Half an hour later the air was clearing and the police began evacuating people on buses. The Trinity group were driven slowly up East River Drive, on Manhattan’s eastern edge, and down 32nd Street to the junction with Fifth Avenue. From there, Rowan walked to his hotel and was able to contact his secretary by phone and to leave a message for [his wife] Jane that he was all right. Over lunch and a bottle of wine, the Archbishop and Burnham began to shed tears. Burnham set off for home towards the end of the afternoon, leaving Rowan to work on a brief article for that week’s Church Times. “I’m obviously very glad to be alive,” he wrote, “but also feel deeply uncomfortable, and my mind shies away from the slaughter.”
The following day he managed to reach St John the Divine Cathedral, where he was due to give a lecture, with time to spare. He was immediately asked to celebrate an unscheduled Eucharist at the high altar and agreed to do so. Burnham was inspired.
“When [Rowan] got to the rubric for the homily he was totally surprised; he hadn’t expected to preach, so he preached off the cuff. He went back to an encounter that he had with an airline pilot on the streets at 7am that morning. The pilot said to him, “Where the hell was God?” Rowan’s answer was that God is useless at times like this. Now that’s pretty shocking, but actually what he then went on to unpack is that God didn’t cause this and God [was not] going to stop it, because God has granted us free will, and therefore God has to suffer the consequences of this like we do. So in a sense he exonerated God…”
“Rowan’s answer was that God is useless at times like this.”
What Rowan didn’t include in his explanation was “the Church”. God does leave us to govern this earth but God is still present and He cares. He also expects His Church (the individuals which constitute it) to take their responsibility in loving their neighbor both to stand in the way of evil and to give aid to the hurting. We are also to pray that God would keep us from the Evil One (and evil).
To better the Archbishop in fact: God is present to aid and protect. Anglicans have always believed and acted upon that basis. These facts is contained in their worship. God did not fail though we might well have failed.
Don
[i] God didn’t cause this and God [was not] going to stop it, because God has granted us free will, and therefore God has to suffer the consequences of this like we do.[/i]
Was the lack of the personal pronoun “He” (in reference to God) actually in Rowan’s speech or was it only in the reporters interpretation?
Peace
Jim Ellliott <>< Florida
Isaiah 30:25-27
25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
27 See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
and his tongue is a consuming fire.
sorry to disagree with the big guy. “Where sin abounds, grace abounds that much more.” If God was absent, then there would be no grace and we know that Grace beats sin and Death.
This would be akin to saying that God was absent the day that Jesus died on the cross. Were that the case, we would have no victory to celebrate.
From the article:
I don’t know if Williams said that or not, but one thing I am certain of is that God is never useless at any time. Saying that God is useless at times like this is a very human and arrogant way of thinking.
I really hate to defend the ABC, but he had this part right. God did not cause this disaster. Man did. And The ABC is surely right about our free will. If it were not free, then our acts could never be justly brought to judgment. Asking where the hell God was at that time is human enough, but essentially meaningless. God was there as He must necessarily be. Think how silly it would be to demand of God (Job fashion) where He was on Dec. 7th in ’41? And the Book of JOB answers the pilots’ demand. Will you call God to the bar and demand of Him his justification? Just don’t call on me to co-sign your brief.
Larry