CRANMER'S CURATE

CONCERNS OVER PLAN TO HOMOGENISE CLERGY TRAINING

2012-02-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Serious concerns are due to be voiced at next week's General Synod over a plan to homogenise pre- and post-ordination training.

The Phase 2 Report of the Ministry Council Working Party into the Church of England's Higher Education (HE) and Initial Ministry Training (IME) practices was approved by the House of Bishops last December. The report is to be examined at the upcoming Synod in London.

There were concerns that the report was going to be ratified by Synod 'under the radar' in the midst of the main business of women bishops. But according to Anglican evangelical campaign group, Reform, one of the parties concerned about the proposals, the report is not going to a vote at this Synod and will be properly scrutinised.

Just to explain the report's terminology, IME 1-3 is theological training at college or on a course before ordination; IME 4-7 is post-ordination training for curates.

The Working Party's stated vision is as follows:

We believe that there are compelling reasons for the Church of England, with our partner institutions, to develop a suite of HE Awards with a single validating HE partnership which would provide the main highway of training and formation for IME 1-3, which would also provide dioceses with an option for IME 4-7 and for Reader training; and would also make provision for independent students pursuing a variety of vocations in discipleship and ministry.

The Working Party, chaired by the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Steven Croft, who was Warden (head) of the evangelical theological college in Durham, Cranmer Hall, from 1996 to 2004, recommends that

the Church of England, with our partner churches establish a single suite of HE awards suitable for IME 1-7, Reader training and independent students, with a single HE set of validation arrangements as outlined in this report.

The report's bustling timetable presupposes ratification at this month's Synod. May 2012 is cited as the target date for identifying the validating university for the new awards through a tender process. With the vote delayed until at least summer's Synod, that date is presumably having to be put back. The report states September 2015 as the target for transferring all accredited Church of England training institutions to the new regime.

The concern over homogenised clergy training is essentially this: currently ordinands who wish to be trained in line with the doctrine of the Church of England as expressed in Canon A5 can be theologically educated at Oak Hill or Wycliffe Hall.

At those colleges, the Reformed theology of the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion is clearly upheld. The perspective expressed in the Book of Common Prayer that the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ propitiated the wrath of God on sin is clearly upheld. Rigorous and responsible biblical studies, including biblical theology, are taught in line with the Church of England's doctrinal stance that the Bible is the Word of God written. Pro-active biblical evangelism and apologetics, in line with the Ordinal's stipulation that clergy are called to seek out Christ's sheep dispersed abroad, are also positively taught.

What will happen to these confessional Anglican emphases under a homogenised training regime?

Perhaps such fears are groundless but they cannot be dispelled until the new homogenised curriculum and syllabi are published.

What should be non-negotiable in clergy training is the New Testament fact that Bible teaching is at the heart of pastoring the precious flock of Jesus Christ.

MISSION BENEFIT OF AGREED BIBLICAL AGENDA IN JOS

2012-01-30T06:57:00.000-08:00

This appeared in Friday's Church of England Newspaper:

The agreed biblical agenda in the diocese of Jos, Nigeria, was the most inspiring and humbling feature for a visiting English Anglican.

That is not to say that Jos Diocese does not face internal problems in addition to the constant threat to its churches from Islamist terrorism. During my visit to the diocese over the New Year, I would suggest that clergy overwork is an issue.

The ‘wholistic’ approach to mission – evangelism and church growth combined with development and community projects – is necessary but it would seem that the clergy are having to do it all. The task of developing and employing godly and effective administrators is a significant challenge for the diocese.

But, despite this particular problem, I would contend that the agreed orthodox Anglican agenda for biblical evangelism, particularly amongst young people, is under God an essential engine of growth across the diocese.

On the final day on my visit, I asked the Bishop of Jos, Dr Ben Kwashi, also Archbishop of Jos Province, about the opportunities and challenges the diocese faces. ‘The opportunities far outweigh our capacity to cope,’ he said. ‘More and more young people are looking for answers to make life meaningful. The opportunities for community service are excellent and even more than that the opportunities for development. Politicians don't have the capacity for development. They never have - they develop themselves. But a sincere God-fearing heart will seek to develop other people.”

The diocese has 6 secondary schools, run by ordained principals, each with over 1,000 students. With the Nigerian government supporting church involvement in both primary and secondary education, the diocese has the opportunity to give a growing number of young people a Christian education. Said Dr Kwashi: 'Every child in my school has to have the fear of God put into him through the Bible, the Prayer Book and the Hymn Book. I am educating them with a vision for the world.'

I asked Dr Kwashi about the deployment of clergy in the diocese. Clergy rarely stay in one church more than three years and often move after a year. English clergy minded to complain about their terms of service under Common Tenure might consider the fact that Jos clergy can be dismissed at one month’s notice.

Dr Kwashi defended the employment policy of his diocese as ‘apostolic because Paul could send anyone anywhere at any time. Titus was sent to a very difficult place called Crete. If you are going to continue in mission, there is no alternative but to adopt the apostolic pattern’.

Dr Kwashi acknowledged that clergy moving around ‘can create instability and it’s not healthy sometimes for clergy families’. But ‘this method creates a movement mentality. We are people on the move. This world is not our home, we can move anytime because we are under the command to take the gospel somewhere’.

Tempering the disruption is the fact that Jos clergy are generally not moving far and remain near their relatives and friends and clerical peers. The other aspect is that their houses do not have as much stuff in them as our English vicarages, which makes moving easier.

The irony in Dr Kwashi’s apologia for moving clergy around is that his diocese has hugely benefited from his long tenure as bishop. He has been in post since 1992. Dr Kwashi, 56, is a visionary leader and a counter-cultural one. In a culture where people are inclined to be either early or late, he is a time-keeper and a servant-hearted energiser who has the General Patton approach to leadership. He sets the goals but leaves it up to the ingenuity of others to achieve them and abhors psychological dependency on him personally.

The Revd Hassan John, a Jos incumbent and also diocesan media director, told me: ‘In Nigeria we are flamboyant and very loud and he is very humble. Ben is demanding. He wants his egg cooked yesterday and he wants it hot. He hitches up the goals and encourages us to meet those goals. When he gives us responsibility he doesn't interfere. But if you are lazy or incompetent he will fire you. You will get his wrath. He will not compromise when it comes to the work of God.’

Cynics may say that the biblical agenda in the diocese is imposed, particularly on the clergy, rather than agreed. But my sense from visiting a range of churches was that the agenda set by the bishop is owned and that frontline Jos clergy are putting their hearts and souls into implementing the vision.

And with established churches growing, new churches being planted, new Christian schools opening, and church-run development projects proceeding apace, they can see for themselves the benefits for Christ’s mission of serving in a diocese that avoids the Western Anglican revisionist agenda like the plague.

Also cc's letter in Friday's CEN:

Sir, Just in case it appears that on the Cranmer’s Curate blog (What The Blogs Say – 20 January) I was conceding Dr Peter Head’s contention that the Apostle Paul did not forbid the appointment of women presbyters, may I please include the complete
paragraph? - "Sure there is an issue as to the ways in which ecclesiastical terms in general usage correspond to the NT terminology. But if ‘presbyter’ means a person with biblical teaching responsibility over God’s church, then Paul clearly did forbid the appointment of women in that role."

LIBERAL ANGLICANS DO NOT WANT AFRICAN ORTHODOXY ON THEIR LAWN

2012-01-26T00:03:00.000-08:00

African Anglicans should not be deceived by the supportive noises from Western liberals.

The true opinion of Western Anglican liberals towards two thirds' world biblical orthodoxy came out at the Lambeth 1998 Conference. African Anglicans' commitment to biblical orthodoxy on Christian faith and morals is 'pre-scientific' and 'primitive'.

The former Anglican Bishop of Newark in the United States, Dr John Spong, spoke for them all when he denounced you for bigotry over Lambeth Resolution 1.10.

The reality is that the theological liberals dominating the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Western Anglican Provinces do not want your passionate biblical orthodoxy on their cultivated elitist lawns.

If they were genuinely affronted by Islam, then they would proclaim the supremacy and uniqueness of Christ in their own Provinces and wholeheartedly oppose Sharia Law.

If they were genuinely impressed by your biblical orthodoxy, then they would not promote the 1960s' feminist agenda in their own Provinces.

If they were genuinely impressed by your church growth, then they would not promote the critical attitudes towards the Bible that undermine the gospel and displease God.

Western political correctness is in a dilemma over Africa and that is reflected in liberal Anglican attitudes towards you. You are perceived to be the victims of white Western imperialism and financial exploitation. But they do not like many of your attitudes.

When you are victimised, then the supportive noises became louder but such noises do not negate the fact that, fundamentally, they dislike your biblical orthodoxy.

Also, because many of your countries are in the Commonwealth, institutional church liberals in the English hierarchy do not want to risk upsetting the Queen by being too rude about you.

So please keep on contending for the biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ against theological liberalism in the Anglican Communion. If you allow revisionism any house room whatsoever, then it will became a parasitic tapeworm within you and sap the biblical vigour of your churches.

UKIP SHIRKS BATTLE FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE

2012-01-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

The UK Independence Party is refusing to join forces with Conservatives opposed to Coalition plans to introduce same-sex marriage, calling such opposition 'morally discriminatory'.

In the light of press reports that around 100 Conservative MPs are planning to rebel against a same-sex marriage bill, Cranmer's Curate asked UKIP, which is proving a magnet for disillusioned Conservatives, about its stance.

A press spokesman told cc:

We are at heart a small-state organisation and we don't feel we should be interfering in people's private lives. We believe wholeheartedly in the married persons' tax allowance. We feel there are other ways of strengthening marriage that are not necessarily morally discriminatory.

He continued, suggesting that same-sex marriage is the logical progression from civil partnerships (a different legal entity from marriage):

We feel that civil partnerships are a fact and we believe that gay partnerships should be recognised in law, particularly when it comes to inheritance. Ten years ago sitting here I would have been very happy to support a position of no gay marriage but that is no longer the case. The party has become broader.

Apart from the fact that a 'morally discriminatory' stance in favour of good against evil is nothing to be ashamed of, UKIP's failure to uphold traditional heterosexual marriage as the spiritual, moral and cultural bedrock of a stable society is tragically ironic. Without the teaching of Christ and the Bible once again undergirding our nation's laws, customs and morals, there will be no independence for the UK but only slavery to what the Book of Common Prayer calls 'the unruly wills and affections of sinful men'.

Those truly serving UK independence are Parliamentarians of various political parties who are contending for Christian values against socially Marxist political correctness.

With the UK descending into the unrighteousness that debases a nation, that wonderful BCP Collect (for the 4th Sunday after Easter) urgently needs to be prayed by and for the Church:

O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

INTERVIEWING A SELF-SUPPORTING MINISTER

2012-01-22T00:03:00.000-08:00

With the financial situation in many dioceses now becoming increasingly serious, a growing number of churches, even net-giving ones, are being faced with a choice: accept an unpaid vicar or get nobody.

But PCCs have a responsibility to ask questions about the biblical and theological knowledge of self-supporting ministers (SSMs) because the ministry of the Word of God is essential to the final salvation of them and the members of their church. That is clear from the Apostle Paul's exhortation to Timothy, who was in pastoral charge of the church at Ephesus: 'Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold fast to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers' (1 Timothy 4v16 - RSV).

So here are three suggested questions for an SSM at interview:

1) Can you recite the Ten Commandments in the correct order?

2). Can you name the epistles of Paul in their correct order in the New Testament?

3). Can you name the topics covered by seven of the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion?

Unsatisfactory answers to the first two questions reveal that the candidate has not spent sufficient time in the Old and the New Testaments; unsatisfactory answers to the third reveal that he or she has not bothered to read the 39 Articles.

Furthermore, the inability to answer question 1). reveals not only scant attention to the Scriptures but also unfamiliarity with the Book of Common Prayer, for the Ten Commandments are set out at the beginning of the Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.

Probing those who are willing to pastor local churches unpaid may seem harsh. But the ministry of the Word is so important that no one, whether they are paid or not, should be bringing culpable ignorance to the pulpit.

Of course, it is quite possible that stipendiary ministers may not be able to give satisfactory answers to the above questions. In which case that would be revealing of the inadequacy of the growing number of part-time regional courses both paid and unpaid clergy are being trained on.

Finally, it needs to be said that any minister who takes pleasure in exposing the ignorance of other ministers is not fit to be a pastor of Christ's flock - on the ground that pride is a disqualification (see 1 Timothy 3v6-7). It should be a source of profound grief to any Christian that Jesus' people are being pastored by people who are not up to the sacred calling of ministering the saving Word.

OUTSTANDING OAK HILL JOURNAL ON LEADERSHIP

2012-01-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

The latest twice-yearly journal from Oak Hill Theological College is quite outstanding on pastoral leadership in a post-modern culture.

In an anti-authority age, the exercise of authority - its cultural acceptance and the right way to negotiate the cultural minefield - is a difficult area for pastors wanting to avoid the Scylla of self-pleasing autocracy and the Charybdis of man- or, in the usual context of Anglican volunteerism, woman-pleasing appeasement. Principal Dr Mike Ovey's introduction to the Winter 2011/12 edition of Commentary deftly sets up the issue:

We become very used in our post-modern mood to being suspicious of leaders and their power, very understandably so. But I'm not sure if we have yet got to the point of being suspicious of the suspicions held by us who are led towards those who lead us. Perhaps it's as hard to be a humble led as it is to be a humble leader? And perhaps it's as necessary?

As a minister of Christ in an Anglican parish, Cranmer's Curate was particularly edified by the interview with the Revd Martin Woodroofe, whose book on church leadership Beyond Nice is due to be published this year. Mr Woodroofe observed:

One of the challenges for a pastor is the complexity of their relationships. So one moment you might be a buddy, and the next moment, in staff or volunteer terms, you might be a boss. If we compare it to secular work, I think that adds to an element of complexity, So how do you cope with that? I think you have to set boundaries and make clear what's happening in that space and at that time.

He continued with a specific practical example:

Say a pastor has a performance issue with a member of staff, or with a leading volunteer. If they go into the room and they're trying to play all the notes on the instrument - if they're trying to be their friend, their pastor, and their boss at the same time, then the messages will be all over the place. So they have to clear the space and say, this is what we're talking about and this is the context of what we're talking about.

It doesn't mean to say that I'm negating my other roles. I'm always your pastor. I'm always supportive. That's always the background narrative. But at this moment, we're talking about the fact that you don't turn up on time, or that you haven't fulfilled the tasks I've asked you to fulfil, or whatever the issues are.

It is hard to over-state how helpful that is for a parish plodder like cc.

MEN ONLY MINISTRY TEAMS ARE CANONICAL

2012-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Are male only ministry teams, whether a house of bishops at a denominational level or the board of a mission society or the clergy of a local church, pastorally defective?

If they are to be so regarded, then one must logically argue that the New Testament epistles to the Philippians, the Colossians and the Thessalonians are also pastorally defective.

For these epistles are the fruit of a men only team of pioneer missionaries and church planters. The letters to the churches at Philippi and Colossae open with a greeting from Paul and Timothy; the two letters to the church in Thessalonica cite Paul, Silvanus and Timothy.

The Apostle Paul, as should be clear to any unprejudiced reader of the New Testament, was no misogynist. He warmly affirmed women's ministry, for example that of Phoebe, servant (translated by the RSV as 'deaconess') of the church at Cenchreae (see Romans 16v1-2) and the contribution to the cause of the gospel from Euodia and Syntyche, who had sadly fallen out (see Philippians 4v2-3).

So the issue here is not the value of women's ministry. According to the New Testament, women's ministry is invaluable.

Nor is this to argue for men only churches. Local churches should reflect the fact that the gospel of God's grace is for all people who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation, so a church that excluded women would demonstrate a profoundly defective understanding of the gospel. That would indeed be true of any strictly homogeneous church, whether socio-economically, ethnically or culturally.

This is about whether male only ministry teams are spiritually, pastorally or relationally deficient.

A canonical New Testament epistle is more much more than an act of ministry to a local church in the 1st century. But it is not less than that.

Was Paul, Silvanus and Timothy's ministry to these congregations pastorally defective because they were a team of men?

One would have to say yes to that proposition if male only ministry teams must of ecclesiastical necessity be regarded as pastorally defective.

But, given that these four wonderful letters are included in the Canon of the Holy Spirit-inspired Holy Scriptures, a claim on whatever ideological or philosophical ground that that they are defective for not being co-authored by a woman should be abhorrent to any person claiming the name of Christian.

Though written by men only, they are the Word of God.

BACK FROM NIGERIA

2012-01-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

Dr Livingstone Cranmer's Curate is not. So he is thankful to be back at his own English fireside after his trip over the New Year to Jos, Nigeria. It was an amazing experience and cc thanks the Anglican Diocese of Jos and in particular St Luke's Cathedral Church for their generous Jospitality. It was so spiritually refreshing to meet brothers and sisters in Christ serving Him so faithfully and enthusiastically under difficult circumstances. The agreed agenda for biblical evangelism in the diocese was also most inspiring and humbling for an English Anglican. Below is cc's piece on Christian Today:

When Nigeria's Islamist terror was confined to its northern states, politically correct Western opinion was able to get away with spinning the violence as six of one and half a dozen of the other.

An outrage in Jos, for example, would be put down to 'religious tensions' between the Muslim and Christian communities. It was almost as if elements in the Western media were desperate for stories of Christians behaving badly.

But the politically correct spin is now becoming increasingly untenable following Islamist terror group Boko Haram's Christmas Day attack on St Theresa's Roman Catholic Church in central Nigeria, close to the federal capital, Abuja. It is now becoming clear that the group is moving its terror south.

And the closer the group takes its terror to Lagos, the more open US and UK opinion becomes to the view Nigeria's Christian president Dr Goodluck Jonathan is keen to promote that Boko Haram represents a threat to Western interests.

Dr Jonathan faces massive internal political hurdles in his stated aim to 'crush Boko Haram'. He needs Western help, particularly from US and UK intelligence agencies. The State of Emergency he announced on New Year's Eve, including the closure of Nigeria's borders with Niger, Cameroon and Chad, is welcomed by the Christian community but Christians know that the long-term security of the nation they love depends on co-ordinated and united action by the various arms of government.

Meanwhile, Nigeria's churches remain in the frontline of the battle between the Judaeo-Christian values underpinning Western civilisation and the forces of medieval barbarism wanting to impose Sharia Law.

In a move to foil further attacks on their worshippers over the New Year celebration, churches changed the times of their watchnight services on New Year's Eve and both federal and individual state security services stepped up their presence. On New Year's Day and Eve I attended services at Luke's Cathedral Church in Jos, where I am visiting the Anglican diocese.

The services were wonderfully joyful but the tension over the security situation was palpable following Boko Haram's attack on the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in the city on Christmas Day. One could not help watching the door. Leading the New Year's Day service, Jos Archbishop Dr Ben Kwashi was characteristically positive. Read here.

ROBERT HARRIS'S HOPE-LESS DARWIN NOVEL

2012-01-02T14:31:00.000-08:00

Robert Harris's latest novel, The Fear Index (Hutchinson, London, 2011), is not hopeless in the sense of being bad. It is hope-less in that it is without the hope of God in Jesus Christ.

