of the tightrope and he is still trying to dance. Here
‘What is Lambeth ’08 going to say?’ is the question looming larger all the time as this final week unfolds. But before trying out any thoughts on that, I want to touch on the prior question, a question that could be expressed as ‘Where is Lambeth ’08 going to speak from?’. I believe if we can answer that adequately, we shall have laid some firm foundations for whatever content there will be.
And the answer, I hope, is that we speak from the centre. I don’t mean speaking from the middle point between two extremes — that just creates another sort of political alignment. I mean that we should try to speak from the heart of our identity as Anglicans; and ultimately from that deepest centre which is our awareness of living in and as the Body of Christ.
I fail to see any “centre” position. Bishops either take their vows seriously and stand for orthodoxy or continue in their misguided arrogance and belief that the truth of Scripture is subject to their approval. The sad, might I say tragic, fact is that persons like Michael Ingham and our current Primate as well as other apostates will simply carry on with their agenda with no regard for the authority of Scripture or the unity of the Anglican Communion. That unity is already so damaged that I see no way, humanly speaking, for it to be contained. Apostasy and orthodoxy cannot live in the same house and it is time for the ABC to recognize this. We cease to be a church of God if we bow down to “political correctness” or pluralism.
1 Frank,
Yes, I think you’re right. The ABC wants us to view the ‘centre’ as the ‘heart of our identity as Anglicans’. The trouble is, what is the heart of our identity? If it isn’t biblical orthodoxy – and in the west, I fear it isn’t – why should we listen. And as for moving closer to one another, for us that means moving closer to Michael Ingham!
What is also interesting is that he concentrates so much on what each side is feeling – and does it quite well. The trouble is, truth is the important ingredient here, not feelings. Rowan has embraced one of the superstitions of our age: it’s all about how you feel.
In order to move to the “centre” one must suspend one’s critical faculties and further embrace a twisted approach to reading scripture that denies the plain reading and substitutes the code of the new sinless gospel.
And why? So that the church can look more like its decadent host societies? We’re called to the Kingdom, not to King and James.
Peace,
Jim
From the middle of the road. As the American politician Jim Hightower once said, the only thing you find in the middle of the road is dead arrmadillos.
[4] Toral
…and skunks.
#5 – Depending on what part of the continent you are on. We saw alligator road kill on our trip.
[6] Kate
I’m more allegorical that biological. I prefer the skunk analogy: they eat garbage and spew noxious spray at the slightest provocation. (LOL)
Peace,
Jim
Unfortunately, there are no skunks in England (outside zoos)…
