Focus of Unity

There has been a certain amount of speculation in recent times about advice given to the Crown Nominations Commission concerning human sexuality and the question of same-sex relationships. The issue has become acute for several reasons. Firstly, Anglican churches in many parts of the global-south have made same-sex relationships a 'red line' of orthodoxy over which they will not compromise. This puts pressure of the Church of England not to pick men or women as bishops who either live in a same-sex relationship, or who support such relationships. Secondly, the Church of England is in the process of going through a series of facilitated conversations on this subject. A group of the Salisbury Diocese are at this very moment engaging in such conversations. There is pressure on the Crown Nominations Commission not to choose a candidate who is not thoroughly orthodox as it might rock a very unstable boat. Thirdly, it is reported that the Dean of St.Alban's, Jeffrey John, was one of the candidates for several recent diocesan vacancies, but failed to be selected as diocesan bishop. He abides by all the rules and restrictions imposed on him, but still he is not selected to be a diocesan bishop. The argument goes that he could never be a focus of unity for a diocese, because he so obviously represents one side of a deeply divisive division, which somehow has come to be seen as the litmus test of Christian Orthodoxy.

We should all despair that one particular ethical question should have become the hallmark of faithful Christian witness. Or perhaps it is not so much this issue, but rather the way in which we interpret and discern the will of God as expressed in Holy Scripture. But is our interpretation of scripture really what defines a Christian? Surely what should define us is that we have somehow been touched by God, through the life of Jesus Christ, and have found ourselves drawn to that Divine presence in response. What unites us should be the common experience of being drawn into the fellowship of a pilgrim people, who find ourselves placed in one another's company as a result. We have much to talk about, as we seek to interpret scripture on our shared road. What defines us is not whether we yet agree on everything, but that we find ourselves as people who have had the same transcendent experience of the risen Christ in our midst. Like those who discover a life-long sense of comradeship through sharing in the battlefield together, we find in one another just such a comradeship as people who recognize in one another a shared experience of healing and transformation through the person of Jesus Christ.

It is for such a diverse and motley group of people, who walk together, yet so often strongly disagree on the finer points of scriptural interpretation, that bishops are called out to act as a focus of unity. The current arguments over human sexuality, with the need not to have as bishops those whose views might somehow rock the boat, highlight a deep misunderstanding over what being a focus of unity might mean. We seem to have gone down the path of suggesting that, to be a focus of unity, bishops must act and speak in such a way that everyone agrees with them. If disagreement among the pilgrims is deep enough (such as in the question of the ordination of women to the episcopate) then the accepted solution seems to be to have bishops taken from both sides so that at least everyone has a bishop who agrees with their views. But suppose that being a focus of unity does not involve agreement. Suppose I neither like or agree with my bishop in any way. Can I not still accept the charism and gift of her ministry as being something that God has given as a means of holding me of a shared path with my fellow pilgrims? The bishop's task then becomes one of enfolding me in the love of God so that I can keep going on the road. Remaining with these pilgrims ceases to be a personal judgement as to whether I consider my bishop to be in agreement with me. Indeed we might profoundly disagree. Yet in accepting her ministry, as a God-given gift to me, I find my place as a pilgrim and I find myself in the company of people whose shared exuberance of response to God is one within which together we dare to disagree, to debate and to search for that clearer vision of the truth that will only finally be revealed in the world that is to come.

My conclusion is that someone who abides by the teaching of the church in his personal life, but seeks to present a different point of view, can still exercise the charism of being a focus of unity. Accepting such a ministry is accepting God's gift to be part of the Church he is building. The alternative, that we will only walk in the company of a bishop we agree with, is a sign of a broken church which has lost sight of its calling and, in the place of Christ, has elevated our own choices of orthodoxy to be what defines our separate journeys.

