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Image via Wikipedia I am beginning to wonder how well I know the world of twitter, face book and blogging and concluding,’ not very well’. I thought that the idea of having a national record of Diocesan Synod reports concerning the debate on the Anglican covenant would be met with enthusiasm and vigour. It was, of course, by two people, so I am wrong it seems.
In the last 24 hours I have heard that a prominent lay member of a local church is not interested in the Anglican covenant because it won’t have any impact on the local church, so any hope of making inroads into her cerebral wonderland is lost forever and this otherwise sane woman won't be on her own in taking that stance.
To add to my malaise I have received further insights into the wicked workings of deputy Bishops being utterly insensitive, rude unsafe unchristian and indeed quite mad.
I could easily err on the side of desperation, and occasionally I do, but on the whole I don’t. The reason is simple. I believe in God and it is in God that I have faith and in God I trust. As a Catholic I have, in the past, had a high regard for the Church and particularly my own Church of England. Today I do not have that high regard, not in the ‘established and managed church’ sense.
I am learning that to love God does not mean giving blind obedience to the Church and certainly not to the management thereof. For me a change in perspective has happened and I am forced to reassess my understanding of God, and indeed my understanding, in part, of the nature of God and certainly His method of working in the world today.
The Anglican Covenant will go one way or another, the deplorable actions of management in the church will continue unrecorded though much talked about in Diocesan Houses and the like. I will read our Bible and reassess my relationship with God, my creator.
Mr C
"I believe on One Holy Catholic and Apostolic church, but the messy, fractured, fallible human one we've got at the moment will have to do for now."
ReplyDeleteI prefer the cat lick, and the dog lick church.
ReplyDeleteMrC I do love you for articulating the near despair that some of us feel when we try to engage fully in some of the issues.
ReplyDeleteOur presupposition is that we will find within the church standards of ethics and morality that exceed those within secular contexts.
It is a devastating blow to us when we find this not to be the case, and for me it makes me wonder what good the church can do.
I too became a Christian in an Anglo-Catholic church and it matters, matters, matters to me. I can't make it so that it doesn't matter - the church is so central to my understanding of the faith and of God. Sometimes I wish I had become a Christian as a result of sitting on a rock watching a beautiful sunrise. For me my faith was forged in the midst of the Church and I can't make sense of it as a purely individualistic thing.
I think it is no good simply saying 'ah well, if you find the perfect church, don't join it'.. or 'ah well, the church is a bunch of sinners'... These statements are true, but too often they are excuses and prevent us from looking deeply at the systems that cause us to fall a long way short of being the hope for the nations.
God bless you. My love and devotion to God's church remains, it is the understanding of what church really is that is changing I think.
ReplyDeleteGood post Mr C; you are absolutely correct - if Christians really take their faith seriously they must always re-examine their churches on a local, national & supranational level. I have been to church meetings that have descended into the "dog eat dog" confrontations that I endure in my secular job.
ReplyDeleteI feel the tribalism of the modern church is deeply depressing. You are not alone MR C.
Yes Mr. CatOLick -- it is so heartbreaking to discover the church is worse than many secular organizations when it comes to ethics. I believe reform will have to come from inside and holding it accountable - but it is a long slog some days. Faith in God and the belief that this is God's church keep me going.
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