NO 'MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY' WITHOUT THE ENGLISH BIBLE

David Daniell's masterly biography of William Tyndale has proved to be a real treat of a Christmas present for Cranmer's Curate.

Professor Daniell's life of the 16th century English Bible translator torpedoes the theory that the Roman Church would eventually have produced an English vernacular Bible without the Protestant Reformation. This theory has been advanced on the ground that devotional books containing material from the Gospels were already appearing in English in the late medieval period:

Catholic revisionist historians miss the vital point. The Gospels-as-pap represents no New Testament theology. The Church would never permit a complete printed New Testament from the Greek, because in the New Testament can be found neither the Seven Sacraments nor the doctrine of purgatory, two chief sources of the Church's power. The recent remark 'there was nothing in the character of religion in late medieval England which could only or even best have developed within Protestantism', only points to how far religion in late medieval England was from mainstream Christianity. An elementary working knowledge of the Bible, the ulimate root of the Christian faith, could only have developed within Protestantism (David Daniell, William Tyndale, Yale, p100).

Your curate wishes the youth group a very happy New Year and prays for many opportunities for all of us to serve the living Christ as the Bible reveals Him in the coming year and to proclaim the truth of His wonderful gospel of salvation.

Even though we often find ourselves marginalised and beleaguered even and perhaps especially within the visible Church, the biblical truth Tyndale unleashed on our nation through his English Bible is not peripheral but mainstream Christianity. By God's grace may that truth be unleashed again in our day and generation.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND 'STILL THE BEST BOAT TO FISH FROM'

That is the contention of Reform trustree and vicar of Emmanuel Wimbledon, the Revd Jonathan Fletcher, in a wonderfully subversive Truth Matters leaflet - Why the Church of England?

Shortly before Christmas, Cranmer's Curate received this gem of a four-page A5 leaflet in the post with his Reform newsletter. Having established that the Church of England has a sound Evangelical doctrinal basis in its Articles, Book of Common Prayer and Homilies as well as a glorious liturgy that provides a 'wonderful rhythm of Word and then response, Word and then response', Mr Fletcher argues that historically the Church of England 'has proved to have great strategic significance' (emphasis his):

In many places, especially in inner-city areas or country villages, where other denominations have had to close their churches, the Anglican parish church still stands. For varying reasons many still gather at their parish church, and we dare not leave them as sheep without a shepherd. Significant spiritual movements have occurred when the pulpits of our parishes have been occupied by faithful biblical preachers. In many, many places the Church of England is still the best boat to fish from. We shall be mocked for this idea, it can be overstated, and it is only valid in the light of our first reason (the clear doctrinal basis on which the Cof E is founded), but fishing, of course, is what we are about.

This is a much-needed corrective in our movement. 'Strategic' in Conservative Evangelical circles has traditionally meant the socially, educationally and financially elite. Based on his observation of recent trends, Mr Fletcher has become passionately convinced that the nation will not be reached for Christ through a string of yuppie churchplants.

Albeit Mr Fletcher has done it rather mischievously, it is so encouraging to be reminded that struggling parish churches in ordinary communities can still by God's grace play a vital part in Christ's mission to catch people for His eternal and glorious Kingdom.

COLLECT FOR CHRISTMAS NIGHT

Cranmer's Curate wishes the youth group a very happy Christmas with the BCP Collect for Christmas Night:

O God, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy only Son, Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him, when he shall come to be our judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT THE PLIGHT OF MUSLIM CONVERTS TO CHRIST, MR BLAIR?

This piece by Cranmer's Curate first appeared on VirtueOnline, the global orthodox Anglican news service based in the US:

The report of the interview between Tony Blair and Nicky Gumbel in the latest Alpha News contains an astonishing exchange that passed under the radar of journalistic scrutiny when first reported in the UK church press back in the summer.

The interview between the former UK Prime Minister and the founder of the Alpha course took place in July in front of 1,200 people at Holy Trinity Brompton in west London. The November 2009-February 2010 edition of Alpha News reports the Revd Gumbel putting this question to Mr Blair about the interfaith work of his Faith Foundation:

I know that your vision is to see people working together on things that we can agree about, but I wonder, just to take the kind of question that people have been asking, does working with other faiths mean you have to water down your own faith?

The great persuader acknowledged the force of the question before trumpeting his Foundation's interfaith initiatives:

This is a real problem in the interfaith area. Look, I’m not going to stop being a Christian; it’s what I believe.

