[Peter Kennedy] doesn’t believe in the priesthood anymore, nor the virgin birth, nor the infallibility of the Pope. In fact, he doubts that Jesus ever existed and although he is the spiritual leader of a 500-strong Christian community, he says he no longer prays because there’s “no one to pray to.”
“We have made God in our own image. I can’t believe in a God that grants some people miracles but punishes others, but I do think there is something more, but what it is, I have no idea.”
The controversial and charismatic ex-priest, who made headlines last year when he refused to leave St Mary’s as instructed by his Bishop, will preach tomorrow at All Saints’ Anglican Church in Simpson Street, North Rockhampton.
Last night he launched his book ”“ Peter Kennedy. The Man Who Threatened Rome ”“ at the same venue, as part of a nationwide promotional tour which will include Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne later this month.
One of the joys of belonging to the Church is being free from the shifting sands of individual belief. Of course each of us has to affirm the faith for himself, and to do our best to live it with integrity. But at the same time we believe with the whole Church. It always sounds so courageous and so impressive to teach ‘only what I truly believe’ but actually, far from being generous, it amounts to a form of self-absorption. What do I ‘truly believe’ is ‘authentic’ today, last week, next month? Do I teach one thing one month and then say six months later, no I have been having a rethink about X or Y? An existentialist emphasis on what seems after much pondering true to us, significant to us, authentic etc etc makes everything revolve around our personality. No, thank God, while each of us accepts Christ, we accept, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, a fullness of Christian teaching and preaching which does not depend on us but is a bedrock given to us and on which we and others can build.
How did ECUSA let this guy get away? They’re going to have to recruit harder.
Well he seems to be moving towards a church that is more in line with his thinking. My only question is why did it take so long for the Roman bishop to sack this guy? His off the wall beliefs were well known for years. I think the scandal is not that this guy is an apostate. It is that his bishop refused for years to act against him until some people got fed up and went over his head by writing to the Vatican.
In ICXC
John
I’m morbidly curious what this guy would exactly preach on. He doesn’t appear to believe in anything other than he should be in church on Sunday morning but for what reason he couldn’t say.
Being morally superior to God and having more social justice sense than the Church…Mr. Kennedy is not the first or last to fall into that abyss.
“…he is the spiritual leader of a 500-strong Christian community.” The term Christian has to be understood very loosely. The guy is as arrogant as Spong. Writing a book entitled, “The Man Who Threatened Rome”??? The RCC has > 1 billion members. To put it mathematically: 1,000,000,000 >> 500. I doubt that Pope Benedict is too concerned.
I went to a public philosophy lecture at a RC liberal arts college some months ago, and the non-believing guest speaker was very proud to tell me after his lecture that he had recently been invited to preach at an Episcopal church. What’s the deal when non-believers feel all warm and comfy when they get to do something in church? I can only hope that God is still tugging at their hearts.
In any case, I hold that preaching should be a proclamation of the Gospel. The Creed (the rubrics specify this is said on Sunday) covers any heresy certainly, but the incumbent shouldn’t intentionally arrange to have nonsense spoken at the sermon.
As for people like Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Spong, I have no patience at all. These are people who trade on their former status as ordained ministers. St. Thomas said in a different context, “No one ought to sell something that doesn’t belong to him,” but it applies here as well.
Ho, hum. Private opinions paraded as gozpel and truthiness, ….again. I suspect, #2, that the reason has to do with “orientation” or “inclination” issues, mere heresy is not sufficient. There needs to be another angle of supreme importance, not simple heresy.
Whenever I read liberal screeds bashing orthodox Christianity I rarely finish the book because they are essentially only one word throughout: “I,I,I,I,I,I,I,I,I,I,I,I,I.” Their idol worship of their egos frequently surpasses that given to the Golden Calf in the OT. Of course, that is frequently behind their publications–the quest for the gold aided by exploiting their clerical past.
Mr Kennedy’s itinerary may include Sydney, but he won’t be invited to speak at any Anglican *churches* in Sydney!
“The Man who Threatened Rome” – I think I can see what the “something else” he believes in might be.
I do not understand how anyone with a conscience could a) not believe and b) stay in the church as a priest/preacher. Or is that he is a convert to a new “faith” and must stay and destroy the Christian faith of as many as possible?
#1. Terry Tee,
[blockquote]No, thank God, while each of us accepts Christ, we accept, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, a fullness of Christian teaching and preaching which does not depend on us but is a bedrock given to us and on which we and others can build.[/blockquote] As I was recently reminded following my canonical exams, “You are not speaking on your own behalf. You are speaking for the church.”
Dcn Dale,
Right! All clergy ordained since 1976 have promised to be loyal to the “doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has receivedthem. We promised not to innovate in the faith! The problem is that we have too many clergy who think it is their job to come up with something “new.” Our job is to proclaim what has always been proclaimed and to pass on what the Church has received.
Bad ecclesiology stems directly from bad Christology. If the Church is the Body of Christ, then our task is not to change the Church, but to conform to her – to be changed by her and to teach what She teaches. In TEC, the bishop hands a new deacon a Holy Bible. In Roman, the new deacon is handed a Book of the Gospels with these words: “Receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whose hearld you now are. Read what you have received. Believe what you read. Teach what you believe. Live what you teach.”
We need to recover what the Church has recevied.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder