With bad news swirling around the Church of England as Anglo-Catholic congregations leave to join the Ordinariate, it is wonderful to be able to share some good news.
During his blogging break, Cranmer's Curate attended an Anglican service which gave him hope for the Church he loves.
Christ Church Endcliffe in south-west Sheffield is a plant from Christ Church Fulwood. Launched in the autumn of 2009, it shares premises with an existing parish church, St Augustine’s, and has its Sunday service at 4pm followed by a meal. In the light of Ordinariate churches leaving their buildings, two congregations happily sharing one is rather poignant.
Certainly, south-west Sheffield, which happens to correspond to the parliamentary constituency of Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Nick Clegg MP, is not economically, socially or spiritually representative of South Yorkshire, one of the lowest church-going areas in the UK.
Per capita income in the Hallam constituency is one of the highest in the UK and churches of all traditions are much wealthier and better-attended than elsewhere in South Yorkshire. Christ Church Endcliffe is also close to student-ville and to the independent schools in south-west Sheffield, factors that affect its ministry.
But there were things about the way this service was conducted that are potentially transferrable for Christ’s mission elsewhere in a difficult region for the gospel.
First, the service had young people taking part. That should not be taken for granted in the Church of England. It was most encouraging to visit an Anglican church - not a mega-church - with young adults and children involved but at which a middle-aged man could feel at home.
Secondly, the service was people-sensitive. It faced up to the reality that people are at different stages of their spiritual journey. The way the minister the Revd Edward Pennington explained the new prayer ministry at the end of Holy Communion was a particular instance of that.
Thirdly, the service proclaimed the infallible Word of God. It was most encouraging to hear the Bible explained and applied with such clarity and maturity. This was not teenage Christianity. Mr Pennington’s sermon on prayer from Luke 18v1-8 had a real edge to it.
Anglican Evangelical ventures such as these, which inject new spiritual life into existing parishes, deserve to be seen as a vital way of renewing the Church of England.
So this parish plodder in a more typical South Yorkshire context thanks God for some encouragement from the Cleggland part of the harvest field.
This piece by cc - David Cameron is more politically correct than Tony Blair - appeared on Christian Today.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
MRS DISCRIMINATES IN FAVOUR OF MARRIAGE - THAT IS THE BEAUTY OF HER
The writer of the Financial Times 'Mrs Moneypenny' column this week begins a personal finances series on Channel 4 under her real name. Her column indicates that she is a married lady but nonetheless she could have opted for Ms Moneypenny as a pseudonym.
Though more politically correct, somehow or other that does not have quite the same ring to it - anymore than Ms would have suited her pre-feminist James Bond alter ego Miss Moneypenny.
PC people deliberately ms-ing a married woman who has taken her husband's surname are certainly being more ideologically sound than Mrs or Miss Moneypenny.
PC wants to deprive marriage of the rightfully privileged place it has in Judaeo-Christian civilisation. Manipulating language is one way of doing it.
Oh, but Mrs is discriminatory. Mr does not reveal whether a man is married and there is currently no title indicating whether a person is in a civil partnership.
Mrs is indeed discriminatory - in favour of marriage - and that is the beauty of her.
In a Christian culture where marriage is rightly valued and women are not forced into marriage, Mrs signals that it is the responsibility of men to take the appropriate initiatives leading to it, culminating in the marriage proposal. Mrs sends a powerful social signal that the lady is not available, unless she volunteers certain exceptional facts about her status.
For a man to pursue knowing that Mrs means married would be frowned upon by his peers. Actually to break the Seventh Commandment would be perceived as a serious sin.
That is how Mrs works in a society influenced by the Lord Christ's teaching - which is why it is abhorrent to PC.
It is important to register that Mrs never stopped Christian women being formidable and offering significant public service. Brave indeed would have been the PC pioneer in the 1980s who dared to call Mrs Thatcher or Mrs Whitehouse Ms.
Though more politically correct, somehow or other that does not have quite the same ring to it - anymore than Ms would have suited her pre-feminist James Bond alter ego Miss Moneypenny.