And the Muslim people that I work with are Muslim and they’re not going to stop being Muslim.

But we can work together, and there are points at which we can at least understand some of our common heritage, through the Abrahamic faiths.

Mr Blair then went on to describe his Foundation's involvement in an internet schools programmes in 15 countries aimed at facilitating 'conversation with people of another faith in a different part of the world' and an attempt in the Holy Land to ‘get the rabbis, the imams and the Christian community in Jerusalem to get a common position on Jerusalem as a place of worship’.

He ended by saying that the idea of a world religion was

more of the 1960s, 70s agenda. I think today that’s not what it’s about, but I think it’s about people learning to live with each other, respect each other and coexist with each other peacefully.

Typically deft public relations dance routine from Tony Blair. Bit of distancing from the wackier elements of the agenda he is advocating so as to repackage it as culturally mainstream. Just what he did with the Labour Party to make it electable.

Who can argue with an interfaith agenda that aims to get conflicting co-religionists to disagree more agreeably?

Until you reflect on how that has panned out in practice under New Labour in the UK. The ones under pressure from the politically correct establishment to do the compromising are orthodox Christians who are expected to downplay the exclusive truth claims of Christ. The truth claims of other religions by contrast are treated with the more utmost deference.

So, the interfaith agenda is in practice a runaway bus in Blair's Britain, which means getting watered down is not so much the danger for Christians as getting completely steam-rollered. Has all this really passed Alpha by?

Furthermore, because Mr Blair's interviewer on this occasion happened to be a Christian evangelist, it is astonishing that the report in the Alpha News includes no follow-up question from the Revd Gumbel asking Mr Blair what his Faith Foundation is doing about the appalling plight faced by Muslims who have stopped being Muslim. They have become Christian and are being persecuted as a result in many countries around the world, including the UK and the US.

Presumably, the international champion of the Alpha course passionately believes that Muslims need to put their trust in Christ for eternal salvation and is profoundly concerned about the pressures faced by Christian believers who have converted from Islam.

Did this serious interfaith issue arising from faithful Christian evangelism fail to appear in Alpha News because the question was not asked or because of pressure on editorial space?

IGNORANT, HOPELESS AND DARK WITHOUT CHRIST

The sermon at yesterday’s Carols by Candlelight service at the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge:

You won’t find a more magisterial opening to any bit of writing, ancient or modern, than the beginning of John’s Gospel, his account of the life, death, resurrection and significance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Apostle John, who knew Jesus personally, describes the divine Person who was born into the world as a baby in the Bethlehem stable 2000 years ago in these most profound words:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with the God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1v1-5 – RSV).

I can’t possibly hope to plumb the depths of this profound description of Christ in the brief time we’ve got together this evening. John’s opening is an ocean not a paddling pool but if what I have prepared this evening raises questions in people’s minds rather than providing immediate answers at this stage, then I’m delighted. In this age of extreme secular apathy and indifference towards the Christian faith, getting people even to think about Christ is not easy. But if this evening does by God’s grace raise questions in your mind that you want to explore further, then in the New Year, God willing, there is Christianity Explored, a five-week DVD-based course looking at Mark’s account of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Plenty of opportunity to explore Christian faith in a more informal setting in a home. That’s due to kick off on Tuesday January 12th – do talk to me if you’re interested in coming on Christianity Explored.

I want to look at the three words John uses to describe the Son of God, Jesus Christ, at the beginning of his Gospel – Word, Life and Light.

Christ the Word
First off, why do you think John describes Jesus Christ as the Word of God? Let me illustrate this and it’s not meant to be frivolous so please don’t be offended. It’s meant to show something of the significance of Christ being called the Word of God. Imagine you are an expert in the history of Rugby League. You’ve written books on the subject that have sold like hot-cakes in the Rugby League fraternity.You are invited to give lectures on the subject. You are wheeled onto the media whenever they want a learned pundit on Rugby League. You know what you are talking about.

Imagine I come up to you at the end of the service whilst you’re munching on a sublime mince pie: ‘Let me tell you what I know about Rugby League. It was invented by the Romans in the 1970s, it was popularised by the publican of the Dog and Duck in Cleethorpes and it’s now predominantly played by Scotsmen living in Lincolnshire.’