In this brilliantly conceived and absorbing thriller about a computer system that takes over a Geneva-based hedge fund, the Darwinist machine wins. That the machine is Darwinist in its philosophy of life is flagged up at the beginning of the novel when it sends its creator a first edition copy of Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

At the end of the book, the declaration of victory of the machine over humanity is sloganised on the screensavers of the firm's computers:

THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL HAVE NO WORKERS THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL HAVE NO MANAGERS THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL BE A DIGITAL ENTITY THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL BE ALIVE

The money-making machine exploits human greed to achieve Darwinist supremacy. In a hat-tip to George Orwell's 1984, the financier nominally in charge of the hedge fund after his computer genius partner fails to slay the beast willingly submits to the machine's camera surveillance.

Mr Harris clearly does not approve of the greed by which mankind enslaves itself. But without the biblical worldview he has no reason to hope for humanity's redemption. He begins the final chapter of his book with a quotation from Darwin's On the Origin of Species:

Looking to the future...which groups will ultimately prevail, no man can predict; for we well know that many groups, formerly most extensively developed, have now become extinct.

There are a number of biblical quotations Mr Harris could have ended his book with. Cranmer's Curate suggests one:

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (John 1v18 - AV).

BCP COLLECT FOR EVERY DAY

2011-12-04T05:45:00.000-08:00

Cranmer's Curate is blogging off until the New Year due to Christmas commitments.

He leaves the youth group with the wonderful Book of Common Prayer Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent, which is actually an urgent prayer for every Christian disciple for every day of our journey through the wilderness of this world:

Blessed Lord, who has hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Youth group prayers would be appreciated for a fruitful outreach through our Christmas services and a positive impact for Christ's gospel from our Christmas newsletters going God willing to every home in the parish.

This piece - The end of the traditional church wedding? - appeared on Archbishop Cranmer

.

Update AD 18/12/11 This piece about Christmas carol singing in pubs appeared on Heresy Corner.

Update 19/12/11 This opinion piece about the significance of David Cameron's Christ Church Oxford speech in support of biblical values appeared on Christian Today.

Update 20/12/11 Another piece on the implications of the Christ Church speech appeared on US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline.

KOBA THE DREAD AND LATTER-DAY POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

2011-12-01T02:00:00.000-08:00

Martin Amis's book about Stalin's terror, Koba the Dread - Laughter and The Twenty Million (Hyperion, New York, 2002), is powerfully theological.

Its message is arguably more urgent ten years on, because of the spiritual and moral kinship between Stalinism and political correctness, whose tendrils have now more deeply penetrated the foundations of Western democracy.

Mr Amis, whose descriptions of the terror cannot but get under the skin of any thoughtful person, wrote (pp30-31):

It has been said that the Bolsheviks ruled as if conducting a war against their own people. But you could go further and say that the Bolsheviks were conducting a war against human nature. Lenin to Gorky:

'Every religious idea, every idea of God...is unutterable vileness...of the most dangerious kind, "contagion" of the most abominable kind. Millions of sins, filthy deeds, acts of violence and physical contagions...are far less dangerous than the subtle, spiritual idea of God decked in the smartest "ideological" costumes...'

Religion is reaction, certainly (and wasn't the Tsar meant to be divine?). But religion is also human nature. One recalls John Updike's argument: the only evidence for the existence of God is the collective human yearning that it should be so. The war against religion was part of the war against human nature, which was prosecuted on many other fronts.

Clearly, Nicene Christians would disagree with the notion that the objective existence of God depends upon human nature. The truth is rather that the human yearning for the transcendent flows from our dependence upon the almighty and self-sufficient Trinitarian God, not from his depedence on us.

But that Lenin's and then Stalin's terror against humanity stemmed from their hatred of the God whose eternal Word became human flesh in Jesus Christ is an urgent insight.

It is a spiritual insight that shows why godless political correctness, which harbours the same hatred, must ineluctably lead to terror if it is allowed to gain control of the state.

This piece - The Church and the re-moralisation of Britain - appeared on Christian Today.

IF CHRISTIANS STOP PLAYING FOR VICTORY SALVATION IS LOST

2011-11-29T03:23:00.000-08:00

"The conversation of interfaith dialogue is always one where we look eagerly and expectantly for enrichment. We're not playing for victory, we're seeking understanding from one another," declared the Archbishop of Canterbury at the launch of the Hindu Christian Forum at Lambeth Palace last week.

In that astonishing remark the divergence between the attitude of the liberal Anglican establishment and that of Christ's Apostles is on full display.

Christians are not playing for victory indeed. According to the New Testament, over an idolatrous religion such as Hinduism, we certainly should be.

In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul, having affirmed the historicity of Christ's bodily resurrection and its guarantee of the future resurrection of all who are in Christ, give thanks to God for giving us the 'victory' through our Lord Jesus Christ (v57). He then exhorts his Christian readers in the Corinthian church to 'be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord' (v58 - King James Version).

In the context of 1 Corinthians, the work in which Christians are to abound, labour that is not 'in vain' in the light of Christ's resurrection victory, includes standing firm for Christ in the face of idolatry.

This is the epistle in which Paul exhorts his Christian readers to 'flee from idolatry' (10v14) and declares that 'the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye have fellowship with devils' (10v20).

The multi-faith issue facing the Western Church is arguably much more serious than the divergence over human sexuality. It is quite possible that the primacy of heterosexual marriage will come back into fashion by the end of this century. It is glaringly obvious that the departure from this bedrock of stable society is inflicting huge damage on the West.

It is quite possible that a hybrid religion capturing the Western soul would seek to restore the central place of heterosexual marriage and the family in society. But such a religion, combining elements of Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, would be a high-road to hell.

For all its social morality, it would not be a saving faith, for it would deny the supremacy and exclusiveness of the victorious Lord Jesus Christ.

If UK Christians listen to Dr Williams and stop playing for victory, then eternal salvation is lost to the next generation.

WHY BANKERS WERE GOOD

2011-11-21T00:03:00.002-08:00

Hopefully Private Eye editor Ian Hislop's BBC programme about Victorian financiers - When bankers were good - will properly explain why they were.

The answer very clearly is that Victorian Britain was saturated with biblical values in the wake of the 18th century evangelical revival. Evangelical Christianity teaches that the whole of life is impacted by the truth of the gospel. That means one should earn one's money in an ethical manner and use it for the love of God and of one's neighbour.

Such a spiritual and moral culture thus conduced to bankers with active consciences moved to virtue, in contrast to the financiers spawned by de-Christianised Britain.

My Hislop's own position in relation to Christian Britain is interesting. He clearly has some sort of spiritual sympathy with it, having presented a previous BBC series about Victorian philanthropists.

But the magazine he edits was a product of the 1960s, the decade which set the hounds on Christian Britain. Private Eye, launched in 1961, belongs to the Beyond the Fringe satirical movement championed by its former proprietor, the late Mr Peter Cook, which set out to lampoon authority and undermine respect for the then British establishment.

The current corrosive cynicism about politicians, in fact more accurately the nihilism about political engagement, has its roots in that godless movement.

The antidote to greedy bankers, corrupt politicians, and a cynical public is evangelical Christianity. That antidote was active in Victorian Britain when rich people were more inclined to listen to Jesus Christ: "Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth (Luke 12v15 - King James Version)."

Mr Hislop's moral position would be more consistent if he preached that message, forsaking the cynical cultural Baal of Private Eye, now ironically a journal the Ahabesque British establishment is quite comfortable with.

This also appeared on Heresy Corner.

TRUSTFUL EVANGELICAL COLLABORATION IN BLACKBURN

2011-11-19T03:50:00.000-08:00

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in this week's Church of England Newspaper:

“I read the news today oh boy/Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire,” sang the Beatles in their celebrated 1967 song Day in the Life. Probably not so well known is the fact that the former mill-town to the world is surrounded by beautiful countryside with some gorgeous cricket grounds. The town itself, however, is a sticky wicket for the Gospel.

For the sake of Christ’s mission to their town, three parishes on the west side of Blackburn are involved in a positive conservative evangelical collaboration. They are St Andrew’s, St Barnabas', and Christ Church with St Matthew’s. Rev. Jonathan Milton-Thompson is vicar of St Andrew’s and priest-in-charge of St Barnabas'. The Rev. Andrew Raynes is vicar of Christ Church. His associate minister is the Rev. James Terry.

Mr Raynes is also Area Dean (Blackburn with Darwen) for the three parishes in a mainly Affirming Catholic and Traditional Catholic diocese. St Andrew’s has a regular morning congregation of around 40 adults with 20 under 16s; St Barnabas has 30 adults with 10 under 16s; Christ Church has 90 adults with 25 under 16s.

The three parishes are sharing an evening service, which takes place at Christ Church. Mr Milton-Thompson preaches twice a term at the 30-strong service. They also collaborate with a teenage youth group called ‘Blast’. The third element is a mid-week lunch-time Bible talk in Blackburn's Central Methodist Church.

The collaboration began out of necessity in 2008 when Mr Milton-Thompson, 60, had a minor stroke and needed help with his evening service. Mr Raynes suggested a joint service. The venture works "because of shared churchmanship and also personalities", says Mr Milton-Thompson. "I get on with Andrew and James. I don’t feel any sort of strain."

St Andrew's and St Barnabas' provide up to 10 of the evening congregation. A case could be made that the smaller churches should share the hosting of the service with Christ Church so that their PCCs properly own it. However, predictability of venue is an important factor in seeking to grow an evening service. Mr Milton-Thompson, described by a senior colleague as a 'go-for-it guy', says Christ Church is always assiduous in plugging his Christianity Explored course as well as theirs.

James Terry, 37, says: “Jonathan preaching helps to tie St Andrew’s into the evening service, so it’s not just a Christ Church thing.”

The three face particular ministry challenges with the large Muslim population in Blackburn, though Mr Milton-Thompson declares that “the indigenous white community is also a serious challenge and usually seems to be less interested in talking religion than our Muslim neighbours”.

National newspapers can understate the proportion of Muslims in Blackburn by including Darwen, the area south of Blackburn, in the statistics. According to the 2001 census, the local authority area of Blackburn with Darwen had 137,000 residents of whom 19.4 per cent were Muslim. So one national newspaper declared that one is five people in Blackburn is Muslim.

Mr Milton-Thompson says the inclusion of Darwen, a mainly white area “on the other side of the motorway” (M65), skews the figure. The Parliamentary Constituency of Blackburn, which includes the three parishes and has the Rt. Hon. Jack Straw as MP, has 101,000 residents of whom a higher proportion are Muslim than in the local authority area.

Damian Talbot, chair of Blackburn Labour Party, puts the number of Muslims in the constituency at around 30,000 (30 per cent). Asked about the prospects for Muslims converting to Christianity, he says: “Jack always describes Blackburn as a big village where everybody knows everybody else. If someone from the Asian community were to convert to Christianity, it would be probably well known in the community around them. I'm not sure how that would work out."

Mr Talbot goes on to say that local Muslim leaders have given assurances about their respect for religious freedom. But clearly it would be the local police who would be closer to the reality of how Muslims who do embrace Christ are treated by their own families and peers.

The Rt. Rev. John Goddard, Bishop of Burnley and suffragan for the three ministers, gives his perspective on the Christian ministry challenge facing the collaborators: “The difficulty of engaging in mission and ministry in Islamic areas is this: how do you have a lively presence and also engage in mission? Particularly from a conservative evangelical point of view, there is the element which wants to look towards conversion, which is part of the spectrum but not the whole spectrum of mission. I do believe there needs to be a lot of work done to win respect and honour and dialogue is a way in for that. These three parishes, with Andrew and James and Jonathan, have pastors of deep conviction and deep engagement.”

Clearly, as those who fully assent to the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion, the three would undertake 'dialogue' with Muslims on the firm understanding that Islam cannot provide salvation, "for holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved" (Article 18 - Of obtaining eternal salvation only by the Name of Christ).

The Archdeacon of Blackburn, the Ven. John Hawley, reflects on the benefit of the shared theological outlook of the churches in the cluster: “In a tough inner city area when we have issues of poverty and a significant Asian Heritage Muslim presence, it is helpful to have similar churchmanship because the other issues are so challenging. In a different context, say rural, a mix of churchmanship might be helpful.”

He continues: “In this context it's got to be a conservative evangelical cluster because of their understanding of the Gospel and mission and evangelism. If you are going to bring people together in an area they have to have a common bond and that has to be their churchmanship as well as their Christian commitment. You have to bring churches together of similar churchmanship to make the best of the resources."

Despite the special Islamic challenge these ministers face, their collaboration certainly has wider application for the Church of England. Small churches struggle to provide evening services and youth groups for teenagers, so sharing resources is manifestly a sensible way forward.

And more generally clustering is becoming an increasing necessity in the Church of England as resources dwindle. Shared churchmanship for clusters is clearly a huge benefit, as this collaboration demonstrates and as the senior staff of Blackburn have the wit to recognise.

The other vital dimension to this collaboration is the trust between the ministers. Common churchmanship does not always guarantee trust. In English conservative evangelicalism, smaller churches can feel that larger churches are happy to provide preachers but will not encourage people commuting out of their parishes to the eclectic congregation to support their struggling local church.

In this cluster, there is no evidence of imperialism on the part of the largest and best resourced of the three, Christ Church, but rather a servant-hearted, Christ-like desire to support and nurture the ministry and mission of the smaller two churches.

This - Tinker Tailor Spiritual Disaster - appeared on VirtueOnline.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR SIR CLIFF RICHARD?

2011-11-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

Sir Cliff Richard used to be a sound Bible-believing evangelical Christian, prepared to articulate counter-cultural views. But sadly not anymore.

His recent supportive noises towards euthanasia - albeit unclear-sounding - are symptomatic of a sea-change of spiritual outlook that, arguably, he has been undergoing over the past decade or so.

It would be simplistic to identify one single cause in this spiritual catastrophe. But Hilary Roberts, of Welwyn Evangelical Church, pinpointed a significant factor in her excellent review of Sir Cliff's autobiography My Life, My Way in Evangelicals Now back in 2008:

In the early days of his faith he read his Bible regularly and went to church each Sunday. Now he is more relaxed — dipping into the Bible when he feels the need. By his own admission, ‘I stopped going to church regularly a long time ago because it became too difficult. I would tend to be surrounded by people who wanted autographs’. He does emphasise his need to be spiritually fed and that he tried unsuccessfully to overcome the problem. When at his home in Barbados he occasionally goes to a Catholic church — ‘I really enjoy it and I like taking communion — I feel it brings me close to Jesus’.

Belonging to a local church is so vital for spiritual support and accountability. It is a sad fact that public Christians under particular pressures, such as politicians, pop stars, film actors, professional sportspeople and, it has to be said, bishops, often fall out of belonging to a local church because of their work schedules and lifestyle. Peripatetic attendance at church services cannot substitute for commitment to the local expression of the Body of Christ.

The powerful CH Spurgeon story springs to mind. He visited a man who had become less regular in coming along to church. He did not lecture the man but simply took a coal from the fire, put it on the grate, watched its glow fade out and then left.

This piece by David Jackman in November's EN - Sticking with the church - is highly recommended.

TESCO SHAREHOLDERS COULD PAY FOR IDEOLOGICAL PASSION FOR GAY PARADING

2011-11-11T02:25:00.000-08:00

Supermarket chain Tesco's decision to sponsor homosexual festival Pride London could be costly, depending on the reaction of those most likely to be morally offended by the move.

Tesco's management may have convinced itself that running a family area at the London WorldPride festival in 2012 can safeguard the company's image as a family-friendly retailer. But if sales are lost from customers who abhor the thought of bringing their children to a global gay pride parade, then Tesco's shareholders will not share the management's perception.

Roman Catholics, evangelical Christians, and Muslims, whose religions are opposed to practising homosexuality, often have large families, meaning that a significant proportion of their weekly budget goes on groceries. A boycott by them of Tesco would be significantly more costly than a boycott by the gay community, which tends to be comprised of smaller households.

Though it is not socially and morally responsible for any company to sponsor homosexual festivals, for the compelling reasons Anglican Mainstream gives, from a purely commercial point of view one can understand vodka brand Smirnoff sponsoring Pride London. Its product fits with the lifestyle many homosexual people choose to pursue. But a grocer like Tesco reliant on the big family shop?

Speaking to a Tesco press officer, Cranmer's Curate got a firm impression that Tesco is ideologically committed to promoting homosexual parading, even passionately so. Its shareholders will of course foot the bill for this ideological commitment, if there is one.

So far there have been no calls from orthodox Christian leaders for a boycott of Tesco. Such calls may come but church leaders would be advised to say that it is an option for Christians rather than insisting on it as a Christian duty.

Each servant of Christ must make up his or her own mind as to whether Tesco has crossed the line here.

This - Dialogue trick on orthodox bishops visiting the West - appeared on US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline.

SERMON IN SHADOW OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL

2011-11-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

Cranmer's Curate had a very pleasant few days on his study leave last week at Cranmer Hall, the Anglican evangelical theological college in Durham. The college, as its website points out, is 'in the shadow' of the great and ancient Cathedral of Durham.

It became clear to your curate, however, that such an illustrious location does not guarantee good preaching.

At a service of Holy Communion presided over by a Ugandan bishop in St John's, the Durham University college that incorporates Cranmer Hall, cc heard a sermon by a Methodist minister which was sadly not a good model for future Anglican preachers. It was on Jesus' cleansing of the Temple in John 2.

The preacher, who lectures in the New Testament to ordinands, was a very eloquent, even mesmerising orator. He began by talking about the difficulty of the passage in view of the difference between John and the Synoptic Gospels. We struggle to locate Jesus' cleansing of the Temple, to understand it, and to apply it, he said.

He then emerged from the dust-cloud of difficulty with an impassioned homily about the need to 'take the whip' to injustice, having alluded to the anti-capitalist protests on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. He also spoke of the need to be rigorous with ourselves in our own discipleship. That is a biblical sentiment to be fair but not one taught by the passage, which is about Jesus, God's authoritative Messiah enforcing the divine will for the Temple, whose spiritual purpose the Word made flesh has come to fulfill through his redemptive death and resurrection.

As a village preacher and one-time trade hack, Cranmer's Curate would make no claim to be a heavy-weight biblical expositor. But he has read the Church of England's 39 Articles of the Religion. The Anglican way of interpreting the Word of God written is clearly set out in Article 20, which states that the Church must not 'so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another'.

The right approach to preaching under the authority of God's written Word, therefore, is to treat John's account of the cleansing of the Temple as historical and to teach what the apostolic witness was inspired by the Holy Spirit to reveal.

Those present for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in St John's would have been much better served by a proper explanation of the significance of Jesus' statement in 2v19 in the dispute following the cleansing, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up' (RSV), which the disciples grasped after his resurrection.

One of course must not be naive here. Preaching that is not dazzled by the critical approach to Scripture will struggle to find a platform within the academy of an English university. One must also be aware that the term 'evangelical' has become much more elastic in recent years, so a theological college with an evangelical label does not guarantee the right presuppositions regarding the authority and inspiration of Holy Scripture.

Nevertheless, because good biblical preaching is so vital to the spiritual future of the Church of the nation youth group prayers are sorely needed for our foundationally evangelical theological colleges, that they would turn out faithful and capable ministers to preach the Word.

This piece - St Paul's fiasco symptomatic of Anglican confusion - appeared on Christian Today.

This about Stonewall voting Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips Bigot of the Year appeared on Archbishop Cranmer.

CURATE'S STUDY LEAVE

2011-10-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

After more than 15 years of public ministry, Cranmer's Curate is off for three weeks' study leave.

His programme, approved by his training incumbent (the Bishop of Sheffield), includes a research project in Blackburn, Lancashire, on a very positive ministry collaboration between three evangelical parishes. The town includes a large Muslim population which poses particular challenges and opportunities for gospel ministry.