PC people deliberately ms-ing a married woman who has taken her husband's surname are certainly being more ideologically sound than Mrs or Miss Moneypenny.
PC wants to deprive marriage of the rightfully privileged place it has in Judaeo-Christian civilisation. Manipulating language is one way of doing it.
Oh, but Mrs is discriminatory. Mr does not reveal whether a man is married and there is currently no title indicating whether a person is in a civil partnership.
Mrs is indeed discriminatory - in favour of marriage - and that is the beauty of her.
In a Christian culture where marriage is rightly valued and women are not forced into marriage, Mrs signals that it is the responsibility of men to take the appropriate initiatives leading to it, culminating in the marriage proposal. Mrs sends a powerful social signal that the lady is not available, unless she volunteers certain exceptional facts about her status.
For a man to pursue knowing that Mrs means married would be frowned upon by his peers. Actually to break the Seventh Commandment would be perceived as a serious sin.
That is how Mrs works in a society influenced by the Lord Christ's teaching - which is why it is abhorrent to PC.
It is important to register that Mrs never stopped Christian women being formidable and offering significant public service. Brave indeed would have been the PC pioneer in the 1980s who dared to call Mrs Thatcher or Mrs Whitehouse Ms.
Friday, 4 March 2011
ISLAM WINS WHEN CHRISTIANS STOP PERSUADING
Cranmer's Curate has been moved to interrupt his blogging break by a comment that Mr Josh Johal has just posted under a piece that appeared back in September - Britons should be free to criticise Islam.
Mr Johal says:
The curate thanks Mr Johal for his comment and makes three points in response:
1). This country has a tradition of religious toleration. Though the faith of our nation is biblical Christianity, with our Monarch having taken a Coronation Oath to defend that faith, the United Kingdom allows people to practise various religions, provided they observe the rule of law, and to build their own places of worship. That contrasts sharply with the practice in many Muslim countries around the world.
2). Christianity spreads or should spread, if it is being faithful to the New Testament, by force of argument, not by force of arms. Argument involves criticising the positions of those with whom you disagree. It involves rebuttal and refutation. Those who find their positions criticised can and often do take offence. That was Jesus's experience as he argued against his religious opponents. Debate, rebuttal and refutation were intrinsic to the Lord Christ's public teaching according to the Gospels and he suffered for it:
3). The winner in a civic culture that suppresses freedom of argument for fear of people taking offence is Islam. Its weaknesses are left unexposed and it can continue to exercise a strong level of control over its own adherents as well as attracting disillusioned defectors from the secular West. Christians meanwhile are muted by a civic culture that disapproves of religious debate on the ground that other groups may be offended.
Finally, it is flying in the face of reality to deny that the secular establishment in the West is far more afraid of an offended Muslim than it is of an offended Christian. Why else are Christianity and the Bible subject to attacks in books, plays and TV programmes in a manner that would never be countenanced against Islam and the Koran?
Mr Johal says:
So you think it would be acceptable to offend people of other religions who are living here? There are a vast amount of moderate Muslims here who will go about their religion peacefully, these people are doing Britain no harm by building mosques and practicing their religion here. You criticising Islam in this way makes you just as ignorant as the very small percentage of Islamic extremists preaching hatred towards Christianity. We should be embracing their culture as 95% of Muslims in this country are embracing ours.
The curate thanks Mr Johal for his comment and makes three points in response:
1). This country has a tradition of religious toleration. Though the faith of our nation is biblical Christianity, with our Monarch having taken a Coronation Oath to defend that faith, the United Kingdom allows people to practise various religions, provided they observe the rule of law, and to build their own places of worship. That contrasts sharply with the practice in many Muslim countries around the world.