You’re far too polite to say it but you would certainly be entitled to think it: ‘You haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, mate. You are completely ignorant about this subject and what's more as well as being ignorant you are extremely arrogant because you have presumed to lecture someone who does know what they’re talking about.’ Your word on Rugby League carries weight, mine carries none whatsoever because I don’t know anything about it.

John calls Jesus the Word of God because Jesus is the One with ability to instruct you and me, to educate you and me, to enlighten me and me about that of which we are culpably and wilfully and arrogantly ignorant – namely the truth about the one true Lord and God. Jesus is the Word of God because He reveals the living God to us, the God who made us and who will one day judge us. What do you or I really know about the one true God, what He’s like, his character, and how He expects us to live in His creation, His commands? What can you or I really know about the living God without His Word, without the Person who reveals what He is like? Jesus Christ – the Word of God.

Christ the Life
Secondly, John calls Christ the life. In him was life and the life was the light of men, people. I lost a friend on Friday morning, a number of us did in the parish church family when Mr Jack Ambler passed away in the Northern General hospital. He was in his late 80s, and he was for most of his life a thoroughly convinced Christian believer. He was in fact enormously helped on his Christian journey by a booklet explaining the Christian faith that was sent to every new serviceman when he joined the RAF at the beginning of World War II.

Now John’s resonating phrase describing Christ - in Him was life – that has enormous implications for a Christian like Jack Ambler who has just died. Because life is the gift of Christ, it flows from him to the believer in Christ, Jack Ambler will rise again when Christ returns to judge the world. One day Jack Ambler and every other Christian believer who has ever lived and died will be seen alive again on the earth. In him was life. What do you think is going to happen to you after you die? What’s your future based on your beliefs?

Christ the Light
Thirdly, John calls Christ the light. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. I’m old enough to remember the three-day week back in the 1970s, the miners’ strike and Ted Heath’s declaration that we only had fuel for a three-day week. I remember lights going out in the middle of winter and Dad after a hard day’s work scrabbling about to find a candle under the stairs. When it’s a winter’s night and darkness is the default option, if I can put that way, you need light otherwise darkness prevails. Now when John talks about the light of Christ shining in the darkness of our world, he is making a spiritual and moral point about the human race, about you and me.

Darkness for John is a symbol of evil, a symbol of mankind’s wilful and wicked rebellion against the loving and perfect God who made us. When John describes the world as being in darkness, he is telling us that our default position is rebellion against God. We have made a mess of God’s creation. This is a dark world where evil is given a largely free rein. She was caught, thank God - the woman at the Plymouth nursery. But do you honestly think the human race is incapable of producing another one?

Oh, but it’s very rare. The overwhelmingly majority of people aren’t like her. Thank God for that. But what she thought and eventually acted upon with such depravity is not the only form of darkness surely? There are other forms of darkness in a dark world. So what about the darkness in my inner life? What about the darkness in yours?

The light of Christ shines in the darkness of a rebellious world and the darkness has not overcome it.

Profound words to describe the One born into our messed-up world in that Bethlehem cattle-shed two thousand years ago - Word, Life, Light. Have they raised some questions in your mind about your beliefs, about your life, about your values? May you never rest unless and until, by God’s grace, you find some answers.

ARE BIG CHURCHES THE BEST PLACE FOR FIRST CURACIES?

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in December's New Directions, based on an earlier post. The finished article was considerably informed by comments from the youth group.

Are the larger Anglican churches – 300 plus on a normal Sunday – well-placed to train curates? Are large church incumbents in affluent suburbs, city centres and university towns well-suited as trainers of the next generation of incumbents? Such churches, usually conservative or charismatic evangelical, often have two curates, a deacon and a second curate. So, the current allocation in most dioceses would strongly suggest the answer to the question is yes. But this parish plodder wonders whether the answer could be no.

Now, and then

How closely does a large church curacy correspond to the experience of a first incumbency? There is the real concern now that Evangelical ministers in particular are not being well prepared for the sudden downsizing into a smaller church with fewer resources and few if any students or young urban professionals. How well are they being trained to minister to a range of people in a normal parish setting?

Furthermore, are big church incumbents the best available trainers? Too many have only ministered in evangelicalism. They are arguably not best qualified to train ministers to lead a small parish church into real Gospel growth.

But if the current system does undergo a radical overhaul in dioceses, what about the practicalities of curacies in net-receiving parishes? Some dioceses do it as a deliberate policy. That is brave of them but it does involve a fair bit of financial outlay in purchasing houses and in subsidising parochial expenses when the small cannot manage them.