This Holy Estate

The publication of a report by the Anglican Church of Canada - This Holy Estate - is a welcome piece of work in helping that church to come to terms with the fact of same-sex marriage in their society. It is a rigorous piece of work, which seeks to demonstrate how it is theologically possible to extend the marriage canon to include same-sex couples, without thereby diminishing, damaging, or curtailing the rich theological implications of marriage as traditionally understood. It manages to show how, using the bible, the acceptance of same-sex marriage is a valid way of expressing a faithful Christian response to the widespread acceptance of same-sex couples in our society. Yet the report is cautious. It continues: To say that it is theologically possible to make this change is not to say that the change is theologically desirable. We have attempted to show how it might be done—not why or even whether it should be done. Indeed, the point of the report is to engender and resource ongoing debate, but any change will have to be made by the General Synod of that church. The report includes a draft resolution, for eventual debate by their Synod, which would do three things. Firstly, it would change such a phrase as 'husband and wife' to 'partners', thus removing any indicator of gender from the Canon. Secondly, it provides parishes, or indeed whole dioceses, the right to opt out and prohibit the solemnization of same-sex marriages. Thirdly, if no such prohibition is enacted, then it gives the right to individual clergy to refuse to conduct such marriages, as a matter of conscience, although that does not remove the right of the couple to marry in their local church, using a different minister of their choice. 

Whether any of this will work in practice will be a matter of the Church of Canada to decide. However it does provide us with an example of a worked through theology of why same-sex marriage can be a valid interpretation of scripture and, at the same time, how a church might allow such marriages in church, whilst providing a very high degree of protection for those who feel that such a change is wrong. 

No doubt this document will fuel the ongoing dissent within the Anglican Communion which threatens to dissolve our Communion. The move by Archbishop Justin, to invite all the Archbishops of the Anglican Communion to meet at Lambeth in January 2016, must be considered to be a good thing. The Archbishop has not done this without first personally visiting each of his fellow Archbishops for face to face conversation and prayer. One would hope that the leaders of the many different provinces of our Communion would be prepared to come together in prayer and openness to the Spirit to talk through the issues which are causing such division, but sadly it is not as simple as that. Those who hold to a particular view of scripture believe that any expression of sexuality, other than that between a man and a woman in marriage, is intrinsically sinful. For them, the only response to same-sex relationships must be that of repentance. Sadly this seems to lead them to the conclusion that they cannot sit down to discuss these things with anyone, unless it is first agreed that their own views are the only biblical and valid ones - that they are right and everyone else is wrong. Starting with such closed minds, they cannot share in the debate, but rather gather themselves into a fortress that they call 'orthodox Christianity'.  For many of us, such views seem more a legacy of the Pharisees of New Testament times than a response that might be expected in followers of Jesus. Faithfulness to a particular interpretation of certain texts  becomes a measure of true faith for them. By contrast, my faith rests not in interpreting the Bible in an acceptable way, but rather in a life that is rooted in the daily study of the scriptures. In such living I find myself indwelt by the Spirit of the risen Christ and empowered to reach out in mission and ministry to a broken world. It is that which defines me, not how I interpret a few selected texts that some might use to condemn gay people. And so much of scripture inspires me to reach out and include others in the sacrificial embrace of Christ, whose love will surely transform their lives in the same way as it certainly has transformed my own. I seek to be the herald of a Kingdom that has already dawned in my life, rather than a judge who lays down the law of who might be invited in. It is my prayer that our Archbishops from around the world, who ought to know better, can put down their fortifications and find a shared joy in knowing Jesus as Lord. It is from such shared communion as this that we will find the courage to listen to one another and find treasure as we break open scripture and share our different interpretations of the sacred text.

The Prayer of Intercession

One of the most important things that Christians can do is to pray. To pray is to enter into the language of love between ourselves and God. It is God who puts his Spirit into our hearts whereby we can call him ‘Father’. So prayer starts with what God is doing in our lives and it needs to start with an openness to God’s Spirit. Silence, stillness and a quiet openness to the voice of God is essential to prayer. This may lead to Confession. Pope Francis has said that we must bless the past by Contrition, Forgiveness and Atonement. To have contrition is to have a sense of sorrow at what has damaged our relationships with God, with our neighbour and with creation. Forgiveness is as much about forgiving those who have hurt us as learning to forgive ourselves for what we have done. Atonement is a matter of being committed to doing something about what has been, in the way we live our lives today. Confession is also about opening our lives to the forgiving love of God. To know we are loved and forgiven, despite our sins, leads us on to Thanksgiving. It is no accident that the central act of worship for Christians is the Thanksgiving. The Greek word we use here is Eucharist. The central action of the Communion Service is one of thanksgiving for all God’s goodness to us. God reaches out to be where we are so as to transform our lives. Our response is one of thanksgiving.

