“The Church is not something made by men. It is the instrument of the living God for the setting-forward of His reign on earth . . . This is an hour of testing and peril for the Church, no less than for the world. But it is the hour of God’s call to the Church . . . For those who have eyes to see, there are signs that the tide of faith is beginning to come in.”
—Said about what gathering of what Christian group when–guess first and then please read it all.
Canon Harmon, a previous Lambeth Conference, perhaps? I should hope others would remind every single one of the attendees of the 2008 confab of this important missive. Many, upon hearing of same, would stand shamed and convicted of ecclesial malfeasance. Sadly, more would likely ignore it and go their own ways.
Thanks for posting this. Now on to the answer…
Here is what struck me: “This solid body of coherent theological doctrine….” What a delightful phrase, and so unlike today’s current triumph of anecdotalism. Where and when this coherence is found today, it is extraordinary for its rarity and its courage.
It seems to me, as I read and listen to much contemporary “theology,” that the issue of sexuality, like other ideologies in recent generations, is the fruit of a secularized mentality. Somehow, the “free exercise” of one’s “natural condition” will lead to the much-spoken of “dignity of every human being.” Instead, this dimension of our being is excused from the requirement that we “take up our cross” and follow Jesus. Like all secular panaceas, though, it leads only to the basing of all “truth” on the mere exercise of human power, whim, and the other tools resulting from our fixation with death.
As in the past, the wealthiest and most comfort-drive portions of the Church are the least likely to understand this. But, “Wisdom is justified by all her children,” and like Communism’s gradually-revealed fate, so must the fate of Secular Sexualism be gradually revealed. “Every tree is known by its own fruit,” we are told by Our Lord. It just takes time for that fruit — whether it be pomegranates or crabapples — to ripen. The knowing observer, though, can often tell what the end product will be fairly early on.
In Christ,
Hursley
Non clamor sed amor psallit in aure Dei
Sometime after Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold? I’m guessing that was mid nineteenth century. So what about – the first Lambeth Conference?
I guessed too far by millennia – the Nicean Council! But how far and darkly and shamefully we have fallen in only 60 years!
If readers’ hearts lift when they read about Lambeth 1948 (or Lambeth 1958), when so much was accomplished by great leaders, they might enjoy this new biography, which I shamelessly mention here:
http://wipfandstock.com/store/Geoffrey_Fisher_Archbishop_of_Canterbury_19451961/
My immediate thought from that singular quote was “Lambeth 1938….but there wasn’t one in ’38 was there.” The context of the rest of the piece makes it clear. It is also a rather stark contrast.
‘This analysis permitted Lambeth to go beyond the Vatican’s flat anti-Communist stand and concede that “in many lands there are Communists who are practicing Christians,” i.e., who believe in Marxist economic interpretation but repudiate Marxist atheism. When a Soviet correspondent asked the Archbishop of Canterbury for examples of such “Christian Communists,” he was silenced by Canterbury’s reply: “The members of the Russian Orthodox Church in your own country.”‘
Must be an old habit for ‘progressive’ Anglicans, that, clambering onto bandwagons taking the wrong turning in history and faith.