Your curate also plans to spend some days at Cranmer Hall, Durham, doing some theological study and attending lectures.

Youth group prayers that this is a profitable time in Christ's service would be appreciated.

Your curate leaves the youth group with the BCP Collect for the Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity:

Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A piece by cc about the ministry of Iwerne Minster - Reaching the Institutionalized - appeared in October's New Directions.

DARK FORCE BEHIND PERSECUTION OF MARK LAWRENCE

2011-10-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

This first appeared on US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline:

No confessional reader of the New Testament could be in any doubt about the nature of the force behind TEC's persecution of the Bishop of South Carolina, the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence.

A Bible-believing, Gospel-proclaiming bishop seeks to lead a TEC diocese forward in spiritual renewal and evangelism. Progress is made; churches are turned around; effective clergy are deployed. The light of Jesus Christ is shining as his saving Word of truth goes out through an episcopal diocese.

Who acts to disrupt this? Not the national or state government hamstringing the ministry of churches through the imposition of political correctness or even an anti-Christian pressure group in South Carolina but the diocese’s own denomination – the TEC National Church.

Make no mistake - TEC’s officious legal move to depose Mark Lawrence is destabilising of an effective ministry. Local churches in the diocese of South Carolina enter a period of uncertainty as to what will happen to their properties if they do what they should do – support their bishop. Othodox clergy face demoralisation with the prospect of losing their patron and having him replaced with a revisionist placeperson.

God willing, TEC would lose in a legal battle over the properties if South Carolina churches stand firm for Mark Lawrence. But with the 'abandonment' investigation launched and lawyers involved the destabilisation process is underway.

Dr Tom Wright in his John for Everyone commentary identifies the real adversaries in the Gospel drama of the conflict between the forces of light and darkness. Commenting on John 12v44-50, he writes (John for Everyone, Part 2, SPCK, 2002, p39):

Of course, there is still to come the moment when Jesus and Pilate look each other in the face; but Pilate isn’t the real villain. He’s the villain’s cat’s-paw. Even Caesar in Rome isn’t the real villain. The real villain is the darkness itself, the darkness that John has not yet named. The darkness will soon gather itself into a heap and take possession of one of Jesus’ own friends. Once ‘the Satan’ has entered Judas (13:27), we are not surprised when he goes out into the night (13:30).

This is not the first time in history the institutional church has done Satan’s work and it won’t be the last until the Lord of the light returns. But in trying to stifle the light of the Christ’s truth in South Carolina the TEC National Church is certainly pursuing the dark cause of its master.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL WOULD CRUISE THROUGH COMMONS

2011-10-10T04:19:00.001-07:00

If a bill to legalise same-sex marriage were announced in the 2013 Queen's Speech, it would cruise through the House of Commons with a comfortable majority.

An alliance of Cameronite Conservatives, Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrats would see the bill home with, Cranmer’s Curate estimates, at least 500 out of 650 MPs in favour.

The main opposition would come from the Cornerstone group of around 40 Conservative MPs. Cornerstone, which includes some real characters in the best tradition of independent-minded British Conservativism such as Edward Leigh, Adam Holloway, Nadine Dorries and Philip Davies, declares that it stands for:

the Monarchy; traditional marriage; family and community duties; proper pride in our nation’s distinctive qualities; quality of life over soulless utility; social responsibility over personal selfishness; social justice as civic duty, not state dependency; compassion for those in need; reducing government waste; lower taxation and deregulation; our ancient liberties against politically correct censorship and a commitment to our democratically elected parliament.

So its MPs can be relied on to stage a valiant action against this abomination.

But numerically they cannot succeed. Your curate estimates an additional 40 Conservative MPs out of the parliamentary party of 305 would join them on a free vote. On a whipped vote, cc believes they would be lucky to get half that. The remaining opposition would come from the Democratic Unionists (8 MPs) and some Roman Catholic Labour members.

The permissive society has done its work well on the minds of the new generation of Conservative MPs.

With such a large majority in favour in the House of Commons, it would be vain to hope that the bill would be thrown out by the Lords.

One would sincerely hope that Her Majesty the Queen as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and herself a regular Communicant would in conscience refuse to give the bill the Royal Assent. But that would be very unlikely.

The next horror would be that the Sexual Orientation Regulations would be extended to cover marriage ceremonies in churches. That would mean churches being sued for refusing to take same-sex marriages. They would be seen as sinning not just against the politically-correct deity of equality, but also against the ethos of 'commitment' the Big Society requires.

Under such circumstances, churches that stopped officially registering marriages and offered ceremonies for their members after a civil marriage would still find themselves under pressure from the State.

So, may the living Christ give us courage, resolution, and the willingness to suffer loss in the cause of his Kingdom and righteousness in the difficult days ahead.

BACK TO CHURCH SUNDAY IN CONSUMER SOCIETY

2011-10-07T00:10:00.001-07:00

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in this week's Church of England Newspaper:

Back to Church Sunday on September 25th was well worth running but it uncovered some hard truths about parish evangelism in a consumer society.

To our parish church in a relatively prosperous commuter village just outside Sheffield I estimate that around 40 people were invited by a congregation of just below that number on a normal Sunday. Those invited included marriage couples, baptism and thanksgiving families and some people our church is in touch with through funeral ministry.

In the event, one member of the church family had a friend to bring. There were five people whom I had invited, two of them to hear their Banns of marriage, and a few fringe people turned up. So our experience with Back to Church Sunday illustrates what hard work evangelism is in a materialistic community where making money and spending it is the main raison d'etre.

Despite the apparent low return on effort expended, there is no question that the event was spiritually beneficial. Those who came found the church friendly and welcoming and the guest speaker's sermon on Jesus' parable of the lost son was excellent.

One of the visitors told me that he was very struck by something the speaker said about the trustworthiness of the Bible. Thank you very much to St Ebbe's Oxford for providing such an outstanding young man to preach the gospel.

And the build-up to Back to Church Sunday was very worthwhile and a great opportunity to highlight evangelism.

But our Back to Church Sunday made me realise why fundraising is an activity to which small churches will turn as a substitute activity for evangelism. A fundraiser where things are on sale is much more in tune with a consumer society than getting the gospel out and makes fewer demands on both the inviters and the invited.

You can generally pack a room with a church or Mothers’ Union fund raiser in our parish, but in terms of value for Christ's Kingdom there is no comparison between an invitation Sunday at which his gospel of eternal salvation is being proclaimed and a charge-for-entry table top sale.

STALIN BIOGRAPHER'S CALL TO CONSCIENCE

2011-10-05T00:03:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the action by police officers in intimidating a Christian for displaying the text of the Bible in his Blackpool cafe, the final two paragraphs of Dmitri Volkogonov's biography of Stalin are worth quoting in full.

Colonel General Volkogonov's father was executed under Stalin and he spent his boyhood in exile with his mother in Siberia. He published his masterly biography of the seminarian turned mass killer in 1989 shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union:

In this book I frequently refer to conscience. People like Stalin regard conscience as a chimera. One cannot speak of the conscience of a dictator: he simply did not have one. The people who did his dirty deeds for him, however, knew full well what they were doing. In such people conscience had 'gone cold'. In consequence, the people allowed their own consciences to be driven into a reservation, thus giving the grand inquisitor the opportunity to carry on with his dark deeds.

The Soviet people have not entirely lost their belief in high ideals. They have shown themselves to be capable of repentance, rebirth and renewal, and this has had much to do with the liberation of their consciences from the shackles of shameful unfreedom. They have freed themselves, certainly, but it is too soon to beat the drum. In Russian and Soviet history there have been many brave attempts at making a new start, but too many of them ended with the defeat of the reformers. Perhaps it is premature now to say that the process of renewal is irreversible. Stalinism is after all not yet dead politically. Crises and their solutions have not only a progressive, but also a conservative logic. One can only pray that one's worst fears will not turn out to be prophetic. But our history gives one pause (Stalin, Triumph and Tragedy, trans. Harold Shukman 1991, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, pp580-581).

Cranmer's Curate offers two reflections in the light of this: 1). It is worth noting that a man who grew up in a society where the true God had been banished and supplanted by a murderous dictator is minded to pray for his country.

2). The human conscience without the personal spiritual regeneration that only the Jesus Christ of the Bible can bestow is notoriously fragile.

That is why the drive by the forces of political correctness to suppress the Bible fills one with such foreboding for Britain.

REVISIONIST BISHOP OF DONCASTER WOULD DAMAGE GROWTH

2011-10-03T00:03:00.000-07:00

To the Archbishop of York, The Most Reverend Dr John Sentamu:

Your Grace,

I am writing as a parochial incumbent in Sheffield Diocese to express the hope that the next Bishop of Doncaster to be consecrated will clearly and unequivocally uphold Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10.

The reason for focussing specifically on that Resolution is that a refusal to affirm it as the biblically faithful statement that it is involves a hermeneutical approach to the Bible that is fundamentally anti-Anglican.

Article 20 of the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion declares that 'it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another’.

Revisionists who deny the enduring validity of New Testament teaching on faith and morals on the basis of claims that such texts are trumped by others about Christian liberty are treating Holy Scripture in precisely the way Article 20 forbids.

There is another reason in our context why the consecration of a bishop with a revisionist approach to Holy Scripture would be so very damaging.

In a diocese where the majority of parishes are net-receiving in terms of parish share and have fewer than 65 adults on a normal Sunday, our Diocesan Bishop Dr Steven Croft has been rightly promoting the Diocesan Strategy for Growth. Indeed this week in our deanery there is a meeting for PCC members with Bishop Steven entitled ‘Growing the Body of Christ’.

In the Anglican tradition, the Bible is absolutely central and essential to the growth of the Body of Christ. That conviction is reflected in the fact that in our Ordinal (whose biblical faithfulness is affirmed by Canon A5) the Bishop being consecrated is handed a Bible by the Archbishop and exhorted: "Give heed unto reading, exhortation and doctrine. Think upon the things contained in this Book. Be diligent in them, that the increase coming thereby may manifest itself to all men."

A bishop who took the revisionist approach to the Bible involved in the rejection of Lambeth 1.10 would not be contributing to the spiritual 'increase' that our Ordinal asserts will flow forth from faithful adherence to God's Word written. In fact, he would be a false teacher and so it would be incumbent upon Christian people to respond to his ministry in the way that the New Testament commands in relation to false teachers (see Romans 16v17-20; Galatians 1v6-9; 2 John v8-11).

I therefore respectfully appeal to you to consecrate a suffragan bishop of Doncaster with a Confessing Anglican approach to the Bible as opposed to a revisionist one.

With all Christian good wishes,

Julian Mann
The Parish Church of the Ascension
Oughtibridge
www.oughtibridgechurch.org.uk

UK FOREIGN SECRETARY DENOUNCES IRAN’S PERSECUTION OF EVANGELICAL PASTOR

2011-09-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared on US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline:

The UK Foreign Secretary the Right Honourable William Hague MP has intervened in the case of evangelical pastor Youcef Nadarkhani facing execution by Iran’s Supreme Court.

British religio-political blogger Archbishop Cranmer yesterday contacted the UK Foreign Office about the plight of Pastor Nadarkhani, an evangelical house church leader who is married with two young sons.

Cranmer reports that within an hour Mr Hague issued the following statement: “I deplore reports that Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian Church leader, could be executed imminently after refusing an order by the Supreme Court of Iran to recant his faith. This demonstrates the Iranian regime’s continued unwillingness to abide by its constitutional and international obligations to respect religious freedom. I pay tribute to the courage shown by Pastor Nadarkhani who has no case to answer and call on the Iranian authorities to overturn his sentence.”

Cranmer today reported that Pastor Nadarkhani appeared before Iran's Supreme Court for the third time and was asked to recant his faith in Christ.

“For the third time, he refused. His lawyer presented the final defence and we are presently awaiting further news. Sources indicate that the judges could take up to a week to issue their decision on the implementation of the death sentence. However, they reserve the right to effect execution within a shorter period of time should they so desire. There is a real concern that the death sentence could be implemented without any official announcement at all.”

UK 2031 CE: PRICE OF PUTTING AD IN HISTORY EXAM

2011-09-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

This is an extract from the journal of a pastor in the underground Confessing Church of the administrative district formerly known as the United Kingdom:

I really don't know what prompted Mavis to put AD after the date of the Battle of Hastings in her midi-Baccalaureate history exam. Possibly a spirit of adolescent rebellion, possibly a desire to take a clear Christian stand, possibly a bit of both. But the reaction from the authorities has been both swift and devastating.

The examiner immediately reported the incident to the Equality and Diversity Directorate. They then informed social services that the Correct Calendar Directive had been clearly breached by a child in full-time education.

John and Gill received a visit from a social worker accompanied by two police officers. They were informed that a care order had been placed on Mavis and that they were accompanying her to secure accommodation.

Rummaging about in an old trunk in their attic, she had found a religious studies text book from the end of the last century that used both BC and AD. She asked me what the terms meant after one of our church meetings. I explained and also warned her not to use them in normal discourse.

Thinking about it in retrospect, she did appear very excited by the thought that within living memory the concepts of 'Before Christ' and 'In the year of our Lord' were appearing in school text books.

I suspect the trail will lead to me before too long. To some extent life has been easier since the Confessing Church's registered religion licence was withdrawn after we refused to use the diversified bibles issued by the Official Church.

We've just got on with meeting behind closed doors. But a 15-year-old girl from our church using the Christian calendar in a public examination is a different story. It blows our privacy right open...

STALINGRAD BATTLE AHEAD OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

2011-09-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Cranmer's Curate learned the hard way on BBC Radio Sheffield that the battle over same-sex marriage is going to be a Stalingrad.

This is not - repeat not - to draw a comparison between the ideologies of the combatants in the World War II battle and those clashing in this 21st century culture war. But it is a figurative way of saying that a long hard winter of heavy pounding and hand-to-hand street fighting is in store for the defenders of the God-created institution of heterosexual marriage.

Tuesday's interview is not available on BBC iPlayer - there was apparently a technical problem. But it was an emotive debate in which your curate was roundly accused of being both 'reactionary' and 'fundamentalist'.

The 'reactionary' label is worth pondering. Yes, orthodox Christians are reacting against an attempt by the forces of political correctness to reshape the institution of marriage their way.

But the 'reactionary' insult means more than that - it means we are anti-progress, anti-Enlightenment, anti-humanity fulfilling its potential.

In truth, there is nothing 'reactionary' in that negative sense about defending an institution that is for the good of society, its stability and good order. There is nothing reactionary about not wanting to see people's businesses destroyed and their cars torched by the social disorder that results from undermining the institution of man-woman marriage.

Rebuilding respect for the institution of heterosexual marriage as the God-given context in which children are nurtured and learn positive values is actually essential for the spiritual and moral future of Britain.

So the defenders are the real progressives.

Furthermore, for the Church of Jesus Christ in the UK same-sex marriage is a tank on our lawn. If the institutional Church capitulates and agrees to conduct same-sex anti-marriages, public Christianity in our country will be practically finished.

Heterosexual marriage links into the nature of the God who created it, the authority of the Christ who upheld it and the faith his followers are called to profess and practice.

So, the stakes are high in this ideological Stalingrad and the defenders must be prepared to pay the cost. It is a battle we cannot shy away from. The attackers of course have massive resources at their disposal - the weapons of emotive arguments about celebrating love, the fire-power of equality and anti-discrimination, and now the heavy armour of the secular State.

But the Stalingrad comparison must not be pressed in terms of the outcome - in the World War II battle the defenders won. In this battle there is no guarantee that the State will not legalise same-sex marriage - in fact that is highly likely - or that the institutional Church will not capitulate to the blasphemy.

Yet for Jesus' people his words in John's Gospel need to be taken to heart as the flak flies:

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8v31-32 - RSV).

This piece - Church of England's guilty silence on fatherhood - appeared on Archbishop Cranmer.

CEM JOAD (1891-1953) - THE FORGOTTEN CHRISTIAN

2011-09-20T01:36:00.000-07:00

This is a guest-post by Richard Symonds:

Philosopher Cyril Joad (1891-1953) is not someone we should forget as thinking Christians.

He wrote most of his 100+ books from his 'retreat' at South Stoke Farm West Sussex, until the end of the war (eg Teach Yourself Philosophy 1944).

Then, in 1946 until his death of cancer aged 61, lived at Stedham West Sussex - from where he wrote his last major work "The Recovery of Belief - A Restatement of Christian Philosophy" (Faber & Faber 1952)

As Cyril Joad's 60th Anniversary approaches, I grow in the conviction that if he had not died when he did - 1953 - a critically-important 'Moral Realist' movement would have developed, to rival that of the prevailing 'Moral Relativists'.

The Times Obituary for CEM Joad (April 10 1953) states: "CEM Joad made no original contribution to philosophy". That is simply incorrect. Joad made a very original - albeit late - contribution to Christian philosophy - "The Recovery of Belief".

Professor Geoffrey Thomas, of Birkbeck College London, wrote this in a booklet "Cyril Joad" (Birkbeck - 1992): "Cyril Joad also worshipped at Stedham church: and the image of Joad and T.S. Eliot, often the only communicants, is not the least curious of church history's vignettes."

This is what the Professor Thomas says on the first page: "This book commemorates Cyril Joad, a philosopher who believed that philosophy should not be a mere academic speciality, but a power in everyday life."

CEM Joad set up London's Birkbeck's Philosophy Department in 1930, and ran it for or 23 years - but he was never made a Professor; which is not the least curious in Birkbeck's history - especially as it is now considered one of the best Philosophy Departments in the world.

Joad is best remembered as The Professor' in the BBC's Brains Trust - one of the most popular wartime radio programmes in this country (there was no television) - now called Any Questions? and Question Time.

These days, if Cyril Joad is remembered at all, he is remembered more for a media-hyped train ticket 'scandal' in 1948, which all but destroyed his reputation as a well-known academic and broadcasting celebrity. His fall from grace was extremely rapid - sacked by the BBC, the title "Sir Cyril" lost, and then diagnosed with cancer.

But CEMJ's best work was produced late in life: "Recovery of Belief - A Restatement of Christ".

So what?

I believe a greater understanding of the work of Cyril Joad - and Moral Realism - may well be a critical pre-condition for humanity's survival in the 21st century.

Cranmer's Curate was on the Toby Foster breakfast show on BBC Radio Sheffield at around 8.20am this morning debating same-sex marriage.

IS THERE A CONTENDER FOR ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY?

2011-09-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

Charles Raven in his brilliant review of Mike Higton's Grove booklet on Rowan Williams's moral theology co-incidentally answers the question posed this week by Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover: Will the Church ever have a strong enough leader?

Mr Glover, a political commentator who writes very incisively on the Church of England, calls for a spiritual leader able to take on the secular establishment of the BBC, which he argues is hugger-mugger with atheist propagandists such as Richard Dawkins:

All of which brings me to the question of what sort of cleric should replace Rowan Williams, if he is indeed standing down. I have criticised the Archbishop of Canterbury from time to time, and now is not the moment to take up the cudgels again. Suffice to say that, brilliant and holy man though he undoubtedly is, he has not offered very firm leadership to the Church of England or great inspiration to the nation.