Gospel growth

Then there is the question of sustainability in a small church. If the diocese wants to pursue the admirable aim of sharing curacy posts around small churches, then that involves the practical difficulty of moving the post from parish to parish every four years. The large churches in making their pitch for curates will argue that the
best training environment is where the growth is. Our churches are growing and planting – you’ve got to put people before the parochial system. They will, of course, feel mightily aggrieved if they lose an ordained hand on deck and may accuse dioceses of penalising success.

Dioceses should respond by arguing against short-termism and for a broader perspective on ministry training. In a connectional Church, the aim is to provide the best possible pastoral and evangelistic training for future ministry, so that Gospel growth can be spread around and not confined to certain parts of the country.

First curacies

Also, the issue here is not particularly second curates. The large churches are arguably entitled to more of these. This is about first curacy posts and the fact that large churches do not have a divine right to them.

Nor does a church simply because it is small and elderly and fits the profile of a ‘normal’ parish church. To deserve a training post, the small church needs to be one in which the arrows are pointing in the right direction in terms of growth.

This is not a simple question of whether the Sunday numbers are up on last year but whether the church has been showing signs of growing younger and whether there is an agreed agenda to reach out. Those environments are surely very positive for first curacy training.

Arguably, the rarer large church first curacy posts become in the Church of England, the better trained the next generation of ministers will be for Christ's mission and ministry in the frontline of the parishes.

PC CAESAR MEDDLING IN GOD'S BUSINESS

Over on Heresy Corner, the hospitable atheist Heresiarch has hosted this guest post by Cranmer's Curate reflecting on the Cameron Direct meeting here in Sheffield last week. Something about the meeting reminded your curate of a National Union of Students conference he attended back in the 1980s. The Heresiarch made a most telling point in an e-mail to cc that

the words of Jesus have been inverted. As a society we now render unto Caesar the things that are God's and unto God the things that are Caesar's.

Regarding the Equality Bill currently going through Parliament, Cranmer's Curate draws the youth group's attention to this important press release from Christian Concern for our Nation:

Act to protect employment freedom for Churches

The Equality Bill aims to sweep all of the existing law on equality into one Act of Parliament and to eliminate more forms of discrimination than are currently covered.

While Christians believe in the innate worth of every human being, the Bill undermines basic Christian freedoms to adhere to biblical values in the area of employment. The Bill will affect Churches, who will not be able to discriminate on the basis of sexual practice that contravenes biblical values or gender reassignment when employing staff. Only roles that wholly or mainly involve, promoting or teaching religion or leading worship services will be exempt from the provisions of the Government’s Equality Bill. Far from simplifying the law, which the Government promised the Equality Bill would do, the Bill introduces more complex requirements even above and beyond those already within the existing law and the explanatory notes to the Bill state that “the specific exception applies to a very narrow range of circumstances”.

During the Report Stage in the House of Commons, John Mason, MP said:

Let us consider the definition: “wholly or mainly involves...leading or assisting...liturgical or ritualistic practices...or...promoting or explaining the doctrine of the religion”.

Even a full-time priest, minister or pastor would not “mainly” be doing that, because much of their time is spent visiting the sick and perhaps with funerals and so on. In fact, therefore, the definition could exclude everybody.

Mark Harper, MP, Shadow Minister (Disabled People), Work and Pensions, explained this in more detail and added that “If the definition does not even include people who lead worship in their churches, it seems to me that it is a faulty one.”

The Bill’s intention was to ensure that posts such as Church Cleaner or Accountant to the Church would not be covered by the exception, but a Minister or Priest would be. There are other posts that this change would affect, including those which may have a pastoral or representative role such as a youth worker.

The current Bill’s wording means that if passed, it would no longer be lawful to require a Minister/Vicar/Priest to be male, unmarried, not in a civil partnership, not homosexual or not transsexual, since virtually no such person would be able to show that their time was “wholly or mainly” spent either leading liturgy or promoting or explaining the doctrines of the religion.

The Equality Bill is due for its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 15th December, when it will be debated. It is provisionally timetabled for Committee Stage on 11th and 13th January 2010, but further days may be announced for Committee Stage. It is at Committee Stage and Report Stage that amendments to the Bill can be considered and voted upon. Now is the time to act. We need to be prepared, because the vote could be as early as the second week in January 2010.

