There is every possible reason for optimism about the future of Christian faith in our world and in this country. Optimism does not come from us, but because to us and to all people Jesus comes and says “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid”. We are called to step out of the comfort of our own traditions and places, and go into the waves, reaching for the hand of Christ. Let us provoke each other to heed the call of Christ, to be clear in our declaration of Christ, committed in prayer to Christ, and we will see a world transformed.
[blockquote]The more the Church is authentically heeding Jesus’ call, leaving its securities, speaking and acting clearly and taking risks, the more the Church suffers. Thomas Cranmer faced death with Christ-given courage, leaving a legacy of worship, of holding to the truth of the gospel, on which we still draw. I look at the Anglican leaders here and remember that in many cases round the world their people are scattered to the four winds or driven underground: by persecution, by storms of all sorts, even by cultural change….[/blockquote]
I write as a defrocked priest (of 37 years) with a defrocked bishop and archbishop (in the eyes of Anglican officialdom) who was intentionally uninvited to the Enthronement. Meanwhile the new Archbishop processes in full regalia with a false leader who has labeled us terrorists and sued our churches and dispossessed many of their properties. My brothers and sisters have taken risks and put securities aside in following Christ. And we have suffered, if not mortally, nevertheless a kind of Anglican dhimmitude. Has Archbishop Welby even once mentioned the existence of the GAFCON movement and the ACNA – or now South Carolina? If so, I have missed it.
Thomas Cranmer was courageous on the day of his death because he repented that he had been compelled by the terror of the Royal Establishment to deny his conscience. He redeemed his theological and spiritual legacy in his last act. It would be my hope that Justyn Welby would recall his foundation in Christ and the Gospel and the obligation of a bishop to defend the biblical faith and that he would step out into the waves roiled by the powers secular and spiritual in Britain. So far that is a hope unrealized.
#1 Yes, Dr Noll. I am truly sorry and ashamed. No room at the inn, apparently,
I agree with Dr Noll and Pageantmaster. How can Archbishop Welby say his mission is reconciliation if he fails to recognize and invite one of the parties he would like to reconcile with the other (not that we, as faithful Christians, can deny our faith by countenancing the unBiblical worldview of the secular revisionists)?
The Archbishop speaks as if there is some alternative to traditioned discourse. There is no neutral watery vantage point from which to engage culture. The question is not hidebound tradition vs the freedom of the foamy crested waves; the question is “which traditions”.
#4 On the crest of the wave, there is …. froth.
I liked the sermon, but the question I had after hearing it was whether he will have any fear about recognizing the ACNA and being more honouring of the global south primates. Will he take any risks to be in relationship with the global south Anglicans? Or will fear and reluctance to take risk keep tearing the communion apart, even as it is now little more than one in name. If one talks reconciliation but practices exclusion, one is doomed to failure, and rightly so.
I completely agree with you, Dr Noll. You may have been “defrocked” along with about 400+ other faithful clergy, but you’re still a priest of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, no matter what Schori says. Now, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I am absolutely [b]insulted[/b] by Canterbury’s attitude towards Anglican Christians who are not part of the Communion, and by this, I mean the [b]Anglican Church in North America[/b] in particular…..a growing and vital force in Christianity. If this Archbishop is smart, he’ll listen to and heed what we and the Global South primates have to say, because if he doesn’t, I’m afraid he’ll find himself the head of a very much smaller Communion in the not-too-distant future. Sorry, but I had to “sound off.” It’s about time that somebody did, but will anyone listen? So far, we’ve been batting zero, but maybe this time will be different.
I agree with the points above, but at a deeper level I am quite shocked that this sermon contains nothing about the necessity and power of Jesus’ saving work.
Christ came to save us from our sin, and without that salvation we stood justly condemned to eternal death by a holy God. If anyone was going to preach this around the world, it should have been a supposedly “evangelical” archbishop.
The touchstone of whether a leader is orthodox or liberal comes down to the atonement – it is central to the teachings of the Bible, but liberals cannot handle it. I hope that ++Welby can show that he is able to handle it, at some point in future.
It had its strengths as a sermon – but a few bars of In Christ Alone or such is not something to swoon over. We certainly need a prayerful evangelist in the CofE – oh how we and the country need that, but the prevaricating signals coming out of Archbishop Welby are strange and unsettling and will bust things apart if they continue. Let’s hope his shine doesn’t turn out to have been fools gold. The job of the ambassador is to bring the message his King wrote down for him to proclaim, not to make up his own mind what he is going to say on the subject or to rewrite it.
Inviting the North American wolves into the cathedral was profane; I suppose they are back to the States to savage the sheep.