Mr Raven gets to the heart of the leadership problem. It is not Dr Williams's giftedness that is at issue - he is an extremely gifted and civilised man - it is the uncertainty towards the authority of God's Word written, inherent in his theological methodology, that has made his job such a sad strain upon him:

Mike Higton has done us a real service in providing a reminder that Christian moral decision making must be robustly theological, coming from what is effectively the shared enterprise of developing a ‘Christian mind’ committed to working out God’s grace in every area of life. But experience shows that unless that Christian mind is informed by an equally robust theology of biblical revelation, it will rapidly be colonised by the ambient culture. One of the keys to making sense of recent history of the Anglican Communion is to recognise the deep determination of Western liberals to overcome the set-back they received at the 1998 Lambeth Conference and it is a serious weakness that this booklet does not take account of the ways, practically and theologically, that Rowan Williams has served that agenda - not least by justifying the avoidance of decisions.

In a nutshell, the Church of England needs a spiritual leader whose Christian mind is submitted to the authority of God's Word written and is therefore well defended from invasion by the forces of the 'ambient culture'.

A leader like that could make a huge difference. But he would have a very tough job on his hands.

Mr Raven writes from the perspective of a pastor who is no longer in the institutional Church of England. He leads an independent Anglican Evangelical congregation in Kidderminster having taken a brave stand on biblical orthodoxy.

But an orthodox Archbishop of Canterbury would be leader of an ecclesiastical institution whose theological incoherence is deeply entrenched. The strains of such incoherence are reaching breaking point and have certainly told on the soul of Dr Williams, albeit he has divested himself of the spiritual and intellectual defences to deal with them.

A Bible-believing Archbishop would face the challenge of having to collaborate with colleagues in the House of Bishops with a very different theological outlook, some of whom he might have to regard as false teachers. The spiritual, psychological and emotional burden of this would be enormous on even the most gifted, godly and robust of Christian leaders.

Frankly, leading the Church of England is one of the last jobs on earth Cranmer's Curate would want even if he were up to it, which he is not. Despite his height phobia, cc would rather clean windows at the top of skyscrapers than be Archbishop of Canterbury.

Nevertheless, a man by God's grace prepared to contend for the Gospel of Christ within and without the institutional Church would be the sort of spiritual leader Mr Glover is calling for.

The big bright purple question though is whether there is such there a contender in reach of Canterbury.

WHY ALMIGHTY GOD DOESN'T BELIEVE IN US

2011-09-12T00:03:00.000-07:00

Ever been told that God believes in you?

Cranmer's Curate first came across this disturbing conceit in a tribute in a national newspaper to Sir Robin Day after he died in 2000. The writer, a leading UK journalist, said he wasn't sure whether his late friend believed in God but was confident that God believed in him.

It is easy to see why, in this age of self-worship, this is becoming a popular shibboleth. It is a theological kissing cousin of Open Theism, the idea that human beings can thwart God's purposes because he is not omnipotent.

So God, being a bit like a stressed-out football manager on the touchline, depends on his team to do their stuff against the opposition. 'People skills' require that he bolsters his players' self-esteem by telling them that he believes in them.

Biblically, God does not behave like that because he is omnipotent and omniscient and human beings, including regenerate ones, are fallen and sinful. God Incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, John's Gospel tells us, 'did not trust himself to them' (that is to those who believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did in Jerusalem) 'because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for he himself knew what was in man' (John 2v24-25 - RSV).

Disbelieving in 'God believes in us' does not mean you have to deny that God has delegated responsibilities in his creation to men and women made in his image. Nor do you have to deny that Christian ministers are God's 'fellow workers' (cf 1 Corinthians 3v9).

Nor is disbelieving in this conceit an excuse for Christian ministers to be distrustful and unco-operative with God's other Bible-believing fellow workers in the harvest-field.

But it is assert that, biblically, God's decision to delegate and co-operate does not detract one bit from his sovereignty in fulfilling his good purposes for his universe, still less make him dependent on us.

Because we fallen human creatures are so spiritually and morally flawed, to teach that God believes in us is to make him out to be a fool.

If the person using the phrase is trying to find a fresh way of saying God is committed to humanity, then no orthodox Christian will have a problem with the sentiment. But in that case John 3v16 is a much better way of saying it, and indeed a more wonderful way, because the 'world' God sent his Son to die for is the world of sinful, God-hating humanity.

Where 'God believes in us' becomes decidedly unhelpful is when it is used in the sense of God placing his trust or confidence in humanity because, underneath it all, we are worthy of his trust, and God needs us on his side.

One suspects that the spread of such humanity-worshipping theology is being exacerbated by cursory confessions in public worship and by the marginalisation of good God-centred hymns in favour of me-centred choruses.

A regular dose of 'Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes' or 'Only thou art holy, there is none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity' is a good antidote to this poison.

The youth group ought to be pleased to be reminded that the true Lord God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is not dependent on fallen Mann.

This piece - Thank the Good Lord for Parliamentary Democracy - appeared on Christian Today.

GIDEONS - INTREPID SERVANTS OF THE WORD

2011-09-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

Anyone with an image in their mind of international Bible distributors The Gideons as a bunch of cheesy Bible bashers could not be more wrong. These gentlemen are intrepid servants of Christ and in a Western context courageous counter-cultural rebels in the right sense.

At a lunch hosted by their South Sheffield branch yesterday, Cranmer's Curate heard an account from a British Gideon of his labours distributing Bibles in Swahili to school children in Tanzania. He told how when he signed the visitors' book after a journey to a school in a very remote place the last signature was four years previously.

The warm welcome the Gideons received in Tanzania contrasted sharply with their reception at the Flemish university in Belgium. A lecturer called the police to prevent them distributing the New Testament to students on the pavement outside the campus. The speaker told how the indignant academic was unable to answer when asked: 'What is wrong with students at the Flemish university being encouraged to think for themselves?'

A computer lecturer in his day-job, this gentleman's international labours for the cause of Christ are entirely unpaid.

In the post-modern mind, the masculinity of the Gideons would be seen as a disadvantage. In fact, the Gideons' willingness to stand up for their Christian convictions and take risks to get the Word of God to the world is a feature of the pre-1960s male. Their godly masculinity is thus what makes them so effective in serving the Word.

Certainly, it would be a brave man who would attempt to distribute Bibles in the British school run by the headmistress who declared on national radio that mentioning Jesus in assemblies is a no-no because it would exclude some of her students.

Cranmer's Curate thanks the editor of the Sheffield Telegraph, Mr David Todd, very much indeed for publishing a clarification in this week's issue after cc was grossly misrepresented in a letter last week.

MORAL FRAGILITY OF COALITION EXPOSED BY DORRIES AMENDMENT

2011-09-07T06:32:00.000-07:00

Despite the failure of her attempt to introduce independent counselling for women considering abortions, a courageous Member of Parliament has exposed the moral fragility of the coalition.

Within Parliament the bid by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries to amend the Health and Social Care Bill so as to break the pro-abortion lobby's stranglehold over counselling has had a significant effect.

The concerted political effort to sink the Dorries amendment has served to highlight the extent to which the Conservative Party has shifted from the Judaeo-Christian values that used to underpin it when it had a habit of winning elections. The letter from Conservative Health Minister Anne Milton last week telling MPs on the Government's payroll (including junior ministers and parliamentary private secretaries) that all health ministers were opposing the amendment was seen as an attempt at covert whipping in what has traditionally been a free vote issue.

The intervention backfired badly, only serving to highlight the ideological compromises underlying the coalition. There is a whiff of Weimar about British politics at the moment.

Thus the amendment’s exposure of the moral realities of coalition politics has served a good and truthful purpose.

Furthermore, the reaction to the reaction against the Dorries amendment has had a positive effect. The backing for her clause from Conservative Defence Secretary Liam Fox - and just as significantly the timing of his support - has boosted the independence of backbench MPs on issues of conscience.

As former Conservative Home Office Minister Ann Widdecombe wrote on ConservativeHome:

All pro-life Conservative MPs must be very grateful to Liam Fox for his public stand on the clause calling for independent counselling for women considering abortion. Liam – as we all know – has always been a courageous and clear-thinking fighter on any issue in which he has been involved. I, for one, was pretty confident that he would not toe the line on the Ann (sic) Milton memorandum calling on the Government payroll to vote for what she has chosen to describe as the Department of Health policy. To my mind it was undoubtedly backdoor whipping and decidedly in breach of the policy honourably held for over forty years by the Conservative Party.

As long as there is a British Parliament, independently-minded MPs can use its processes to expose falsehood and tell the truth. It is worth considering that in a non-parliamentary regime run by a politically-correct incarnation of Joseph Stalin that would not be possible.

We desperately need more servants of Christ inspired by the truth of the gospel to defy cynicism and apathy about politics and to become MPs. Provided they are prepared to follow their consciences and sacrifice personal ambition they can by God's grace still do a great deal of good.

JESUS DRIVEN OUT OF POLITICALLY-CORRECT PARADISE

2011-09-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

"We are a very multi-cultural school and were we to mention Jesus it would exclude some of our students."

So said the president of the Association of School and College Leaders, herself a headteacher, on BBC national radio.

She was speaking after a Comres survey for BBC local radio found that 64 per cent of the 500 parents questioned said their child did not attend daily acts of collective worship. The survey also found that the majority of the adults questioned did not want the enforcement of the law requiring state schools to provide a daily act of mainly Christian worship.

There is no point fulminating about the lady's statement. It is more constructive to analyse it coolly.

This pronouncement by a high priestess of political correctness reveals precisely why, unless there is a radical change in the ideological trajectory of UK society, it will be morally impossible for the British State to tolerate the Christian voice in the public square.

In a multi-cultural society, a morality to which everyone can subscribe is required for the sake of community cohesion and the avoidance of conflict.

That is why the saving Name of the Lord Jesus must not be proclaimed. Some people might feel 'excluded' by any expression of reverence for God Incarnate. He is just too controversial.

So He must be excluded, driven out of this politically-correct Eden of community cohesion.

Which of course does not alter the fact that He is the glorious Lord of life; that He is building His Church; and that He is far too compelling a figure to be confined by the tedium and mediocrity of a neo-Stalinist cultural graveyard posing as an earthly paradise.

UK evangelical journalist Tim Thornborough has produced a piece of high quality journalism in the Australian magazine The Briefing. In the brilliantly titled 'Does the future have a church?' Mr Thornborough analyses the implications for evangelical ministry of the latest statistical research about the UK church scene.

ABORTION: THE CHILDREN WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN BAPTISED

2011-09-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

The painful reality has to be faced that many thousands of children 'terminated' in Britain through abortion since 1967 would have been baptised.

Taking into account the falling numbers of children being brought for baptism since the 1960s, it is nonetheless incontrovertible that the overwhelming majority of abortions in England and Wales are to mothers, both white and Afro-Caribbean, whose religious background, such as it is, would be Christian. Someone in their wider family, probably at the older end, would have been baptised in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

According to government statistics kindly supplied to Cranmer's Curate by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, of the 189,574 abortions to residents of England and Wales in 2010, 76 per cent of the women involved were white and nine per cent were black.

It is undeniable that the majority of 'Christian-background' children aborted last year, had they been allowed to live, would have grown up in a completely secular environment - what has been justly described as 'pre-Christian' Britain. But children aborted in the 1970s and 1980s, who would now be in adulthood, would have been much closer to Christian Britain. Many of their grandparents, if not their parents, would have been baptised.

It is therefore quite possible that some of them, through wider family or adoptive parental influence, could have come into contact with a local church through baptism. That is not to assert the erroneous doctrine of baptismal regeneration ex opere operato. But it is to state the fact of parochial life that children who get involved in Sunday schools very often come through the baptismal route.

That means some of these children could have learned the love of Christ in childhood; some of them could have owned Christian faith for themselves in adolescence and early adulthood and come to Confirmation; some of them could have become leaders in the Church and in society, serving the living Christ and their fellow men and women in our generation.

A revival of the Christian faith is the only hope for the renewal of British society whose profound spiritual and moral problems were so shamefully exposed by the August riots.

God’s created image-bearers – according to Psalm 139 fearfully and wonderfully knit together in their mothers’ wombs – who through the wonder of spiritual rebirth could have become part of the solution were cruelly cut off.

The devastating spiritual, moral and social cost of abortion is that it has deprived Britain of some great Christians.

This piece - Anti-Anglican attack on Sydney Diocese - appeared on VirtueOnline.

POP SONGS CONVEYING BIBLICAL MESSAGE

2011-08-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

The Simon Mayo Drivetime show on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesday featured six pop songs with a biblical characters' theme. Cranmer's Curate heard four of them - Hey there Delilah by the Plain White T's; Devil Woman by Cliff Richard; Marvin Gaye's version of Abraham, Martin and John; and Lady Madonna by the Beatles.

Delilah and the devil are solidly biblical characters but the biblical references in the other two songs seem somewhat tenuous. Abraham in the Marvin Gaye song refers to Abraham Lincoln rather than the Patriarch and John to John Kennedy rather than the Apostle or the Baptist. Madonna (my lady), being an Italian designation for the Virgin Mary, is also not strictly speaking a biblical name.

This got cc thinking - if the youth group had the opportunity to introduce a pop song conveying a clear biblical message on national radio, what would they choose?

Cranmer's Curate would choose Elvis Presley's wonderful rendition of the hymn How Great Thou Art. The last verse beautifully expresses the Christian hope:

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home - what joy shall fill my heart! Then shall I bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!

Your curate certainly wouldn't choose I still haven't found what I'm looking for by U2. It seems to exude an ungodly lack of gratitude for God's gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. Yes of course it is true that we await the consummation of our salvation at the Second Coming of Christ but the Elvis hymn articulates the strong sense of biblical confidence surrounding that hope, in marked contrast to the post-modern spiritual ennui of the U2 song.

What would you choose? Any of Johnny Cash's spirituals most welcome.

PUBLIC BENEFIT OF CHARITIES AT STAKE IN BARNABAS FUND COMPLAINT

2011-08-23T00:03:00.000-07:00

It would be of grave concern if the Charity Commission upheld the complaint against the Barnabas Fund because its booklet Slippery Slope: the Islamisation of the UK was perceived to have offended against multi-culturalism.

The charities' magazine Third Sector recently reported on the complaint against the UK-based international charity that supports persecuted servants of Jesus Christ for statements in Slippery Slope:

The booklet claims that DVDs featuring radical preachers are "widely disseminated" in mosques and says that on one such DVD a speaker argues that "if a girl refuses to wear the hijab, she should be hit".

It also claims that radical Muslim preachers say "women are created with deficient intellect".

A commission spokeswoman said: "Concerns have been raised with us regarding the Barnabas Fund after recent media coverage of a booklet produced by the charity.

"We are currently considering the issues raised to determine what, if any, regulatory interest there is for the commission."

If the complainant has been challenging the veracity of the Barnabas Fund's claims, then all the charity has to do is produce the evidence for its reporting of Islamist activity, and that should be the end of it. But if the complainant was asserting that the Barnabas Fund should not have reported the statements of radical Muslim preachers, then that kind of complaint should be summarily dismissed.

The Charity Commission's own website asserts that

whilst the charitable sector is enormous and very diverse, the aims of each and every charity, whatever their size, must be for public benefit. Public benefit is therefore central to the work of all charities.

Telling the truth through the exercise of free speech is a vital part of a charity's responsibility to serve the public benefit. Censuring a charity for disseminating veracious information that certain individuals may have felt presented their religion in a bad light would go unconscionably against the public benefit.

This is by cc - The Christian case for capital punishment - appeared on Christian Today.

THANK THE LORD SHEFFIELD SPARED RIOTS BUT NO COMPLACENCY

2011-08-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the letter by Cranmer's Curate in this week's Sheffield Telegraph:

Thank the good Lord Sheffield was spared the appalling criminality that devastated major UK cities last week. But we cannot afford to be complacent.

The attack on the spiritual and moral fabric of UK society since the 1960s, and in particular the undermining of the leadership role of fathers in the family, is a major contributing factor to the disorder our country has experienced. A culture of political correctness also initially inhibited the police from taking the robust action required.

As servants of Christ, we as front-line Sheffield clergy have a responsibility to support the forces of law and order by unequivocally denouncing attacks on businesses and the devastation of people's livelihoods. One sincerely hopes that we will not hear from church leaders any relativising of the sheer criminality of theft and looting by blaming such behaviour on government cuts.

This piece - Gangsta & Mammon - idols of the riots - appeared on Archbishop Cranmer.

MESSAGE OF MORALITY CANNOT STAND UP AGAINST 'GANGSTA' MISSIONARIES

2011-08-15T03:10:00.000-07:00

Politicians are right to talk up morality in the wake of the explosion of criminality on our streets and the Church should support them in that. But morality, even in its Judaeo-Christian form, is not the ultimate answer to humanity’s need; the bread of life is and the Church should be proclaiming Him.

At a children’s holiday club our local church held last week – following a weekend of devastating rioting in London - we looked at Jesus’ claim in John’s Gospel: ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst’ (John 6v35 - RSV).

The negative word ‘never’ is important in that verse when considering the spiritual and moral plight of the young people who took part in the criminality last week.

The fact has to be faced that they are finding satisfaction and fulfilment in the ‘gangsta’ culture that glorifies defiance of the established forces of law and order. It is their bread of life. They find meaning, fulfilment and a sense of belonging in that culture. And they are enthusiastic missionaries for its values, spreading the word through social media.

Gangsta is their god and they are finding him exciting and satisfying. Or, to be more spiritually accurate, Gangsta and Mammon formed a syncretistic alliance in the riots and that was what proved so attractive to the young people who took to looting.

In stating that those who come to Him will ‘never’ hunger, Jesus was not claiming that there are not alternative gods to Him. There manifestly were when he said those words and there manifestly are now.

He was making a statement that can only be properly grasped in the light of eternity. The eternal Son of God was teaching us that those who resort to alternatives to Him will one day find themselves empty, abandoned and unfulfilled when they stand before Him on Judgement Day.

The rediscovery of civilised morality is manifestly a vital temporal need for UK society and was even before the outbreak of criminality last week; but it is not the ultimate answer for men and women under the sentence of death.

As mortal creatures, one day we will face God at the Last Judgement and unless we have fed on the bread of life and come to the eternal Son of God, we will find ourselves destitute.

That is the eternal message the Church must proclaim. A temporal message that harps on about rediscovering Christian values as the vital social glue cannot hope to stand up to the spiritual zeal of the ‘gangsta’ missionaries.

EVANGELICALS MORE COHERENT IF JOHN STOTT HAD BACKED REFORM

2011-08-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

This piece appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline:

Without the late Revd Dr John Stott, ‘there would be fewer evangelicals in the Church of England today, and those in it would be brash, old-fashioned and a little like the church's version of the US Tea Party,' argued Matthew Creswell in his Guardian article of August 4th.

But a strong case can be made that had Dr Stott backed Reform, the Anglican evangelical group formed in 1993 after the Church of England’s decision to ordain women as priests, UK evangelicals would be a more coherent force.

Dr Stott was uncomfortable with Reform, despite the fact that its leaders had been hugely influenced by his conservative biblical scholarship and shared his controversial commitment to penal substitutionary atonement. Dr Stott magnificently expounded and defended this classic evangelical doctrine in his 1986 book, The Cross of Christ.

He was there looking manifestly uneasy as an observer at a Reform national conference I attended as an Oak Hill ordinand in the mid-1990s. At a conference later in that decade, I heard a member of the Reform Council publicly responding to a particular criticism Dr Stott had levelled against Reform.

Dr Stott had apparently accused Reform of encouraging infringements of ecclesiastical law. This council member pointed out that, when Dr Stott was rector of All Souls’ Langham Place in the West End of London, a post he held from 1950 to 1975, he himself did not observe the letter of the law over the organisation of Confirmations.

Whatever the precise details of this particular case, there is in fact nothing discreditable in an evangelical being less than a stickler for the finer points of ecclesiastical procedure if there are clear advantages for Christian ministry in being flexible.

It is apparent from Dr Stott’s 1996 Bible Speaks Today commentary on 1 Timothy that he was more equivocal than Reform over the appropriateness of women being put in pastoral charge of local churches. But he nevertheless upheld the Pauline principle of ‘male headship’ which underpins the Reform Covenant, the theological basis of the movement.

He remained conservative on the Bible until his dying day.

It is strongly arguable that had Dr Stott been more supportive of Reform, Fulcrum, which formed as a counter to conservative evangelical influence in 2003, would have been less able to claim him as a guiding light. One of Fulcrum’s founders, the feminist theologian Dr Elaine Storkey, currently its president, had been director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, the evangelical think tank Dr Stott set up in 1982.

It is all very well celebrating the growth of evangelical influence in the Church of England since World War II under Dr Stott’s leadership and congratulating ourselves that we are no longer the ‘fusty’ movement we allegedly once were. But if a movement departs from its convictional foundations, then it is no longer an influence even though its leaders may occupy prominent positions in the hierarchy. It becomes a capitulation.

I am personally persuaded that if Dr Stott had identified more closely with the biblically conservative movement Fulcrum set out to oppose, Anglican evangelicals would be a more spiritually coherent force for Christ in the Church of England.

MAY BRITAIN BE GODLY AND QUIETLY GOVERNED TONIGHT

2011-08-09T04:21:00.000-07:00

Anglican Christians pray in the intercessions at Holy Communion according to the Book of Common Prayer for God's

servant Elizabeth our Queen; that under her we may be godly and quietly governed.

We also ask our heavenly Father to

grant unto her whole Council, and to all that are put in authority under her, that they may truly and indifferently (impartially) minister justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion and virtue.

How very contemporary that prayer and the biblical values it reflects are in the light of the appalling lawlessness in London and in other UK cities in the past few days.

Devastating criminality threatens again tonight. May the good Lord grant the forces of law and order success in restraining the violence.

But they cannot hope to solve the spiritual and moral problems in UK society that have been laid bare by this wickedness.

How desperately our country, and particularly its young people who have been polluted by the values vacuum of the permissive society, need the transforming power of the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Third Collect at Evening Prayer is particularly pertinent for all front-line police officers minded to pray it as they prepare for public duty tonight:

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

On Anglican Mainstream, the Revd Paul Perkin, vicar of St Mark's Battersea Rise, has provided a powerful eye-witness account of the looting in south London last night and this morning.

PRAYER BOOK IS SUPERB SERMON

2011-08-04T00:03:00.000-07:00

During his holiday Cranmer's Curate attended St Simon Zelotes in Chelsea, south-west London, and realised what a superb sermon the Book of Common Prayer is.

St Simon's is a church where the BCP is used at all its services. Its vicar, the Revd Michael Neville, was doing a sermon series on the biblical canticles in the Prayer Book.

In a magnificent sermon on the Benedictus - the prophecy of John the Baptist's father Zechariah as recorded in Luke 1v67-80 - Mr Neville showed that its central message is the glory of God's salvation through the remission of sins achieved by the Lord for whom John was going to prepare the way - Jesus Christ.

Mr Neville, an Anglican evangelical, pointed out that the placing of the the Benedictus at the end of the set readings from both the Old and New Testament in the BCP service of Morning Prayer is highly significant. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), who authored the Prayer Book, was thus intentionally proclaiming the fact that the crowning message of the Bible is God's gift of eternal salvation by his forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

With alternative gospels on offer in the modern Church - salvation through socio-political action or therapeutic spirituality or emotionally-charged worship - that is a sermon your curate was very thankful to hear.

This by cc - preaching is the best antidote to violent Jihadism - appeared this week on Heresy Corner.

WHAT IF JOHN STOTT HAD BECOME A NORTHERN BISHOP?

2011-08-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

According to his obituary in The Telegraph, the late Dr John Stott, the Anglican evangelical leader who died last week aged 90, had at one time

let it be known that he would like to become a bishop in order to increase his influence and “the opportunities for preaching and defending the Gospel”.

Which gives rise to a 'what if' scenario.

If Dr Stott had become a bishop in a northern diocese, such as Bradford, then the trajectory of UK evangelicalism in the last quarter of the 20th century would have been very different.

And arguably better.

He could have acted as a magnet drawing evangelicals to that diocese and led them forward in biblical preaching and pro-active evangelism. He could have become familiar with ministry in smaller parish churches where, unlike in All Souls Langham Place, the large West End of London church of which Dr Stott was rector from 1950 to 1975, resources are scarce.

In a region where Islam was becoming a potent force, he could have shared his experience of evangelising Muslims with the wider evangelical constituency.

Furthermore, if he had been busy leading a diocese, he would not have had time to devote to the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and its roadshows. Cranmer's Curate attended one in 1988 when he was training to be a journalist in Cardiff. Dr Elaine Storkey, who subsequently became director of the LICC, used her platform on this occasion to undermine the classic evangelical doctrine of male headship in the family and in the Church.

Four years later in 1992, the ordination of women to the presbyterate, contrary to Scripture, was passed by the General Synod of the Church of England on the back of evangelical votes.

So, this is a significant 'what if' of recent evangelical history.

Who knows? If he had become a northern bishop, Anglican evangelicalism might have been spared Fulcrum, the liberal leaning pressure group of which Dr Storkey is president.

Dr Stott's greatest bequest to the Western Church is his magisterial 1986 book, The Cross of Christ. In it, Dr Stott defended the biblical doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, which happens to be faithfully reflected in the Book of Common Prayer, particularly in its service of Holy Communion.

Dr Stott wrote:

My contention is that 'substitution' is not a further 'theory' or 'image' to be set alongside the others, but rather the foundation of them all, without which each lacks cogency. If God in Christ did not die in our place, there could be neither propitiation, nor redemption, nor justification, nor reconciliation. In addition, all the images begin their life in the Old Testament, but are elaborated and enriched in the New, particularly by being related to Christ and his cross (IVP, 1986, p168).

This by cc about the New Testament basis for press ethics appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline.

COMMON GOOD SERVED WHEN LORDS SPIRITUAL DENOUNCE PERMISSIVE SOCIETY

2011-07-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

Every bishop in the House of Lords would claim that he is there to serve the common good. But the common good is manifestly not being served by the permissive society, so why won't bishops in Parliament speak up more prophetically against its various manifestations?

The permissive society is seriously damaging the stability of the United Kingdom and is grossly unjust to the UK tax payer in the following ways:

• The growth in the proportion of children born outside the God-created institution of holy matrimony since the 1960s has fuelled welfare dependency and undermined the moral importance of working for a living;

• The proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases has damaged public health and become an increasing financial burden on the National Health Service;

• The denigration of fatherhood and of the importance of positive male role models has fuelled the growth in criminal activity by teenage boys;

• The culture of easy divorceism has hugely damaged the emotional health of the children affected and undermined their educational performance;

• The refusal to execute justice upon murderers by capital punishment has contributed to the trivialisation of evil and the banishment of the fear of God;

• The decision to allow abortion virtually on demand has fuelled a culture of moral uncertainty over the value and ownership by God of human life.

The virtues the permissive society hates – faithfulness in marriage, sexual restraint, leadership by men in the home, the work ethic, the State wielding the sword of justice, reverence for the image of God in all humanity, including the unborn – are clearly set forth in the New Testament.

So why don't we hear Christ’s ministers of the gospel prophetically commending such virtues more often from their platform in Parliament and denouncing wickedness and vice?

Being clear on the difference between virtue and vice is surely integral to an ordained minister's calling to proclaim God's glorious gospel of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Without such clarity, how can he effectively proclaim the reality of God’s wrath on sin and the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction the Lord Jesus Christ made on the Cross for the sins of the whole world?

This article by cc about the Anglican Mission in England and the southernisation of evangelicalism appeared in Friday's Church of England Newspaper.

Cranmer's Curate warmly commends this excellent article in support of AMiE by the Revd Richard Coekin, director of the Co-Mission church planting initiative in south London. The three English clergy ordained in Kenya are Co-Mission staff members. Mr Coekin lucidly explains the rationale for these ordinations.

Your curate is not blogging for the rest of July due to his summer holidays. He leaves the youth group with today's BCP Collect (Trinity 4):

O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen.

PC ENDING TO PD JAMES NOVEL

2011-07-15T00:55:00.000-07:00

Best-selling murder mystery novelist PD James is a prominent supporter of the Prayer Book Society, which makes the conclusion of her 2008 novel The Private Patient all the more curious. Cranmer's Curate has just finished it and it is written with Baroness James's characteristic vigour and eloquence but its politically correct ending is markedly out of kilter with the biblical worldview the Prayer Book reflects.

The novel features two lesbians in a civil partnership who are friends of the woman the detective hero Adam Dalgliesh marries in a Cambridge college chapel. At the end of the service Annie

slipped her hand into Clara’s and felt the comfort of her responsive squeeze. She thought, The world is a beautiful and terrible place. Deeds of horror are committed every minute and in the end those we love die. If the screams of all earth’s living creatures were one scream of pain, surely it would shake the stars. But we have love. It may seem a frail defence against the horrors of the world but we must hold fast and believe in it, for it is all we have.

Baroness James was born in 1920, and was therefore a young adult in World War II. It was precisely such naive romanticism, divorced from righteousness as the Bible conceives it, that led Britain to appease Hitler and thus fail to intervene early enough to stop his wickedness from devastating Europe. Virtually the only man who warned of the folly was Winston Churchill, a maverick failed politician whose boyhood had been seminally influenced by an evangelical nanny.

It is also worth reflecting that Germany had become riddled with romanticism in the 19th century, kicking away its spiritual and moral defences against the rise of aggressive militarism and the evil dictatorship that such a culture spawned.

Such a Lennonesque sentiment from an otherwise sensible woman, placed in the mind of a character in a lesbian relationship contrary to Jesus Christ’s biblical teaching, evokes a grim sense that rigor mortis is setting into the murdered corpse of Christian Britain.

CELEBRITY WEDDING ORDINATIONS OMIT MARTYRDOM

2011-07-11T02:55:00.002-07:00

The Petertide ordination photographs now appearing in the church press and on the internet are disturbingly similar to the pictures of a celebrity wedding, with a bit of the Glastonbury Festival thrown in.

In view of the colourful clerical shirts and elaborately-tailored vestments on display and the whooping expressions on the faces of the ordination candidates, it is sobering to reflect on the Lord Jesus Christ's words to Peter as recorded in John 21:

Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go (John 21v17b-18 - RSV).

John then tells us that Jesus said this in order to show by what death Peter was to glorify God.

The possibility of martyrdom is on the tin of Christian discipleship in the New Testament, and its possibility is intensified in the case of those called to pastoral leadership.

A violent death at the hands of God-hating humanity is not a prospect any sane disciple of Christ would wish on themselves (Jesus recognises that by pointing out that Peter will be taken where he does not wish to go). But according to the New Testament the disciple of Christ should be mentally ready for it.

Indeed, such spiritual preparedness surely helps those disciples set apart for the pastoral calling to keep themselves from prancing about like participants at a celebrity fashion shoot.

PARISH MAGAZINE: WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?

2011-07-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

The prayers of the youth group were much appreciated for the production and distribution of our church's new full colour parish-wide magazine. Here is cc's article:

A very warm welcome to the new Bridge.

What do you think is the purpose of life?

The answers I have heard to that question include: Procreation (a gentleman in Oughtibridge); sorry I haven’t a clue; paying the mortgage; and there isn’t a purpose – you’re here because you’re here because you’re here.

If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, those are actually quite reasonable answers.

But if Jesus did rise from the dead, they are the wrong answers.

If Jesus rose from the dead, he is who he said he was – the eternal Son of the one true God, the light of the world, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the only way to God.

If Jesus rose from the dead, he is the one you and I need to be coming to for forgiveness for our ingratitude, arrogance and wilful disobedience against the God who made us.

If Jesus rose from the dead, he is the only person who can save you and me from hell.

So it’s a big if.

The New Testament insists that Jesus was seen alive by real eye-witnesses who actually ate and drank with him after he rose, bodily, from his tomb in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. Many of these eye-witnesses were executed for their faith in the risen Jesus.

Why would they die for a lie?

For the sake of your eternal souls, I urge you to read one of the four Gospels in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and ask yourself seriously whether what they are telling you about Jesus is true.

Because if they’re telling the truth, there is a real purpose to life and it’s all about Jesus Christ, the risen conqueror of sin and death.

FULCRUM WRONG ON AMiE BUT LANDS A PUNCH

2011-07-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

The fact that the new Anglican Mission in England has a panel of bishops supported by the GAFCON Primates' Council, representing as it does the biblically orthodox Anglican Communion, is very significant for the spiritual renewal of English Anglicanism.

Fulcrum is therefore wrong to criticise AMiE for conflating what it snidely calls a 'conservative evangelical political agenda' with concerns about mission and church planting.

Guarding the apostolic gospel is essential to mission, as the Apostle Paul taught in 2 Timothy, a letter concerned with ensuring that Christ's mission can proceed without being undermined by false teaching.

Paul exhorts Timothy whom he had put in pastoral charge of the false-teaching-riddled church at Ephesus to

follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us (1v13-14 -RSV)>.

A so-called gospel that denies the nature of the sin from which we are redeemed may fill churches (in the Church of England's case it isn't particularly), but it will not save people. Fulcrum is quite wrong to dismiss real spiritual concerns about upholding biblical integrity in our denomination for the sake of gospel proclamation as 'political'.

But Fulcrum has landed a bit of a punch over the secrecy surrounding the identity of the three English clergy ordained in Kenya. The GAFCON news release mentions that they were welcomed at the evangelical ministers' conference in the City of London where AMiE was launched last week but does not give their names.

Surely the point of ordaining them in Anglican orders is to give them wider accreditation beyond the London church planting network in which they are beginning their public ministries. Indeed GAFCON explicitly states that they were ordained for 'ministry in the wider Anglican Communion'.

Even if one accepts the argument that the unusual circumstances surrounding the ordinations of these men necessitated discretion beforehand, in its announcement after the event GAFCON should have given their names and explained why they were ordained in Kenya.

Openness strengthens the case for AMiE; secrecy undermines it.

The Revd Charles Raven's excellent analysis of the theological rationale for AMiE is a must read for any member of the youth group wanting to get on the end of this significant development.

One does not wish to make more of this than it deserves, but the fact that the Clergy Discipline Measure has popped into one liberal Anglican blogger's mind as a way of countering AMiE is surely a precursor to the institutional hostility it is likely to face.

The Church Mouse is calling upon the Archbishop of Canterbury publicly to threaten the use of the CDM against licensed supporters of AMiE.

It would be downright unjust to use the CDM against orthodox Anglicans taking action for the sake of biblical truth and the canonical theology of the Church of England.

What would add to that injustice is the sad reality that licensed clergy who deny cardinal doctrines of Christ's gospel or who are engaged in immoral relationships outside of heterosexual marriage or who have been witnessed behaving in other ways unbecoming for a clerk in holy orders have had no action taken against them under the CDM.

Of course, one should expect persecution and opposition as a Bible-believing Christian and this is very tame compared to what many of our orthodox Anglican brothers and sisters around the world are experiencing. But the hypocrisy of such a threat in our current Church of England context is particularly disgraceful, compounded by the anonymiceness of the individual invoking it.

COURSE GROOMING WOMEN FOR TOP CHURCH JOBS UNMASKS RAMPANT CAREERISM

2011-06-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

Episcopal churches are not the only denominations to be marred by careerism. But they have a huge problem with it.

Nowhere is this illustrated more disturbingly than in Friday's Church Times feature by Rebecca Paveley about a coaching course to groom selected women for the top jobs in the Church of England.

Run by the Dean of Salisbury, the Very Revd June Osborne, it is aimed at encouraging women to 'imagine' themselves in senior posts.

But the course does not just do imagining. A professional coach - Claire Pedrick who wrote a book about how to make 'good' ecclesiastical appointments - is laid on to guide the participants through the application process and give advice on interviewing technique.

According to Ms Paveley, Ms Pedrick also

touches on the tricky question of the social-interaction part of the interview process - otherwise known as "death by quiche".

The course has funding from grant-making trust the Panacea Society but Ms Paveley reports ominously that the organisers hope that it might get central funding from the Church.

Certainly, the attendees display a strong sense of entitlement. One said:

We're in the habit of not selling ourselves, aren't we? But there are some here whose stars are going to fly very high indeed.

Another said:

I suppose most of us are called to senior leadership, or we wouldn't be here.

Sadly, it would appear that this coaching course, fired by feminism, simply unmasks the rampant careerism that has long been a feature of the 'preferment' process.

The spiritual reality is that ordained ministry is a vocation and not a career. To angle and position oneself for promotion is therefore an appalling betrayal of a minister's calling to be a servant of Christ and of the flock for whom the Lord shed his precious blood.

That is true whether the angling is done by a man or by a woman.

PREACHING WITH LOVE FROM GRACE CHURCH DULWICH

2011-06-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

How can you tell whether a preacher loves people rather than preaching per se?

The best judges are surely the people he preaches to. Their judgement is of course not infallible but only those who listen to the preacher week by week and see him as a minister in other contexts are properly placed to testify to his integrity and whether he has the love of Jesus in his heart for his hearers.

There will also be signs of love in the sermons themselves that he delivers.

Cranmer's Curate has known the Revd Simon Dowdy, minister of Grace Church Dulwich, a south London church plant from St Helen's Bishopsgate, for around 25 years. Your curate recalls the then unrev'd Dowdy giving a talk on the Lord's Prayer as an undergraduate at a school and the promise was certainly there of an effective Bible teacher and a man of God in the making.

Mr Dowdy could not be described as a Spurgeon-esque pulpiteer - his delivery is measured and he eschews oratorical flourishes - but a sermon he recently preached on Romans 5v12-21, entitled 'A new identity', is exemplary of loving preaching in its effort to:

1). have a clear pastoral aim

2). be clear as can be in explaining the biblical text

3). have an easy to follow structure

4). graciously counter erroneous views and misunderstandings

5). use apt illustrations well suited for a congregation in south London.

The pains taken over these things are a good indicator of love for the listener.

The evangelistic appeal with which Mr Dowdy ended this particular sermon evidenced an authentic love for the lost, all the more so for the understated passion of its delivery.

If the Church of England had more loving biblical preachers like that, it would be in a much better state.

AVOIDING EVANGELICAL CLASS WAR

2011-06-12T05:15:00.000-07:00

Evangelist Roger Carswell's front-page article in this month's
Evangelicals Now exposing elitism in evangelistic strategy is a significant intervention and could be a game-changer. But the issues he rightly raises could flare up into class war if we evangelicals are not prayerfully careful.

Mr Carswell writes:

It seems to me that, in the UK, the parts which need the most attention as far as the gospel is concerned are receiving least. Frankly, I am burdened that there is an evangelical elitism which steers us away from less appealing corners of the harvest fields.

He then describes an attempt to recruit helpers for a mission at Bradford University compared with a similar effort at Oxford:

A few years ago I was asked to speak at a week-long mission at Bradford University. They appealed for helpers - CU guests as they are called - but had no responses. Bradford University is extremely multi-cultural, dominated by Islam. A tiny group of Christians worked hard to reach the thousands in the university, but we were very limited in what we could do. The week after the mission in Bradford I moved on to Oxford University for their tri-annual mission, where there were 64 college guests for the week. Praise God for them and their willingness to help, but why were there none in Bradford?