We want to maintain the legal status quo regarding the exceptions that churches can use when deciding who they are prepared to employ. Please help us by writing to Peers to ask them to support amendments to the Equality Bill that will maintain churches’ freedom to recruit suitable people to key positions in churches.

CONSERVATIVES NOT VERY DIRECT ON THE EQUALITY BILL

Would a Conservative government prevent the Christian community in Britain from being forced to provide services of blessing for civil partnerships and employ staff who do not adhere to standards of Christian morality?

That would appear to be an open question.

On Friday, Cranmer's Curate attended a 'Cameron Direct' question and answer session with the Conservative leader here in north Sheffield. The range of issues Mr Cameron gave answers on was very impressive. He is clearly a very bright and able man and has a genuine and deeply-held conviction about the need for greater personal responsibility in society.

Your curate raised the serious crisis facing the orthodox Christian community from the Equality Bill and in particular its impact on our desire to uphold heterosexual marriage. I asked him a). whether he wanted to do anything about our concerns and b). whether he could because of the pressure from Europe to take away our religious exemptions.

Mr Cameron said he was in favour of some aspects of the Equality Bill (the fact that it tidies up various bits of legislation) but he had some concerns. He ended by saying something along the lines that he was in favour of faith groups being allowed to continue provided they don't discriminate.

The problem posed by the Equality Bill for us as orthodox clergy and churches is that we have a moral obligation to discriminate in favour of heterosexual marriage and in terms of the staff we employ. They must be good Christian role models to the people in their care. We certainly don't discriminate in terms of the people to whom we proclaim the living Christ and look after in our groups and social care programmes.

Cranmer's Curate came away from the meeting with the solid conclusion that there is now the urgent need for a new political party in our country that will stand robustly and courageously for Judeo-Christian values against the corrosive ideology of political correctness that is doing such damage to our social fabric and undermining the future of our democracy.

CHRIST'S SUPREMACY: CANON A5 CALLS FOR CERTAINTY

Your curate's letter about Interfaith Week in the Sheffield Telegraph has drawn another response, in yesterday's edition:

Confusing faith with certainty

From: The Reverend Canon Nicholas Jowett, St Andrew's Psalter Lane Church

10 December 2009
IN HIS his letter about inter-faith events, the Revd Julian Mann unhelpfully mixes up faith with certainty. Quoting a sentence of John's Gospel ('No-one comes to the Father except through me'), he forgets that a text is only a text, and still requires a human being to interpret and to believe it. To claim certain knowledge about the things of God you would need to be God, and as far as I am aware, Mr Mann is not divine.

I myself was glad to speak about the Christian faith at an inter-faith event in November, and I hope I conveyed in undiluted form the sense of joy and meaning our faith gives us, a passionate commitment of trust in God and to a way of living inspired by the life and death of Jesus.

I also felt it necessary to confess the many crimes perpetrated by self-styled Christians in history through an excess of dogmatic certitude.

Of course, it's often uncomfortable to live with the tension between our intense loyalties of faith and our limited knowledge, but that's the human condition, and I think the world would be a happier place if more people, Christians and people of other faiths, were able to do just that.

Cranmer's Curate wrote to Canon Jowett yesterday as follows:

Dear Canon Jowett, In response to your letter in today's Sheffield Telegraph 'Confusing faith with certainty' (Dec 10th): I made no claim to be 'divine'. I quoted the words of the One who is divine, the Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded in John's Gospel.

Canon A5, which states that the biblical doctrine of the Church of England is to be found in the Book of Common Prayer, the 39 Articles of Religion and the Ordinal, clearly requires us as Anglican ministers to uphold the supremacy and uniqueness of Christ as God's complete self-revelation and the supreme and unique Son of God in whom all of humanity needs to believe and trust for eternal salvation. Article 18 - Of Obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ - states: 'They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.'

If I am not prepared to uphold that glorious New Testament truth with clarity and certainty, then surely I should not be a vicar in the Church of England?

REFORM HIGHLIGHTS PART-TIME TRAINING FAILURE

From US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline:

What is Reform chairman Revd Rod Thomas’ latest ‘transgression’ such that he has been accused in the Church Times of narrowing the Evangelical label? To argue that part-time non-residential theological training is not providing enough scope for biblical studies.

