Archbishop Williams’ sermon, delivered with energy and passion, was drawn from Acts 4:23-37; 1 John 3:1-8 and St John 10:1-16. He focused on the statement that “there was not a needy person among them”. He nicely focused on the charge to the church to address human needs, which encompass needs far beyond “bread alone”. But finally all those needs were to be met as “The Holy Spirit comes in as our actions are caught up in the action of God in Jesus Christ. To give ourselves means letting go of what makes us feel safe”. Again there was a focus on the horizontal element of the challenge to us which seemed to fail to draw on the excellent material in John 10 on the role of the shepherd who is also the gate through whom the sheep go in and out and find pasture and life. This theme was suggested in a well known Caribbean hymn in the service: “I for Jesus, you for Jesus, all for Jesus/ fall for Jesus, come to Jesus/ Jesus come for one, he come for all” and in a haunting song “Jesus set me for all eternity/ when his wounded hands touched me”. An African participant remarked that had a member of their church been preaching, there would have been an emphasis on the challenge to commit our lives to Christ followed by an altar call. After all, 10,000 people had come to hear the preacher, whose sermon was live on television also.
The service “set” was magnificent and specially lit – a large cross framed by stained glass windows fronted by two classical columns and a profusion of wonderful flowers. It is only to be hoped that some of it can be brought to the conference meeting room in the hotel which completely lacks any imagination, being just a dais against a grey backdrop of partition walls under reduced lighting. Grey about sums it up for Saturday evening’s opening meeting – a series of greetings, introductions and information. No wonder the Presiding Bishop of the United States concentrated on her embroidery. The highlight was however a fascinating video of the life of the Diocese of Jamaica.
Embroidery? Are they sure that it wasn’t knitting?
The words to that special “hymn” for the ACC meeting are just awful. And if the tune was indeed Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” the meter of the words (7-6-7-6) and the tune (8-7-8-7) don’t match. It must have been like fingernails on a blackboard. Maybe they had a good organ to drown out the words? One can hope. But I fear that hymn is all too symbolic of the discord and empty words so evident in the Anglican Communion these days. Like these forced words, we are trying to force artificial solutions to the crisis we are in, when nothing short of miracle, beginning with genuine repentance, will do.
Thank you, Karen B. I also tried singing those words to “Ode to Joy.” It doesn’t work.
And only genuine repentance and shared faith will solve our crisis.
I’m glad Dr. Chris Sugden is reporting on this major Anglican summit. At least it appears that the press and other observers aren’t being shut out, as back at Lambeth last summer.
A crowd of 10,000 joyful worshippers, a nationally televised service, with the “Governor-General,” the Attorney General, and the former prime minister of Jamaica all in attendance: it sounds like a grand and festive celebration indeed. And given the lush exuberance and passion of Caribbean music, it seems appropriate that this gathering of the ACC was marked by choirs and soloists singing the praises of God to a calypso beat. Too bad, however, that the commissioned hymn written for the occasion was an exercise in politically correct liberal nonsense. The desperate attempt by the Old Guard from the Global North (Secretary General Kearon+ and his cronies in the AC Office) to dictate the agenda of this international assembly can’t and won’t ultimately work, because the real life of the AC now clearly lies in the Global South, as represented by the thousands of enthusiastic Jamaican worshippers. Thanks be to God.
I think this huge opening service for ACC 14 illustrates what +Bob Duncan the Lion-Hearted last summer on the eve of GAFCON called the momentous shift from an old, obsolete “Reformation Settlement” (that’s thoroughly English and Erastian or Constantinian and Christendom-based) to a “Global, Post-Colonial Settlement.” The management of this big international Anglican event by the Western, largely British managers in the ACO is a clear vestige of the colonialism that used to mark Anglicanism, but is rapidly fading. As far as I’m concerned, it needs to fade away completeely, and the faster the better.
Please keep posting Dr. Sugden’s coverage of the ACC meeting, Kendall. Many of us will be following it.
David Handy+
Lent & Beyond has many prayers for the ACC. Karen has posted “Thine be the Glory,” a good antidote to the commissioned hymn.
http://anglicanprayer.wordpress.com/
This was Good Shepherd Sunday for us (May 3rd). [blockquote]Again there was a focus on the horizontal element of the challenge to us which seemed to fail to draw on the excellent material in John 10 on the role of the shepherd who is also the gate through whom the sheep go in and out and find pasture and life[/blockquote] The title of my homily was “The Good Shepherd”. The first line of our dismissal hymn: “The king of love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never; I nothing lack if I am his, and he is mine for ever.” The alternate reading for Acts was from Ezekiel where God say that He will be the shepherd of His people and condemns the prophets, priests and kings. Our Psalm was the 23rd Psalm. It seems like the readings would be more oriented to the vertical than the horizontal at least in our service.
[blockquote]An African participant remarked that had a member of their church been preaching, there would have been an emphasis on the challenge to commit our lives to Christ followed by an altar call. After all, 10,000 people had come to hear the preacher, whose sermon was live on television also.[/blockquote]
And that is a very telling comment on the state of affairs between West and South in the AC