The answer to Mr Carswell's question lies in the history of English evangelicalism. Late Victorian evangelical leaders, such as Bishop JC Ryle, focussed on Oxbridge as a way of counter-acting the rise of Anglo-Catholicism in the academy in which the English ruling elite were being educated.

In the 20th century this 'reach-the-few-to-reach-the-many' strategy led Oxbridge-educated evangelicals to focus on evangelism in the English public schools since these institutions were, and to a significant extent still are, the main feeders into Oxbridge. Though the Revd EJH Nash who founded the Iwerne ministry to the top public schools in the 1930s was not from an elite background himself, that does not alter the fact that he was pursuing the logic of Ryle's strategy. And anyway the evangelical leaders 'Bash' nurtured were from the requisite social background.

Now, however, evangelical leaders educated and converted post the social revolution of the 1960s are emerging who are seriously challenging the received late Victorian strategy while others remain tied to it. Therein lies the potential division.

Evangelicals who move out of the comfort zones could start feeling proud of themselves, looking down Pharisee-like on their brothers and sisters who continue to minister in the evangelical strongholds of the 'strategic' areas.

Evangelicals ministering in better-resourced settings could start feeling defensive, arguing that their brothers and sisters do not appreciate the complexities of larger set-ups or even accusing them of professional envy.

For the sake of evangelical unity, we need to remind ourselves of some non-negotiables:

1). The growth of Christ's Kingdom is what we should be passionate about, not the growth of our little kingdoms of influence whether up north or down south.

2). God's gospel of eternal salvation is for every sinner whom Christ calls to repentance, whether they live in Bradford or Battersea, Mayfair or Middlesborough.

3). No part of the harvest field is superior to another.

4). Gospel ministry is a vocation not a career.

On a practical front, it would enormously help to build a stronger culture of transferability in English evangelicalism if our ministers moved away from the practice of staying for a long time in large churches in affluent areas whilst ministering for a short time in small churches in less affluent areas.

An evangelical incumbent of a large university or suburban church who moved to a smaller church and led it into growth would set a really helpful precedent.

There is certainly no reason for curates staying in a large church for longer than three or four years before moving to a turn-around incumbency.

This issue is not going to go away. There is no excuse for the current inequity in resourcing Mr Carswell eloquently highlights. But we evangelicals do need to pray that we do not degenerate into an ungodly and damaging class war over evangelistic strategy.

Cranmer's Curate is blogging off for the next week or so to concentrate on the task of delivering his church's new magazine to every home in the parish. Youth group prayers for the effective functioning of cc's feet would be appreciated.

IRONY OF ARCHBISHOP GUEST-EDITING LEFT-WING MAGAZINE

2011-06-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

There would appear to be a three-fold irony in the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, guest-editing today's edition of the left-wing magazine the New Statesman.

1). Back in 2009 the magazine was guest-edited by Alastair Campbell, the head of communications for former New Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. It was under Mr Blair's premiership that Dr Williams was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002.

2). Today's issue is a broad church featuring articles by Mr Blair's successor as Prime Minister Gordon Brown; the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; the atheist novelist Philip Pullman; and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague. Such a diversity of opinion makes for interesting reading in a secular magazine. But an intellectual penchant for embracing contradictory opinions on Christian faith and morals does not make for coherent leadership of a national Church charged with bringing the biblical gospel to the nation.

3). According to the the anonymous liberal Anglican blog the Church Mouse:

A lovely touch comes in Mehdi Hassan's article on sharia law. Hassan asks why the British are so obsessed with it, saying "It’s time to lay the sharia bogeyman to rest". Mouse is sure Rowan was delighted with that.

The irony here is that it was Dr Williams's comment in 2008 about the inevitability of certain aspects of sharia law being adopted in the UK that caused such consternation in parts of the Anglican Communion suffering Islamist persecution, such as Nigeria. Nigerian Anglicans argue that the absolutist, theocratic nature of Islam means that once secular governments give the softer aspects of sharia law legal recognition they open the door to the incremental imposition of the more brutal aspects.

It would certainly not be a lovely touch if sharia law were adopted in parts of the UK where Muslims who convert to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ are already suffering violent intimidation.

Sadly, this foray into magazine editing reveals precisely the fault-lines in Dr Williams's archbishopric.

CONFESSION OF A THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIALIST

2011-06-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Those of us called to engage in theological controversy for Christ do meet with disapproval, even and sometimes especially from Christians who would be sympathetic to our convictions.

Culturally, controversialists are in the dog-house. The people whose opinions we controvert might get upset. Or they might have sons and daughters who are doing the things we say God forbids.

We are neither 'people-friendly' nor 'pastorally sensitive', it is alleged.

But our calling to argue for the truth of the gospel against error in the press or on the internet is a ministry serving the cause of the Servant King, His people and a lost world. So it is as intrinsically people-friendly and pastoral as any other ministry of the Word.

As with the exercise of any spiritual gift by fallen human beings, there are dangers attending the ministry of controversy. Published controversialists face falling into the same grave sin as platform preachers - pride.

The manifestations of pride for the controversialist include:

* a sinful desire to win the argument for the sake of self-satisfaction rather than winning it for the sake of the people we are called to love and serve

* feeding off the sins and failures of others rather than constantly repenting of the depravity in our own hearts

* enjoying the fallen world in which controversy is necessary rather than longing for the Day when it no longer will be.

Any one involved in public ministry can fall into the appalling sin of pride. And it is appalling to use the cause of Christ's gospel for an ego-trip and to use God's Church as a platform for it.

Cranmer's Collect for the Sunday next before Easter is vitally necessary for all involved in public ministry including those of us called to contend for the gospel of the Lord Jesus:

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

ZOAR, THE BLOOD-BESPRINKLED SANCTUARY & BIBLICAL IGNORANCE TODAY

2011-06-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

The fact that we are not in the middle of an evangelical revival of 18th century dimensions is surely no excuse for us regular church-goers' not knowing our Bibles.

The Bible is not yet illegal in 21st century Britain and it is available in English as it was in the 18th century.

Cranmer's Curate has been re-reading after 25 years JC Ryle's Christian Leaders of the 18th Century (a great spiritual tonic as one hits the middle laps of middle age). The thought struck cc: how many of us clergy today would be able to identify all the biblical references in the following quotation from the Address to a serious reader who enquires what he must do to be saved by John Fletcher of Madeley (1729-1785)? -

And now, what meanest thou, sleeper? Why tarriest thou? Arise, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Lose not time in conferring with flesh and blood; much less in parleying with Satan, or consulting thy unbelieving heart. These delays lead to ruin; the Philistines are upon thee, instantly shake thyself; if thou art not altogether blinded by the god of this world, and led captive by him at his will, this moment, in the powerful name of Jesus, burst the bonds of spiritual sloth - break, like a desperate soul, out of the prison of unbelief - escape for thy life - look not behind thee - stay not in the plain. This one thing do; leaving the things that are behind - Sodom and her ways - press forwards toward Zoar, and escape to the mount of God, lest thou be consumed (Banner of Truth, p420).

The astonising fact is that this was an evangelistic appeal based, as Ryle convincingly believes, on sermons Fletcher had preached in his parish. Its richness in biblical allusion reveals how much the evangelical revival had led to an increase in biblical knowledge in the 18th century. But still one wonders how many people regularly in churches of all types today would know whether the epistle of Jude was in the Old or the New Testament, let alone get the reference to Zoar.

Certainly, a revival of Christianity in 21st century Britain would happen on a very different spiritual, moral and cultural ballpark from the England of the 18th century. The similarities between the dire state of church and society now and then, or even the sense that the 18th century was worse, can be overstated.

But Fletcher gets the last word as an encouragement to those yearning for an outpouring of God's gracious Word of life in our generation:

Through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, torn from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet - through this mysterious veil, rent from the top to the bottom, rush into the blood-besprinkled sanctuary; embrace the golden horns of the altar; lay all thy guilt on the head of the sin-atoning victim; read thy name on the breast of thy merciful high-priest. Claim the safety, demand the blessings, receive the consolations bestowed on all that fly to him for refuge, and begin a new, delightful life, under the healing and peaceful shadow of his wings

Rory Shiner's article in June's edition of the Australian evangelical monthly The Briefing - Union with Christ - is soul-refreshingly good. UK members of the youth group who are not regular Briefing subscribers can order the issue from the Good Book Company (0333 123 0880) for £3.25 including postage.

The youth group may also be interested in this lively blog by the Revd Hugo Charteris of Christ Church Newcastle. His blog is on the church's website.

DURHAM PROMOTION NO CAUSE FOR EVANGELICAL JUBILATION

2011-06-04T07:35:00.001-07:00

The appointment of the current Dean of Liverpool Cathedral, the Very Revd Justin Welby, as the new Bishop of Durham looks on the face of it like a significant boost for Anglican orthodoxy. But evangelical jubilation needs to be tempered by sober and indeed humble reflections by all of us who call ourselves orthodox Anglicans in the Church of England.

Justin Welby's preferment to a senior bishopric would seem to support Church Commissioner the Revd Stephen Trott's view, articulated recently at a Reform regional consultation, that the balance of the House of Bishops is now tipping in a more orthodox direction.

Prior to ordination when he worked for the oil industry, Mr Welby, 55, had a very sound spiritual background as a member of Holy Trinity Brompton, the evangelical charismatic flagship church in central London, and also as a leader in the more conservative evangelical Iwerne Minster ministry to England's top private schools.

There are no concrete signs in the conduct of Mr Welby's ordained ministry so far that he has forsaken the biblical convictions of his youth on Christian faith and morals. So working with the Anglican charitable assumption one can take it that the Bishop of Liverpool’s presidential address at diocesan synod last year put him in a very awkward position.

According to Liverpool diocese’s own website, Bishop Jones ‘proposed that we can move “towards allowing a variety of ethical conviction about people of the same gender loving each other fully” and that he believes “the day is coming when Christians who equally profoundly disagree about the consonancy of same gender love within the discipleship of Christ will in spite of their disagreement drink openly from the same cup of salvation”.’

What should Mr Welby have done in response to this astonishing statement that righteousness and wickedness can happily co-habit in the visible Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Publicly repudiated the statement by his diocesan bishop?

That would certainly have been a commendable and courageous response given the gravity of Bishop Jones's departure from biblical authority. But had Mr Welby done so what is the likelihood that he would have been appointed a diocesan bishop?

Cranmer's Curate would be the last person to suggest that such a response would be easy. For any of us frontline clergy publicly to declare that our bishop has departed from sound doctrine puts us in a very difficult situation.

And that situation is going to get more difficult. Ministry reviews are now compulsory for clergy moving onto the new Common Tenure arrangement. A Bible-believing Anglican minister who refused to participate in a ministry review with a bishop he considered to be a false teacher would put himself in the territory of the Clergy Discipline Measure.

The Liverpool affair prompts the sobering thought that Mr Welby’s preferment to the third most prominent See in the Church of England is very far from being a cause for triumphalism about the inside strategy for Anglican Evangelicals.

MINISTERIAL MINEFIELD NEEDING EARLIER WARNING SIGNS

2011-06-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

This is a difficult subject to blog about but these reflections are prompted by the seminar on working with women at last month's Proclamation Trust senior ministers' conference. God willing they will be of service to the godliness of all of us in the youth group, called as we are as disciples of Christ to 'flee from sexual immorality' (1 Corinthians 6v18 - ESV).

Things can go wrong in ministers' relations with female members of their congregations long before they actually tread on a mine and get blown up. A rigorous pastoral policy on one-to-one meetings with women - eg never meeting with them when alone in our homes or only having conversations in public places - does not automatically mean we are in the clear.

Given the reality of vulnerable people in our churches and the fact that low level abuses can rapidly escalate in a sexually permissive society, Christian ministers are already in the minefield if they are:

• engaging in prolonged eye-contact in conversations with women before or after services and meetings

• reciprocating or even initiating excessively tactile handshakes on the church door or even during the Peace at Holy Communion

• angling for emotional support in conversations about the running of the church

• asking leading questions about their relationship with their husbands.

Some feminists may argue that it is demeaning to modern women to suggest that they would allow themselves to be aroused by such means by cheesy vicars of all people.

Vicars who wish to negotiate their way safely through this particular minefield, however, would be advised not to listen to feminist complacency but rather to face up to the biblical reality of fallen human nature - our own and the women we minister to.

LORD PRESERVE THE CHURCH FROM LIVE FEED PREACHING

2011-05-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Proclamation Trust president Vaughan Roberts's prediction at last week's senior ministers' conference is in fact a present reality. Preaching by live feed or pre-recorded video to satellite congregations is already well underway in Reformed circles in the United States, according to the latest edition of Evangelicals Now.

Mark Driscoll, Seattle-based leader of Mars Hill Church, is already using video to preach to 30 congregations meeting in 10 campuses across 2 States in his network. He explained the rationale in an interview in June's EN:

We do use video, but those congregations are all in major urban centres where the culture is very similar: secular, liberal, sexually-active, non-Christian and so we are intentionally going after, as a church, primarily young men who are non-Christians, single, college-educated in urban areas and those men tend to be quite similar (p16).

Mr Driscoll, who addressed the London Men's Convention earlier this month, continued:

Our basic problem is what do you do with all these people who show up on Sunday. Some people say, 'We don't like your answer', but the question is, do you have a better one? Do you want fewer people to come to church, do you want me to just turn them away?

Is the alternative really between video preaching and turning people away? Why not deploy evangelists who can proclaim and model the gospel to these people in the flesh rather than you preaching to them by live feed?

The question was not put in the EN interview. But Cranmer's Curate thinks he knows the answer.

A homogeneous church planting network is a brand of which the charismatic front man is the guardian. The brand must be preserved. Employing evangelists in locations away from the centre with their own individual temperament and approach might lead to departures from the targeted homogeneity.

Other people might start being reached beyond the target group of tertiary-educated cool urban dudes.

Elderly ladies might start coming along or retired Anglican vicars, introducing a pungent whiff of cheese into the cool. Imagine the damage to the brand of a 73-year-old Cranmer's Curate turning up after being invited by an evangelist at the bus-stop.

Live feed preaching is the logical outworking of the targeted approach to church growth. It is bound to land in London soon.

Lord preserve the visible Church from it, because it will not only exacerbate the creaming off effect of targeted church planting.

It will also serve further to undermine the glorious God-given diversity of the Body of Christ.

Cranmer's Curate is blogging off for the rest of May to concentrate on our church's new parish-wide magazine. The prayers of the youth group for this venture and our new website would be appreciated - that Christ would be honoured.

PERSONALITY CULT PREACHING ENABLED BY TECHNOLOGY

2011-05-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Senior pastors heading up church planting networks could soon be relaying their sermons around various congregations simultaneously via technology, undermining the personal relationship between preachers and people.

That was the prediction of Proclamation Trust president Revd Vaughan Roberts in a seminar at the senior ministers' conference this week.

In churches that have campus-style premises, congregations meeting in different rooms are already able to listen to the sermon via video link, explained Mr Roberts, an incumbent in Oxford Diocese (St Ebbe's). The 'trajectory' of this could lead to congregations in different cities listening to the same sermon from the senior pastor.

Vaughan Roberts's prophetic perspective in his excellent seminar on planning sermon series prompts a couple of reflections:

1). The practice he described would involve biblically sound Reformed preachers. Or at least in theory. The expectation of the New Testament pastoral epistles is actually that the pastor will be known by his hearers and will know them. Congregations need to be able to see the pastor's 'progress' in both ministerial faithfulness and personal godliness (cf 1 Timothy 4v15). That is impossible without a personal relationship.

2). Attendees would be able to excuse themselves of participation in televangelism or virtual church. They are not listening to a sermon in their own home; they are actually going to church, but without seeing the preacher in the flesh. For that reason it is to be hoped that both preachers and hearers will not jump on this particular bandwagon - for the sake of their integrity as Christian disciples. Preaching is supposed to be a ministry for Christ not a mechanism of control.

The senior ministers' conference was quite outstanding this year, though Cranmer's Curate noticed that numbers were down on previous years. Most of the delegates were under 50. One wonders whether the dearth of ministers in their 50s and 60s is due to the withdrawal of former PT leaders Dick Lucas and David Jackman from regular speaking.

If so, that is a pity because a). the biblical expositions were of high quality this year and b). it is helpful in personal conversation to be able to benefit from the experience of ministers in their 50s and 60s.

The one blemish was that the seminar on working with women lacked edge. It was focussed on smoothing over potential difficulties in relations within a mixed staff team in a large city-centre church. It failed adequately to address the issues around male ministers working with mainly female volunteers in smaller churches and the pitfalls ministers can face in a sexually permissive society.

The preaching workshops are the outstanding feature of these conferences. You have an opportunity to engage with a Bible book in a small group led by a minister who is an expert on it. You deliver a short talk on a section of the book and are given constructive feedback. Having to present something yourself ensures you properly engage with the workshop.

This year, your curate was privileged to benefit from the godly wisdom of the Revd Simon Austen, an incumbent in Carlisle Diocese (St John's Houghton with St Peter's Kingmoor), on 1 Kings. Mr Austen's biblical knowledge was very impressive indeed. The Bishop's Charge in the Ordinal urges ministers thus:

And seeing that you cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable to the same; consider how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures, and in framing the manners both of yourselves, and of them that specially pertain unto you, according to the rule of the same Scriptures.

In respect of his studiousness of the Scriptures Mr Austen has manifestly been doing what it says on the tin of the Ordinal.

One has every confidence to believe that is true in respect of the 'life agreeable to the same'.

In that regard though any delegate to a conference like this who does not know the minister personally has to trust the judgement of those within his denomination and church to whom he is accountable. One also has to trust the conference organisers to exercise good judgement over whom they invite to speak and lead sessions.

Another good reason why preachers need to be personally known and not beamed around by satellite.

This piece by cc about the democratic deficit in Reform appeared in this week's Church of England Newspaper.

UNDER OUR CHRISTIAN QUEEN GOD'S GOSPEL IS FOR ANYWHERE IN THE UK

2011-05-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Under a Christian Sovereign, there should be no part of the United Kingdom where the biblical gospel of eternal salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ could not be freely proclaimed both in a building and in the open air.

But one has to wonder what would happen to a Christian preacher who attempted to proclaim the true God's gospel on the streets of an urban area considered by a radical element of its residents to be Muslim.

In such an environment, would the herald of Christ be arrested for the public order offence or the Islamist militants who took physical action to disrupt the sermon? Recent precedents do not hold out much hope that the guilty would be punished and not the innocent.

Even more revealing, though, would be the attitude of the local churches in the area and particularly the Anglican clergy? Would they back Christ's messenger or dissociate themselves from him? Would some so-called Christians in the area even accuse him of tactlessness?

The Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the Queen, pledged at her Coronation to defend the Protestant Christian Faith. What the Book of Common Prayer describes as the Sovereign's 'whole Council', namely Her Majesty's Government, has a constitutional duty to support her in fulfilling that oath.

Thus, if there are any no-go areas for the Christian gospel in the UK, then that is a serious breach of our country's constitution.

PETER FENWICK (1931-2011) - MENTOR OF MEN

2011-05-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Cranmer's Curate was honoured yesterday to attend the service of thanksgiving for the life of Sheffield Christian leader Peter Fenwick at St John's Church, Park.