The concerns he voiced at the Reform National Conference in October that low-biblical-content, part-time training courses were preparing ordinands for ‘ministries of irrelevance’ provoked a letter to the Church Times from the Principal of the West of England Ministerial Training Course, Canon Michael Parsons. He accused Mr Thomas of peddling ‘damaging nonsense’.

I also would question whether biblical studies really figures so high in the clergy “I wish I had had more training in this” list. Both my past and current experience is that, when given an open choice, stipendiary clergy feel most in need of leadership training,

he wrote (Letters, November 6th).

Rod Thomas responded in the Church Times (Letters, November 20th):

Canon Parsons questions whether biblical studies are really so critical. If his vision of church leadership is primarily managerial, then perhaps they are not. But if you believe that a presbyter is primarily a “pastor teacher” (Ephesians 4.11), as most Evangelicals do, and as the Ordinal affirms, then no amount of “leadership training” is going to make up for deficiencies in preparing ordinands to teach the scriptures.

Canon Parsons' outlook on this – which is so obviously at variance with Evangelical concerns – simply illustrates why there is still such a mountain to climb in gaining the confidence of Evangelicals for non-residential training courses.

It is astonishing that an expression of Evangelical concern about the diminution of biblical studies in training for pastoral ministry should provoke the following response from the Vice-Principal of the Norwich Diocesan Ministry Course, the Revd Charles Read:

The Revd Rod Thomas of Reform alleges that Evangelicals are distrustful of regional training courses; but I have just returned from a residential weekend with the Eastern Region Ministry Course (ERMC) and the Norwich Diocesan Ministry Course (NDMC). We were joined by some Reader candidates from St Albans, and some students from Wesley House in Cambridge.

About a third of the ERMC and NDMC students would describe themselves as Evangelical, and a significant number of others are Evangelical in their basic theology, but do not wish to label themselves as such — largely because they do not want to be seen to be allied with groups such as Reform, which they (and I) perceive to have narrowed that label unnecessarily.

Clearly, in East Anglia at least, there is considerable Evangelical support for the regional and diocesan courses. But then many of these Evangelical students are women who are training for leadership in the Christian Churches — and I guess that, for Mr Thomas, this means that they cannot be proper Evangelicals' (Letters, Church Times, November 27th).

Note no engagement with Mr Thomas’ point about the limited time for biblical studies on part-time courses. Instead a cheap political shot about the ordination of women.

Who can dispute the plain historical fact that authentic Evangelicals down the centuries have been people of the Word of God? They have wanted faithful, godly and knowledgeable ministers to teach them the Bible because they have seen that as God’s means of building his people up into maturity in Christ.

WHAT WOULD A CHRISTIAN TOP GEAR BE LIKE?

Assuming the same BBC and the same audience, Top Gear probably wouldn’t need to be a lot different if Messrs Clarkson, Hammond, and May became open followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Though Cranmer’s Curate prefers not to travel faster than 30 miles per hour, especially when he is driving himself, driving at speed around a track in a fast car and commenting on the experience for the education and entertainment of others is a biblically legitimate pastime, based on the Christian doctrine of creation.

Top Gear's ‘blokey’ feel is also quite legitimate and even a breath of fresh air in the increasingly feminised culture of politically correct broadcasting.

Its scepticism about the excessively restrictive aspects of the health and safety culture and its willingness to entertain risk taking are surely also pretty positive within reason.

As for things that would need changing, one hopes that the air of nihilistic cynicism that pervades some of the presenters’ pronouncements would be replaced by the positive worldview of Christ's gospel of eternal redemption.

One would also expect a Christian Top Gear to clean up the salacious banter in the light of the New Testament’s teaching:

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4v29 – RSV).

But over-all 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' would seem to be a piece of secular wisdom applicable to a programme for car enthusiasts newly presented by practising Christians.

However, cc wonders how long a Christian trio of Clarkson, Hammond, and May would last on the BBC's payroll if they explicitly gave the God and Father of Jesus Christ the glory for the inventiveness and engineering skills the programme rightly celebrates.

Thanking the right God for his good gifts to mankind really would be risky.

SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO NONE

As an illustration of how culturally unacceptable it is becoming to declare the supremacy and uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ, this letter in Thursday's Sheffield Telegraph may be of interest to the youth group:

From: Sylvia Ashton
Meersbrook

I write in response to the letter you published on November 26 from Julian Mann, who I assume from his address is a vicar.