Somewhere in all this prayer we also find Intercession. To intercede is to pray for others. To intercede is to join our prayers with those of Christ, who ascended into heaven and who prays for a broken world, that it might be healed. When we come to the Intercessions in our shared worship, we are not at that moment confessing or giving thanks, but holding the cares of the world in our hearts in prayer. The Bishop of Chelmsford is fond of telling people to stop praying for others, unless we are prepared to accept that we ourselves might be part of the answer to that prayer. Praying for a particular situation or person needs to challenge us to ask whether we might not be able to contribute to how that prayer might be answered. So praying for others needs to be a dynamic engagement in the world in such a way that we become part of God’s saving plan.

The Intercessions (also called ‘The Prayers of the People’) is a time for such dynamic reaching out to others. The president stands for this prayer, for she or he is presiding over a congregation in prayer. The person speaking should not be the one praying, but rather fulfilling the roll of the prompter in a play. The words they use are to prompt the praying community, for they are the ‘actors’ in this moment. The audience is God. So to lead prayers in this way is an important ministry. Having a number of people in the congregation who can lead us in such prayer brings great enrichment to our shared worship. Yet getting the dynamic right, that what is required here is to evoke the intercessions of the whole congregation, will mean taking care in the words used. The prayers are addressed to God as Father. Too many words will simply lead to spiritual indigestion in the congregation. It is not necessary to pray for everything every week. This is a process of reaching out to touch a broken world, so the prayers are for others, rather than for ourselves. Giving times of silence will be useful. Themes can be suggested and then the congregation can be allowed time to use their own imagination, rather than have the intercessor analyse a situation down to the smallest detail and then tell God what the answer is. The intercessions should not be too long, but they ought to engage in some of the concerns of the moment.

I have no doubt that such prayer is effective, providing as it does the background hum of conversation of a people being drawn ever deeper into the life and ministry of God. So thank you to all who lead our prayers in church and thank you for the great unseen ministry of prayer that so many of you engage in, day by day, which underpins all that we try to do here in God’s name.

Transfiguration

It may take only a small thing for the sun to shine through: a smile across a room, a hand on the shoulder when you are feeling sad, a thoughtful card when life is low. Or perhaps that annoying neighbour suddenly does something, or says something, which reveals that they are human after all, as vulnerable as you are. Moments of recognition can be life changing. For some, a new world can be born, as suddenly a whole new perspective is revealed. Sometimes such a radical change is referred to as a Copernican revolution, after Copernicus who realised that the sun does not travel around the earth, but the earth around the sun. One such a revolution came as Albert Einstein suddenly saw that e=mc². Did he work that out? Well he certainly did not invent it. It is simply how the world is. One person claims that Einstein had the capacity to imagine that he was a ray of light and he just perceived the physics of how such a light-beam would behave. There may be many moments in our lives when light breaks through and our world is thereby changed. For many, falling in love is like that. Also for many, becoming a Christian is like that too. There are those who, having had no Christian background, suddenly discover Christ, like Saul did on the road to Damascus. Others grow into the faith from childhood onwards. Even so, a change of gear is needed at some point. What is taught us as a child, that there is a God out there, needs to be internalised. An inner connection needs to be made. We need to see for ourselves that we are loved by God and that Christ gave his life for us. The Christian story suddenly shifts from belief to experience. We move from knowing about God to knowing God and life is profoundly changed.

The 6^th August is that strange feast day when we remember the transfiguration of Jesus on a mountain. He goes up the mountain, with a handful of his closest disciples, as was his regular practice. Suddenly they see him in a different light. He is still their friend Jesus, but they see in him the very face of God. The experience is described in terms of the brightest light – the light dawns on them. The whole point of Jesus’ ministry is fulfilled in that moment. He must still go to the cross, and rise from the dead, but those three disciples suddenly see the truth that God himself is here in their midst.