Integrity is the word that sums up Peter, the son of a publican in inner city Sheffield. Having converted Peter to Christ in 1951 through the ministry of St John's, God used him in pioneer youth work on the tough housing estates of the city. Peter then founded Sheffield Central House Church in the city centre in 1970.

Peter was instrumental in the Billy Graham mission to Sheffield in 1985. An accountant by training, he also spearheaded the financial rescue of Christian music publisher Kingsway.

With a birth weight of 2llbs in 1931, Peter was not expected to survive. Cranmer's Curate got to know him in his late 60s and he did not appear to be much more than 5ft. But by God's grace Peter Fenwick was a big man of God. He had a tremendous way of mentoring men, combining affirmation and warmth with challenge and risk.

As the packed church sang 'Before the throne of God above, I have a strong, a perfect plea', this thought struck your curate like a mallet to the temple: unless more masculine mentors like Peter start emerging, then churches will end up being dominated by spin doctors and empire-builders.

UK Christianity currently seems to have little difficulty producing them. Or to be more accurate, the culture is producing them but too many Christian churches in the UK seem to be leaving the male incarnations of the problem unmentored and at the same time promoting the feminisation of church leadership.

In both the older denominations and the newer network churches there would appear to be a grave deficit of humble, capable and biblically sound men to lead churches.

Barry Manson, whom Peter mentored into ministry, preached the sermon on Jesus' final word from the Cross in John 19v30: It is finished.

May God in his grace raise up more men like Peter Fenwick to proclaim to a corrupted culture the glorious good news of the Lord Jesus Christ's once and for all sacrifice for all sin.

NOTE OF OPTIMISM AT REFORM REGIONAL CONSULTATION

2011-05-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Church Commissioner and General Synod member, the Revd Stephen Trott, sounded a note of optimism about the future for biblical orthodoxy in the Church of England at the Reform regional consultation in Cheshire.

Speaking at St John's Hartford today along with Reform chairman Rod Thomas, the Revd Trott said the tide turned after 'Gay Wednesday' at the General Synod of February 2007. Revisionist speakers dominated the debate on human sexuality with the orthodox voice barely heard and the impression was given that the Church of England was becoming a clone of the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC). This low point prompted orthodox Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals to forge a closer alliance, said the Revd Trott, who comes from an Anglo-Catholic background himself.

He reported that orthodox Anglicans are breaking free from the tight pigeon-holes of party labels and that those who are 'for Jesus' are getting their act together.

Because of increased orthodox representation on the new Synod elected last year there is a real chance the women bishops's legislation could be sunk in 2012, he said.

He also said the make-up of the House of Bishops is tipping in a more orthodox direction. He reported that there is growing concern among bishops that the Church of England should not be rent asunder by women bishops. That could see bishops who support women bishops voting against the measure for the sake of unity.

It was most heartening to hear the case for optimism. Those of us committed to Christ's mission in and through the Church of England should be praying that the Revd Trott is proved right and that the living God has mercy on us and does not allow the Church of the nation to go the way of TEC.

FOUR BLESSINGS & A BLASPHEMY

2011-05-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is a guest-post by the Very Reverend William N. McKeachie, Dean Emeritus of South Carolina and Convener of Mere Anglicanism:

With apologies to the producers of that 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, I suspect I shall long look back on Holy Week and Eastertide in this Year of our Lord 2011 as a time of “Four Blessings and a Blasphemy”. First, some background.

When I turned sixty-six years old in 2009, it seemed, for more reasons than age alone, the right time to retire from full-time ordained ministry in the US Episcopal Church or TEC, to use the currently preferred denominational acronym. For the previous fourteen years I had joyfully served under two Bishops of South Carolina as Dean of that diocese and its cathedral. I was gratified to be asked by the current Bishop, the Right Reverend Mark Lawrence, whose consecration committee I had been privileged to chair, to continue serving as one of his Examining Chaplains, as an at-large member of his newly formed Anglican Communion Relations Committee, and (as Dean Emeritus) to play a part in the diocese’s increasingly contentious review of relations with TEC nationally.

As one who had been baptized in the Church of England in 1962, confirmed in the US Episcopal Church in 1963, ordained deacon in Canada and priest in England in 1970, and canonically licensed to serve over the years in several Anglican jurisdictions, I have always been grateful for the ecclesial identity of what it means to be an Anglican Christian, lay or ordained, an identity transcending time and space in this Communion’s continuity of faith and order.

More recently, however, as I have become deeply saddened by the drift of TEC away from biblical orthodoxy and by its aggressive litigation against parishes and dioceses denominationally alienated by TEC’s own self-betrayal, it has seemed timely for me to lend what support I can to the re-alignment movement within the Anglican Communion at large. Rock-solid in its faithfulness as the Diocese of South Carolina remains, there are other parts of TEC where, for the sake of biblical Christian witness, orthodox Anglicans are surely called to align with non-TEC jurisdictions.

In support of such beleaguered brothers and sisters in Christ, and with the tacit encouragement of Bishop Lawrence in South Carolina, I accepted the invitation of my “Mere Anglicanism” friend the Reverend Dr. William Dickson to join his staff as Dean in Residence at Saint Andrew’s Parish, Fort Worth, Texas. This has proved, at least for me, a “more excellent way” of remaining committed to Anglicanism as a whole and to its global perspective above and beyond its current fissures, while at the same time being afforded a close-up view of the perfidy of TEC on the ground locally.

First, some blessings! For my own family, Easter this year was celebrated, like every other Easter so far in the course of our family life, by breaking bread together, both sacred and secular: around the Lord’s Table and then around a festive groaning board following church! Moreover, here at Saint Andrew’s, Fort Worth, where the liturgy is conducted according to traditional Prayer Book norms, the preaching is forthrightly biblical and expository, the choral music and hymnody reflect the best of the cathedral heritage adapted to parochial use, and the beauty of holiness is palpable in the worship of the Lord, the entire McKeachie family, far removed though we were from South Carolina, knew ourselves still to be in none other than the house of God and at the gate of heaven.

Then, five days later, it seemed that the meaning and message of “family” took on even greater renewed hopefulness, and on a global scale, as we and billions of television viewers world-wide were able virtually to join the invited congregation in Westminster Abbey at the unapologetically Christian marriage of Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton. Truth to tell, unlike many American Anglophiles and despite all my transatlantic comings and goings over the years, I have never been a particularly mesmerized Royalist! On the other hand, during the 1950s and early 60s when my religiously agnostic parents and I first lived in England, God in His providence did woo and win me to Christ through the ministry and liturgy of that “Royal Peculiar” Westminster Abbey; so I confess to a (perhaps) inordinate affection for that holy place as well as the inclination to pay close attention to how it does or does not keep faith with its own spiritual patrimony.

From all that I saw and heard, this particular Royal Wedding - apparently in large part thanks to the preference of the bride and groom themselves - came across as an occasion of faithful witness and worship, more about the sovereignty of God than that of the British monarchy! Holy Scripture was honoured and, not so incidentally, very well read by the bride’s brother. The Bishop of London preached a homily that explicitly and winsomely affirmed biblical marriage between a man and a woman. The choice and rendition of liturgical and musical texts and rituals reflected Anglicanism in its best traditional dress. Although I had some curmudgeonly reservations about the “greening” of the Abbey’s nave with transplanted trees, members of our own Altar Guild here at Saint Andrew’s “converted” me to see the point the bride herself evidently wanted to make - not after all so very different in appearance (if on a taller and fuller scale) from the adornment customary in many Anglican churches.

Then the Octave Day of Easter, although it did not dawn bright and sunny in North Texas, transcended its customary nickname of “Low Sunday” by being observed here with an almost full church for the Bishop’s Annual Visitation and Confirmation. Eleven youth and six adults were confirmed and the Bishop of Fort Worth, the Right Reverend Jack Leo Iker, like his opposite number in London two days before, stood tall in the pulpit in proclamation of the Church’s faith and, in particular, of the objective, bodily, transformative Resurrection of Jesus from the dead and our Risen Life in Him.

To be “confirmed” by a Bishop in the apostolic tradition of Anglican Christianity entails forthright commitment to mature discipleship of the Risen Lord Himself and to the Bible’s own witness to Him as the One by whom alone any man or woman may become a member of the Family of His Heavenly Father. Under Bishop Iker, as presented to him by the Rector of this historic Parish, those confirmed at Saint Andrew’s in the One, Catholic and Apostolic Church can humbly but thankfully claim to be in the line of that faith in, and inheritance of, Christ “once delivered to the saints” all those centuries ago. This is a blessing never to be taken lightly, but especially not here, not now, for it is an apostolic identity no longer assured in many TEC dioceses and parishes. Parishioners of Saint Andrew’s, Fort Worth, are blessed indeed to be of this Diocese and of this Parish.

What of Easter Week’s fourth Blessing and what of Blasphemy? In the secular media, of course, the death of Osama bin Laden soon trumped Eastertide. It would not, from a biblical point of view, be inappropriate to think of Osama bin Laden in terms of blasphemy; certainly he has been responsible over many years for terrorist acts, against those created in the image and likeness of God, which Christians and Jews and indeed Mahometans themselves should regard as blasphemous. But in the wake of his death, some - including even Dr. Rowan Williams, archbishop of ambivalence! - are calling into question the propriety of the action taken by the United States to rid the world of bin Laden’s presence. Sed contra, from Christian Fort Worth the view is that his death at the hands of our armed forces was not only not a blasphemy but, in the perspective of God’s providence, a blessing for humane life and civilization everywhere. Indeed, that the United States ensured that his body was buried at sea, within the space of time specified by Mahometan custom, was itself testimony, at once ironic and irenic, to the difference between Judaeo-Christian humanitarianism and fanatical Islamist ideology.

Nor is all this something far removed from us in North Texas. Later this month, thanks to the initiative of SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad), Fort Worthians will have an opportunity to hear at first-hand from the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali what is at stake in twenty-first century radical Islam’s threat to Judaeo-Christian civilization. Bishop Michael, retired Bishop of Rochester in England, is now Episcopal Patron of “Mere Anglicanism” and Assisting Bishop for Anglican Communion Relations in South Carolina. The son of a Shia Muslim father who converted to Christianity, he many years ago in Pakistan followed the call of Christ into the ordained ministry of a post-colonial Anglican Church at that time already besieged by an upsurge of Islamism. Together with his young family, he was hounded out of Pakistan. Later, as a missionary and subsequently as a Bishop in an increasingly secularized Britain - over against which last week’s Royal Wedding was such a refreshing witness - he found himself under threat of death when he spoke out against jihad or simply against the abandonment of a Christian perspective in the observance of British constitutional law.

Bishop Nazir-Ali’s current priority in mission and ministry is to encourage Christians, and especially Anglicans, around the world to “hold fast” to the content and claims of the Christian faith as expressed in God’s Word Written, in the Creeds of the Church Catholic, and in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion which define Reformed Anglicanism. To this end, here in Fort Worth on May 24 Bishop Nazir-Ali will deliver “An Urgent Call to the Western Church” to remain true to its missionary Gospel in the face of the very real persecution of Christians by politicized Islam from without, as well as the threat to the identity of formerly Christian nations by ideological secularism and the dilution of Christian orthodoxy by revisionists from within.

Thus we come to Blasphemy. It is against the dilution, indeed the very betrayal, of Christian truth in the name of pluralism from within the denominational Episcopal Church, that I believe Saint Andrew’s under Dr. William Dickson and the Diocese of Fort Worth under Bishop Jack Iker have been called by God to “stand firm” in this time and place. In the face of the attempt by TEC - half a dozen or more law suits in less than two years in Fort Worth alone - to corral Anglicans here back into denominational line, what is at stake is not only the bricks and mortar, the stone and glass and fabric and finances of this duly constituted Parish and Diocese, but the very name and nature of the God of the Bible as either explicitly professed by the One, Catholic and Apostolic Church or, on the contrary, more than implicitly denied by many if not most of TEC’s leadership. At least here in Fort Worth, but certainly not just here, if one wishes to “hold fast” to what has been believed “everywhere, always, and by all” one had better distance oneself from TEC! For it is increasingly clear that it is not inaccurate to describe the conduct of the Presiding Bishop and her henchmen as blasphemous: their “god” is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Despite their capricious rhetorical abuse of language (one thinks of the critiques by the likes of Lewis Carroll and George Orwell of similar semantic chicanery!), especially by way of justifying their relentless, unrighteous litigation - trumped-up law suits and even, here in Fort Worth, intrusive fiduciary interference, one on top of the other - it is evident from the putatively “theological” statements made over many years by Katharine Jefferts Schori and from the legal legerdemain of her Chancellor that neither the form nor the substance of their “religion” is in any biblical or doctrinal sense Christian at all. They shamelessly disguise their claims and threats, both legal and financial, as motivated by “stewardship” and intended to secure the assets and property of the Diocese of Fort Worth and of Saint Andrew’s Parish, purportedly in the name of those who have gone before and those who will come after, for the “mission of the Church.”

Some mission, some Church! Who among those who have gone before, especially those who made their bequests to “the Episcopal Church” prior to the late twentieth century, would be able to recognize either what the current Presiding Bishop professes or the ecclesiastical institution over which she presides as honestly one and the same faith or Church as that in which they themselves had been baptized, taught the catechism, recited the creeds, or received communion? Such a claim would be silly were it not scandalous, bathetic were it not blasphemous.

For it is not difficult to identify the false gospel espoused by Katharine Jefferts Schori. Several years ago, the weblog “Stand Firm” catalogued scores of quotations reflecting what were astutely and accurately identified as her “top five” heresies, the ancient originals of which will be familiar to any reader of Bishop FitzSimons Allison’s book The Cruelty of Heresy -- Gnosticism, Marcionism, Universalism, Pelagianism, and Pluralism.

By all means look up the quotations at Stand Firm in Faith. They are spiritually scary, all the more so coming from one designated as TEC’s chief pastor and guardian of the faith: scary enough, I suggest, for biblical Anglicans to encourage any and all among their own family and friends who may still belong to a TEC-affiliated congregation (in Fort Worth and many other places) to consider, for their spiritual well-being, shaking such dust from their feet; and further to consider the circumstances of ancient Israel in the Book of Hosea, chapters one and two, as well as the circumstances of the New Israel in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, chapter one, verses 6 – 9.

So what is the spiritual, not merely institutional, bottom-line? What is the heresy, indeed the blasphemy - and, hence, cruelty in its human consequences - that has compromised the biblical integrity of TEC and that, even back in 2006, led us in South Carolina as a matter of principle, and this year canonically, to declare our relationship with TEC to be impaired by TEC’s own actions?

It is the utterly unbiblical notion, recited like a mantra by TEC’s Presiding Bishop, that all human beings, simply by virtue of their natural biological birth, are already children of God, and inheritors of God, and indeed, like the world itself, part of the “Body of God” - to cite a favorite lexical caricature typical of the Presiding Bishop’s phraseology - capable of “living into” their divine inheritance by means of humanly performed social and economic “reconciliation” of the world (Millennium Development Grants, Good Friday observed as Earth Day, LGBTQI “rights” and all that): in other words, what Katharine Jefferts Schori likes to call not so much God’s healing and saving of us but our own “healing of God’s Body”! This is the apotheosis of apostasy, the very definition of blasphemy, especially when TEC “keeps” Holy Week and Eastertide in Fort Worth’s Federal District Court.

Because Anglican Christians and in particular members of this Diocese and this Parish in North Texas have many blessings for which to be thankful, not least (despite the worst TEC seeks to do) during this holy season, it is meet and right that we should rejoice, and be glad, and give God the glory, and set our minds and hearts on things higher than ecclesiastical antagonism.

But by the same token, when we find ourselves confronted, either directly in person or indirectly through the media, with the disingenuous rhetorical spin and aggressive litigious conduct of a once noble and faithful Episcopal Church, let us not shrink from calling a spade a spade, or a lie a lie, or naming impostors and intruders for what they are, or identifying heresy and apostasy by their ancient terms. “By their fruit ye shall know them,” and what confronts us in the words and actions of the leadership of TEC today is the poisonous fruit of a false gospel masquerading as Christianity.

WAR AGAINST AL-QAEDA IS JUST

2011-05-06T05:24:00.000-07:00

Christians need to be absolutely clear: if al-Qaeda gained control of a European country it would impose Sharia Law and that would see churches bull-dozed, the Bible banned, and the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ driven underground.

Before that is dismissed as alarmism, even five years before the Russian Revolution in 1917, nobody apart from the true believers would have predicted that the Bolsheviks would seize power and eventually, after Bolshevism mutated into Stalinism, control Eastern Europe.

Yes, Western democracy is far from perfect and the cult of political correctness is seriously weakening its moral fibre. But we can still preach the gospel in Western democracies, sinners can be saved and churches can grow.

A failure to grasp the gravity of the Jihadist threat would seem to be behind the Archbishop of Canterbury's description of Osama Bin Laden as 'an unarmed man'. To be fair to Dr Williams, he did go on to describe Bin Laden as a 'war criminal' but his 'unarmed man' epithet is less than morally accurate.

Bin Laden was shot as a combatant in a just war against the evil terrorist organisation he led.

Whether he had a weapon immediately to hand in his bedroom when his military compound was penetrated by US special forces does not alter that fact.

As a combatant he should have been offered the opportunity to surrender according to civilised rules of engagement. If he refused that offer, then the soldier best placed to kill him had a moral duty to do so.

Since truth and justice go together, the government pursuing the just war, in this instance that of the United States of America, should be truthful about the circumstances of the enemy's death.

But, provided the rules of engagement were observed, it has no need to apologise for killing the military leader of an evil enemy, which, if it got its way, would not only eliminate democracy but also Christianity in the countries over which it won control.

Clearly, there are questions of definition surrounding al-Qaeda and whether it is a sufficiently coherent entity to be capable of taking over a country. The erudite British journalist Peter Hitchens comments:

'You may believe in 'al Qaeda' if you wish. I have yet to see any evidence that there is such an organisation, or if the phrase has anything other than a vaguely general application to a vast variety of Islamic armed militants loosely if at all connected to each other. I think this novelistic bogey is an invention of journalists and spooks (and politicians) all of whom have reasons to promote its importance.'

But it can be argued that it is precisely the informality of Jihadist terrorism that makes it such a difficult enemy to fight. Besides, there were no questions surrounding Bin Laden's hostility to Western democracy, his leadership in terror and his desire to Islamise the world. Provided they fought honourably in this particular operation, then one can thank the good Lord for the efficiency with which US special forces performed their moral duty in this clear case of a just war.

1928 WATERED DOWN VINTAGE 1662 AT ROYAL WEDDING

2011-05-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

The biblical truths proclaimed by the Book of Common Prayer rang out beautifully at the wonderful occasion that was the Royal Wedding on Friday. But it was not pure vintage 1662 that was served up in Westminster Abbey.

The liturgy used by the Dean of Westminster and the Archbishop of Canterbury was taken from the revised Prayer Book of 1928, which failed at the time to secure Parliamentary approval. Most of the 1928 book though was legally authorised for public use in 1966.

Whilst the 1928 Solemnization of Holy Matrimony came across in 2011 as in many ways a refreshingly politically incorrect liturgy, its departures from the 1662 are quite significant. Apart from the omission of the wife's godly obedience to her husband and of the references to 'the time of man's innocency' and to 'our first parents, Adam and Eve', the 1928 markedly reframes the second cause for which marriage was ordained.

According to the 1662, marriage was ordained

for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body.

According to the 1928, marriage was ordained

in order that the natural instincts and affections, implanted by God, should be hallowed and directed aright; that those called of God to this holy estate, should continue therein in pureness of living.