2). Christianity spreads or should spread, if it is being faithful to the New Testament, by force of argument, not by force of arms. Argument involves criticising the positions of those with whom you disagree. It involves rebuttal and refutation. Those who find their positions criticised can and often do take offence. That was Jesus's experience as he argued against his religious opponents. Debate, rebuttal and refutation were intrinsic to the Lord Christ's public teaching according to the Gospels and he suffered for it:
Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him (Luke 19v47 - NIV)
3). The winner in a civic culture that suppresses freedom of argument for fear of people taking offence is Islam. Its weaknesses are left unexposed and it can continue to exercise a strong level of control over its own adherents as well as attracting disillusioned defectors from the secular West. Christians meanwhile are muted by a civic culture that disapproves of religious debate on the ground that other groups may be offended.
Finally, it is flying in the face of reality to deny that the secular establishment in the West is far more afraid of an offended Muslim than it is of an offended Christian. Why else are Christianity and the Bible subject to attacks in books, plays and TV programmes in a manner that would never be countenanced against Islam and the Koran?
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
PAUL'S SUFFERINGS & MODERN MINISTERIAL INCONVENIENCES
Ministry can be tough in the post-Christian West but last Sunday's BCP epistle reading at Holy Communion puts modern ministerial inconveniences in the shade.
The catalogue of Paul's sufferings as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 11 makes astonishing reading:
Imagine going through all that for the sake of the gospel.
Being on the pay-roll of an older denomination facing financial challenges does pose difficulties for contemporary Anglican clergy (cc recently received an unconfirmed report of one vicar being responsible for an amalgamation of 18 parishes). There is also the cultural perception of clergy as at best eccentric and at worst sinister, compounded by the fairly routine rudeness that church people feel free to inflict on their ministers of Word and Sacrament.
But Paul's sufferings put such contemporary clerical problems in perspective.
Certainly, 40 lashes minus one times five, three birchings, one stoning, three shipwrecks, 24 hours adrift at sea, and persistent exposure to physical danger and deprivation are Apostle-sized sufferings. But all authentic ministers should cop flak and experience weakness. If we do not, we are bogus.
Cranmer's Curate is blogging off for March to concentrate on new communications' initiatives in the parish, including a parish-wide, full-colour magazine, a redesigned church website and a link that has just been formed between our church and St Luke's Cathedral Church in the Anglican Diocese of Jos, Nigeria.
Many thanks to Canon Chris Sugden, executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, for enabling us to cement this link. Thanks also to Archbishop Ben Kwashi for his enthusiasm, encouragement and leadership by example.
The prayers of the youth group for these initiatives - that they would be truly Christ-honouring - are greatly appreciated.
Normal cc service will resume, God willing, in April.
The curate leaves the youth group with last Sunday's BCP Collect:
The catalogue of Paul's sufferings as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 11 makes astonishing reading:
Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11v24-28 - RSV).
Imagine going through all that for the sake of the gospel.
Being on the pay-roll of an older denomination facing financial challenges does pose difficulties for contemporary Anglican clergy (cc recently received an unconfirmed report of one vicar being responsible for an amalgamation of 18 parishes). There is also the cultural perception of clergy as at best eccentric and at worst sinister, compounded by the fairly routine rudeness that church people feel free to inflict on their ministers of Word and Sacrament.
But Paul's sufferings put such contemporary clerical problems in perspective.
Certainly, 40 lashes minus one times five, three birchings, one stoning, three shipwrecks, 24 hours adrift at sea, and persistent exposure to physical danger and deprivation are Apostle-sized sufferings. But all authentic ministers should cop flak and experience weakness. If we do not, we are bogus.
Cranmer's Curate is blogging off for March to concentrate on new communications' initiatives in the parish, including a parish-wide, full-colour magazine, a redesigned church website and a link that has just been formed between our church and St Luke's Cathedral Church in the Anglican Diocese of Jos, Nigeria.
Many thanks to Canon Chris Sugden, executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, for enabling us to cement this link. Thanks also to Archbishop Ben Kwashi for his enthusiasm, encouragement and leadership by example.
The prayers of the youth group for these initiatives - that they would be truly Christ-honouring - are greatly appreciated.
Normal cc service will resume, God willing, in April.
The curate leaves the youth group with last Sunday's BCP Collect:
O Lord God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do; Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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