I was most impressed by the work put in on Interfaith Week - it seemed a really joyous and unifying event where people looked for common ground and new ways to discuss and recognise differences.

Julian is clearly someone for whom heaven is only possible if it contains him and his flock alone.

Well done Julian - in one mean spirited letter you have yet again indicated to me that if that is what Christianity means, I'll take my chances in the other place!

Season's greetings to ALL.

So it's not Happy Christmas then.

CANTERBURY CASE IS WAKE-UP CALL TO EVANGELICALS

This by Cranmer's Curate first appeared on VirtueOnline:

It is an extraordinary situation in the Archbishop of Canterbury's own patch and shows that the 'inside strategy' of orthodox Anglicans seeking to work within the structures of Church of England is coming under enormous pressure here in the UK.

Times Religious Affairs correspondent Ruth Gledhill has done a tremendous journalistic service in reporting the almost unbelievable grass-roots case of the benefice of Littlebourne in the diocese of Canterbury.

She reports this week on TimesOnline:

Last week I went to a special parochial church council meeting in Littlebourne, Kent, in the diocese of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The benefice of four churches, one with just ten worshippers, somehow manages to raise £80,000-plus each year of which they give more than £50,000 to the diocese as combined quota payments. It costs the diocese about £40,000 to maintain the Rector, the Rev John Allan. When he retires, this hard-working, successful benefice, albeit with congregations of mostly elderly or retired people, will instead be given a part-time, unpaid 'house-for-duty' priest. Apparently, they have been told, they will not be given their own priest ever again, 'even if you raise £1 million.'

Theirs is not an isolated case.

The Littlebourne case is a loud wake-up call for orthodox, Bible-believing Evangelical churches in the Church of England. Such churches are by and large net-givers; they pay their way and even subsidise the ministry of other churches.

But Littlebourne shows that, in the current theological and economic climate, generous, faithful, sacrificial Christian giving is no guarantee that they will be given their own ministry of Word and Sacrament.

A liberal diocese will carry on taking the quota money from orthodox churches and use it to subsidise ministries with which the Bible-believing members of the net-giving church, who have just been told that they cannot their own full-time vicar, are profoundly uncomfortable and with good biblical reason.

The threat hanging over them is this: 'If you act unilaterally in appointing your own minister without a bishop's licence, we'll have your parsonage and we'll have your buildings. So don't even think about it.'

This means orthodox churches must be spiritually and mentally prepared to call their bluff. Christ's honour is at stake:

Dear Archdeacon, The standing order to the Diocesan Board of Finance will be immediately cancelled and the keys to the church and vicarage will be handed to you at your next Visitation.

We are making arrangements to meet in the local school and the money that would be going towards the DBF will, God willing, be put towards a house for our new minister, who we hope will have episcopal oversight from a GAFCON Primate.

We are not going to bother with TEC-style legal battles. We are here to glorify our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Christ of the Scriptures, and to proclaim His wonderful gospel of salvation for all who believe.

DAMAGE FROM CHURCH REMARRIAGE OF DIVORCEES

Following pastoral reorganisation, St Winifred's by the Tandoori has been amalgamated into the Winklesfield Team Ministry.

Clergy and readers are now licensed to the Team, which has adopted a standard policy across its churches of offering the full marriage service for divorcees.

When St Winifred's had its own vicar, he used to offer a service of dedication after civil marriage - provided the bride or groom had nothing to do with the break-up of the previous marriage.

Mr Smith married his second wife at St Winifred's shortly after the change in policy. The younger woman he has just run off with wants a traditional white wedding at St Winifred's. The Revd Jezebel Jones told the Team Rector that it would be 'discriminatory' to deny the bride her dream. He heartily agreed.

But down at the post office 'that womaniser Smith's leading 'em up the church path' was the consensus of opinion.

The tragic reality is that St Winifred's, once a parish church with a reputation for orthodoxy on Christian faith and morals, has now become a scandal for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's damaging His cause.

A good local church has been dragged down into the liberal moral mire.

What would you do if you were a Bible-believing member of St Winifred's? Leave and commute to the nearest Evangelical flagship? Or stay at the church and contend for the gospel in that community?

Surely it's in this situation that the Revd John Richardson's idea of Puritan-style lectureships really has legs - the nearest Evangelical church providing a Bible teacher to offer spiritual and moral support for orthodox Christians within a liberal team ministry.