At this moment in time a lot is being discussed about the future leadership of the Church of England. Suggestions have been made that potential leaders should be called out early in their ministry and trained, even to the extent of doing a min-MBA course. On one level, this is to be welcomed. We need to take leadership seriously and equip our future leaders for the ministry they will need to exercise. We need a more focussed and strategic approach to leadership and a planned approach to church growth. Yet I am left with a nagging question. Has this person seen the face of God in Christ? And does this person reveal something of the face of Christ in the way that he or she lives out their life? We need to order the life of our church in a business-like way, but is what forms us into a body of Christians the shared experience of transfiguration? Such transfiguration starts with the glory that is revealed in Christ. Can we see it? Does seeing it transform our lives? But transfiguration must also be a quality of our church life together. In experiencing the life of our church community, others ought to be able to discover something of the light of Christ in our midst. Well managed churches are important, but they count for little unless there is something in our shared life together that helps others to ‘see it’. How we live as Christians, and how we allow the risen Christ to shape our Christian community, is the very key to what it means to be Christ for a broken world. That must challenge us all. As we consider how we might reach out to the wider community, the starting point needs to be the quality of our relationships with one another. That is something for which each of us must take responsibility. Then our outreach will start to engage whenever we have a friendly smile, a word of comfort for the distressed or the gift of time for another, as we listen to their story without judgement. We are the disciples Jesus has called to witness his glory and we must let that change us so that others too might see that glory.

Trinity

One of the questions one might find in a quiz is 'where and when was the first atomic bomb detonated?' It is so ingrained on my mind that the Hiroshima bomb was dropped on the Feast of the Transfiguration, that I can easily remember that date - 6th August 1945. Some believe that the atomic age started that day, but there are others who seem to have forgotten what happened. I was once involved in a discussion with someone who had been an officer on a Polaris submarine. He spoke passionately about the value of a nuclear deterrent. It is telling, he said, that no nuclear weapons have ever been deployed in warfare. My reply was to ask him whether he thought that the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would agree with him, that no nuclear weapons had ever been deployed in war. In fact, if we want to mark the start of the atomic age, the date is 5.30am on 16th July 1945. It was at that time and on that date that the first atomic bomb was detonated at Alamogordo in New Mexico, USA. The name given to the test was 'Trinity'. This July we commemorate the seventieth anniversary of that event. Why was the name 'Trinity' chosen as the code name for this event? It is said that Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, chose the name because of a poem by John Donne, the poet who was also a Member of Parliament and Dean of St.Paul's in the first half of the Seventeenth Century. On witnessing the blast, Oppenheimer later said that a verse from the Hindu scriptures came to his mind: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the mighty one." It is interesting that the unlocking of such mighty power, power inherent in the very matter of creation, should evoke religious language. Humankind had always sought to unlock the meaning of life and here, in the splitting of the atom, the very forces of creation had been unleashed. Yet we are faced with a moral choice here. The possession of such power opens the way to the seemingly unlimited supply of clean energy through fusion reactions, as well as such medical treatments as radiotherapy. It is the radioactive decay of plutonium which is powering the New Horizons spacecraft, which is due to flay past Pluto on 14th July. But at the same time it was nuclear fission, in the form of bombs, which incinerated much of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed so many people seventy years ago. Since that time the nuclear arms race has eaten up so much of our resources and our present world suddenly seems all the more unstable, with much nuclear material now on  the back market and so many people seeking to develop their own bombs. We face the choice of continuing to be driven by our own games of power and domination or of rediscovering the Divine at the heart of creation and being transformed by that power. The true meaning of life lies in our relationship with God. The power released from becoming attuned to that power is the kind of brilliance which shone forth from the transfiguration of Jesus. As we reflect on a world which seems to be crumbling into a morass of violence and hatred, there is, if we seek it, a Power at the heart of creation which can make all things new.