequality, in all the things that go against the Kingdom of God.
“There is no limit to what the Kingdom of God does, and so the moment we start praying Thy Kingdom Come we look outwards.
“The Kingdom of God when we pray for the Kingdom to come, the Kingdom will transform individuals, the Kingdom transforms society, the Kingdom transforms the globe and the Kingdom transforms the cosmos.”
A Prayer for the Feast Day of the Conversion of Saint Paul
O God, who by the preaching of thine apostle Paul hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
On the #FeastDay of the Conversion of Saint Paul, here it’s depicted in Holy Comforter, @WashArchdiocese: https://t.co/xSc2gepdNk
— Fr James Bradley (@FrJamesBradley) January 25, 2017
Posted in Church History, Spirituality/Prayer
A Prayer from Eastern Church Vespers at the start of the Day
In the evening and morning and noonday we praise Thee, we thank Thee, and pray Thee, Master of all, to direct our prayers as incense before Thee. Let not our hearts turn away to words or thoughts of wickedness, but keep us from all things that might hurt us; for to Thee, O Lord, our eyes look up, and our hope is in Thee: confound us not, O our God; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—-James Manning,ed., Prayers of the Early Church (Nashville: The Upper Room, 1953)
Posted in Spirituality/Prayer
From the Morning Scripture Readings
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
–Psalm 50:14-15
Posted in Theology: Scripture