A careful reading of the Apostle Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 7 can only lead to the conclusion that the 1662 more closely reflects his spiritual realism:

Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband (v1-2 - AV)

and

I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn (v7-8).

The 1928 thus cushions the BCP's faithful Pauline edge. It was precisely that refusal to submit to Paul's apostolic authority where it conflicted with the changing ideology and morality of British society that so weakened the witness of the Church of England during the 20th century.

Because of its better reflection of both the New Testament and the reality of fallen human nature, the 1662 should be regarded as the best quality wine, like that which the Lord Jesus Christ served up at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. The 1928 by comparison is watered-down Rioja, to name your curate's favourite red.

It is a no brainer as to which liturgy is worthier of the Wedding Guest who turned plain water into the finest wine.

NO CHEESE NEIL - EASTER FAMILY TALK

2011-04-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Cranmer's Curate wishes the youth group a blessed Easter as he blogs off for the week, back God willing in May. Below is cc's sermon at the Easter Day Family Communion in the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge. The reading was 1 Corinthians 15v1-11.

Who here likes Wallace & Gromit, the cartoon about a man and his dog? One of my favourite episodes is the one where the man and the dog build a rocket in their garage and fly to the moon. The rocket is loaded with cream crackers because the man Wallace is a cheese-freak and he expects to find a lot of green cheese on the moon, which he does. He cuts off green bits of the moon and puts green cheesy lumps on his crackers. 'More cheese Gromit' is the famous catch-phrase as Wallace munches his way through the moon, rather loudly.

Do you think the moon is really made of green cheese? You haven’t been to the moon as far as I know, so how do you know? Why don’t you believe the moon is made of green cheese?

We know because people have been to the moon and when I was five years old I saw on our old black and white TV set a man walking on the moon. It was the 20th July 1969 and Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut, was the first man to walk on the moon. He didn’t say: 'More cheese, Bud'. He actually didn’t say anything about cheese. He said: 'One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,' I seem to remember.

And other people have also been to the moon and they didn’t find any cheese either. They walked on the moon, they felt the moon, they put bits of the moon in their knapsacks and they saw with their own eyes that it’s not made of green cheese. And then more people saw what the astronauts brought back from the moon, the moon dust and the rocks and so on, and they can confirm that it’s not made of green cheese.

We have eye-witnesses, people who can definitely say the moon is not made of green cheese.

Did Jesus rise from the dead? Did Jesus come alive again after his death on the Cross? True or false?

True because we have eye-witnesses – the Apostle Paul names the eye-witnesses who saw Jesus alive again after he rose from the dead leaving an empty tomb in Jerusalem.

First, Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends who saw Jesus alive and ate with him after he rose from the dead.

Then Jesus appeared to his 12 apostles, men like John, and Thomas and Philip. They saw him alive and ate with him.

Then the risen Jesus appeared to more than 500 of his followers at one time. More than 500 men saw him alive.

Then Jesus appeared to James, his brother who later became leader of the church in Jerusalem, and to all his messengers.

And then the risen Jesus appeared to Paul himself on the road to Damascus

We have eye-witnesses who went round telling everybody that Jesus has risen from the dead. Can we believe them?

Let me answer with another question – why would they lie? Take Paul – he was locked up, beaten up, shipwrecked, and in the end killed because and only because he was a follower of Jesus. Why would he lie?

Were they mad? Did they imagine it? We heard a little bit from what Paul wrote. Those are not the words of a madman. This is someone who is thinking clearly and arguing his case.

Just as we believe the men who went to the moon, we can believe Paul and the other eye-witnesses who saw Jesus after he rose from the dead. They weren’t lying; they weren’t mad.

So what? What difference does it make?

The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means he is Lord. He’s in charge of the whole universe and one day we’ll see him on his judgement throne. We’ll meet him either as his friend or his enemy. His friends are people who have believed in him and followed him and suffered for him. His enemies are those who couldn’t be bothered to follow him and even hated those who were following him.

Which are we going to be this Easter day, a friend of Jesus or a enemy? Very very foolish to be an enemy of Jesus when he’s in charge of the whole universe. Much much better, infinitely better to be his friend and we can be his friend when we believe that he is in charge and when we accept his forgiveness for all the wrongs we do.

Jesus did come alive again. So what? It means he is in charge of everyone, so let’s make sure we’re his friends this Easter Day and always by believing and trusting in him.

THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS IN AN ISLAMISING UK

2011-04-22T13:25:00.001-07:00

Wearing a cross around your neck or diplaying one in your van is not of the essence of Christianity. But the message of the cross of Christ is.

The Apostle Paul summed up the centrality of the cross in salvation when he wrote: 'For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God' (1 Corinthians 1v18 - AV).

Thank the good Lord it is still possible in the United Kingdom to preach the message of the cross on Good Friday and on any other day. But if the international director of the Barnabas Fund Dr Patrick Sookhdeo is even half right in his analysis of the creeping Islamisation of the UK, some parts of the country could become closed to the saving message of Christ crucified.

His superb booklet 'Slippery Slope: The Islamisation of the UK' raises profound issues around the future of free Christian proclamation in the UK and in particular the message that the incarnate Son of God was crucified for the sins of the world, an idea that is inimical to the Koran.

If the trends Dr Sookhdeo identifies become more deeply entrenched in UK society, the suppression of the cross would occur in Muslim-majority areas where political Islam imposing sharia law was the dominant administrative force with powers derogated to it by the UK central government. It would be questionable whether Christian churches would even be allowed to minister in those areas, thus muting the message of the cross in both the public space of local society and the private space of Christians.

But, in the light of Dr Sookhdeo's analysis, even before such a disaster befell, proclaiming the cross in some Church of England schools could become highly problematic.

On Maundy Thursday Cranmer's Curate received through the post a copy of Dr Sookhdeo's booklet. It is far from an hysterical document but some of the examples it gives are profoundly disturbing:

A Church of England school has built a multi-faith room facing Mecca as part of a programme to teach respect, tolerance and harmony. Bluecoat School, which has the largest RE resource centre in Nottingham, has also taken its ethos to 1,400 pupils at different schools across the country by offering them "interactive religious experiences".

Dr Sookhdeo quotes the comment of a Nottingham Post reporter:

When visiting a Church of England school the last thing I expected to see was a Hindu Shrine, set up next to a line of Islam prayer mats and facing the Sikh book of worship.

What would be the likely reaction if the local vicar came to do an assembly in such a school and proclaimed the message of Christ crucified? That message is well summed up by the Church of England's official doctrine in its 39 Articles of Religion. Article XXXI - Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross - states:

The Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone.

That means, children, that you cannot get right with God by being a good Hindu, a good Muslim, a good Sikh or even by being a good Christian.

To get right with God you have to put your personal trust in God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone, for He is the only One who died to pay the price for our sins.

Incumbents of parishes in which Church of England schools are located do have certain rights of visitation - certainly more rights in Voluntary Aided than Voluntary Controlled schools. But, whatever the official position, curriculum excuses could no doubt be found for not inviting a vicar back who preached the cross in the above manner in a school sporting a Hindu Shrine, set up next to a line of Islam prayer mats and facing the Sikh book of worship.

LE CARRE'S LATEST - BRILLIANT BUT INCREDIBLE

2011-04-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

Our Kind of Traitor (Viking, 2010) is certainly better than Le Carre's previous three novels - A Most Wanted Man (2008), The Mission Song (2006), and Absolute Friends (2003). Carre-istas might well argue that it is his best since The Constant Gardener (2001), his last novel to be made into a film.

A brilliant read though Le Carre's latest is, the young couple drawn into a British secret service attempt to bring a Russian money-launderer turned informant to the UK - an Oxbridge don and his barrister girl-friend - are arguably not very credible.

Cranmer's Curate may be being overly cynical about Britons born in the late 1970s. But such do-gooders according to Judaeo-Christian values, who are under 35 and have not expressly converted to the biblical worldview, are surely an anachronism in the 'whatever' society of post-Christian Britain.

It almost seems as if Le Carre, born in 1931, is projecting some of the Christian-motivated philanthropic zeal he encountered in his formative years in the 1940s and 1950s onto a Noughties couple whose slender shoulders cannot sustain it.

Yes, there is zeal in post-modern Britain, but it is of the politically-correct kind that insists on my right to be whatever as long as it is not Christian.

Two products of the post-1960s, Me Society who get altruistically involved in helping Dima, his pious wife and subjugated children to escape the life-threatening corruption of his Russian gangster sub-culture are surely too good to be true.

The book is certainly pessimistic about the moral condition of the British State - its ambiguous ending is suggestive of a possible collusion between City and Whitehall vested interests and the Russian mob to bump Dima off.

But such pessimism contrasts sharply with his optimism about the moral state of Perry and Gail who act redemptively.

The concept of redemption actually belongs to the culture shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, which celebrates the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction which the Lord Jesus Christ made once and for all upon the Cross for the sins of the whole world.

That was the liturgy of the Britain of Le Carre's youth, now banished from the putrefying civilisation of his old age.

BEN & GLORIA KWASHI ON BBC RADIO SHEFIELD

2011-04-17T01:10:00.002-07:00

It was not easy for Ben and Gloria Kwashi to do an interview for the BBC. The 'six-of-one-and-half-a-dozen-of-the-other' Western media template in its coverage of the violence in Jos has added to the distress of the Christian community in Nigeria and the Kwashis had a particularly bad experience with the BBC.

The reality on the ground is that Christians have been largely quiescent in the face of Islamist attacks and have heeded the calls from their leaders such as the Kwashis not to take revenge. And in that godly approach no one can dispute the fact that the Kwashis are leading by example.

There are inevitably pressures and tensions within the Christian community in Jos with some arguing that Christians subject to attacks have the right to defend themselves in the teeth of failures by the security forces to keep order.

But overwhelmingly such retaliation as there has been has not been by Christians. As Ben explained in his interview with Ed Thornton of the Church Times, not every non-Muslim in Jos is a Christian.

Ben's interview with BBC Radio Sheffield, pre-recorded during his and Gloria's visit to the UK, was broadcast this morning on the Sarah Major Sunday breakfast show (at the beginning of the second hour). Gloria's interview is due to be broadcast next Sunday. Both interviews can be accessed here for seven days after broadcast.

Sarah did a great job putting the Kwashis at their ease and prompting them to tell their amazing story - thankfully the BBC's local coverage is not as dominated by the virulent political correctness of its national and international journalism.

Cranmer's Curate was in the studio during the interviews and what a powerful testimony to the living Christ they were from two Christian people walking in the way of the Cross.

BOOST FOR SMALL CHURCH FROM NIGERIA

2011-04-15T07:12:00.001-07:00

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in this week's Church of England Newspaper:

The suffering and growing Church of Jesus Christ in Africa was represented by Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria, and his remarkable wife Gloria, who spent three days in a South Yorkshire parish and the result was tremendous blessing.

They visited Oughtibridge, a commuter village on the north-west outskirts of Sheffield, before this week’s New Word Alive conference in north Wales to cement a recently-formed link between the Parish Church of the Ascension and St Luke’s Cathedral Church in Jos. Canon Christopher Sugden, Anglican Mainstream executive secretary, arranged the link on behalf of our church when he visited Jos just before Christmas.

At a church family meal on Saturday night, the Kwashis described both the explosive church growth they have witnessed in the Plateau State of Nigeria and the Islamist attacks they have experienced.

In 1987, when Archbishop Ben was a vicar, his church and house were burned down. In 2006, in the wake of the Danish cartoon furore, Gloria was savagely attacked in their home and had to have surgery in the United States to restore her eyesight. In 2007 Archbishop Ben himself was threatened with death by intruders into their home who fortunately did not carry out their stated intent but did steal valuables and caused considerable damage.

The Kwashis' residence is a care home and school for 50 children, supervised by Gloria. A further 150 children are also educated in the compound. An enterprise of this scale in an Archbishop's residence is made all the more challenging by the need to provide special care for the children who are HIV-positive.

Christian grace under pressure is a compelling witness to the living Christ anywhere in the world. On the Friday of their visit the Kwashis did a pre-recorded interview for BBC Radio Sheffield’s Sunday breakfast programme in which they testified powerfully to the love of Christ. Asked how they coped with the suffering they have experienced, they simply expressed their desire to be a blessing to others in the place in which God has called them to be Christ’s witnesses.

Such Christian integrity impacted powerfully on the Oughtibridge congregation to whom Archbishop Ben preached on Sunday. Gloria was wonderfully bedecked in her Mothers’ Union dress and headdress. His text was the raising of Lazarus in John 11, one of the Lectionary readings for last Sunday.

His sermon about the raising of a dead man by the power of the living Christ resonated powerfully in a ‘middle of the road’ Anglican parish church.

When my wife and I arrived in Oughtibridge in 2000, the middle of the road was where the parish church perceived itself to be. Though eschewing incense and reserved sacrament, it cherished its candles and coloured altar cloths. It also prided itself on not being ‘happy clappy’.

However, I soon discovered as vicar that the middle of the road is a dangerous place to be when you are a hedgehog. The Oughtibridge congregation had declined during the 1980s and 1990s in common with many such churches. Ours was virtually the only family in the regular congregation when we arrived. Indeed on Christmas Day in 1999, during the inter-regnum, there had been no children in the parish church, a feat of which Oliver Cromwell would have been proud or perhaps not if Sunday had fallen on December 25th during his Puritan Protectorate.

The church was unsustainable back in 2000 – it did not pay its way in terms of parish share and still does not, though the congregation by God’s grace has grown younger and there is an agreed agenda on PCC to increase our contribution to the cost of our ministry. But the politically incorrect reality is that without significantly more Christian men of working age, the church will struggle to become a sustainable and viable parish church.

Oughtibridge churchwarden, Mrs Helen Kean, who joined the church in 2004 through bringing her daughter for baptism, describes the spiritual benefits of the Kwashis' visit: "As a church family we have been encouraged enormously by both Ben and Gloria's true commitment and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Through much suffering and pain they stand firm in what they believe and what Jesus has taught us through the Gospels. We are so very excited about this link that the Lord has provided us with and we look forward to praying for and supporting our brothers and sisters in Jos."

The hymn after Archbishop Ben’s sermon was Charles Wesley’s ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise’. My English reserve almost failed me when we sang: "He speaks and listening to His voice, new life the dead receive, the mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe."

Perhaps it would have been more appropriate on this occasion if the stiff upper lip had broken its line.

HONEST POLICEMAN RAISES SPECTRE OF UK CLOSED TO THE GOSPEL

2011-04-12T03:16:00.000-07:00

Could Britain eventually become closed to the gospel? Though the future of Christianity in the UK was not in his purview, an honest policeman's exposure of a police force riddled with political correctness raises just that spectre.

Inspector Gadget's article in the Daily Mail - How political correctness is crippling my police force - should be of grave concern to all gospel-hearted Christians who long to see lost souls in our nation saved for eternity:

My internal office phone directory lists no fewer than 32 officers with ‘diversity’ in their job title, all of them working nine-to-five in desk-bound jobs, while we slog it out on the front line. I was half-hoping that, given their irrelevance to the battle against crime, they might be made redundant in the public-sector cuts, but that was far too optimistic.

Diversity is sacrosanct, its commissars are protected and its influence is all dominant.

So in our training, for instance, just one day a year is devoted to practical instruction in officer safety, dealing with procedures such as correct use of handcuffs, Tasers and batons, or how to put a violent suspect in a van or cell.

Yet the effort devoted to diversity is far greater. We have to carry out two days of diversity training a year at headquarters, another day at our divisions, go through an eight-hour ‘e-learning’ package on our computers and, in our annual performance appraisal forms, show that we have accomplished three separate objectives ‘to raise diversity awareness’.

In addition, during weekly individual meetings with our supervisor, we have to explain what we have done to promote cultural diversity.

A diversity stunt too far - one involving gross disloyalty to the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for Christian democratic freedom - first motivated this honest policeman to speak out, as he explains on his blog:

The day and hour in 2006 that I was told that we could no longer provide uniformed police officers for our local Remembrance Day parade but that we would be attending an Eastern religion’s festival on a neighbouring Division simply to show ‘community engagement’, I decided that the truth has to be told.

If the arm of the State responsible for enforcing law and order gets possessed by an anti-Christian ideology, which is what political correctness fundamentally is, then Christianity becomes criminalised. The gospel stands in the way of the force of a perverted law under which a drug-crazed thug is perceived as a minor nuisance whereas an elderly lady who offends against sacrosanct diversity is treated as a serious threat.

How ironic the Inspector's revelation of a PC police service is. The British police force was established in a society that was rapidly re-moralising in the slipstream of the 18th century evangelical revival.

Now far from enforcing 'thou shalt do no murder' and 'thou shalt not steal', Robert Peel's creation is enforcing 'thou shalt not be Islamophobic' and 'thou shalt not be homophobic'.

The enforcers of the new morality may call themselves a 'service', but servants of the Lord Jesus Christ who offend against the PC Commandments would be naive to expect them to be anything other than a force - the force of the Beast.

A DISSENTING REFORM BISHOP IS A RUNNER

2011-04-08T23:41:00.000-07:00

Steve raises an important question under February's post Gongs, Marginalisation, Reform and Fishing Platforms:

How, in your opinion, would your average potential Reform bishop cope with any of the following?

(1) Wearing Eucharistic vestments (plus or minus mitre).
(2) Celebrating the Eucharist with unleavened bread.
(3) Celebrating the Eucharist with the use of incense.
(4) Having responsibility for the spiritual oversight of a parish which does any or all of the above.
(5) Having responsibility for the spiritual oversight of a parish with a woman vicar.
(6) Giving or withholding permission for the reservation of the Sacrament. [You may or may not know that reservation has been found at law in the C of E's ecclesiastical courts to be legal.]
(7) Leading the full range of the C of E's authorised services, including every authorised eucharistic prayer in Common Worship Order One.

Everything I have enumerated here is definitely legal in the Church of England, and I believe that the reason there are not more Reform-type bishops is that there is a perception that such men would make real nuisances of themselves over some or all of the above. You, as a Reform man, will know better than I, who am not, how far this perception is justified; but I would find it very difficult to argue against those who think it is.

I'd be most interested to hear what you think.

This is actually not the unanswerable litany of reasons why a Reform man could not be a bishop that it might sound.

A reform bishop would not be legally required himself to do 1). 2). 3). or even 7).

4). 5). and 6). would be extremely difficult were it not for the fact that there is a tradition of theological dissent in the Church of England. It was precisely that Anglican feature that allowed those practices to be introduced into the Church of England in the 19th and 20th centuries and eventually to become ensconced.

There is nothing to stop a Reform bishop from expressing disagreement with 4). 5). and 6). on biblical grounds and indeed on the ground that they are not commended by the Book of Common Prayer, the 39 Articles or the Ordinal.

Indeed, in the case of 6). Article 28 states unequivocally:

The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped.

Ah, but what about the now entrenched position of women presbyters? Surely it would be impossible for a Reform bishop to act on his dissent by refusing to ordain women to the presbyterate or appoint them as incumbents.

Really?

It would be revealing to see a Reform diocesan bishop giving that a try.

HOW MUCH ARE POLICE PURSUING HONOUR CRIMES AGAINST MUSLIM CONVERTS TO CHRIST?

2011-04-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Evangelisation of Muslims in the United Kingdom is by God's grace occurring and Muslims are converting to Christ. Cranmer's Curate has written to former Home Secretary David Waddington - a courageous champion of orthodox Christianity in Parliament - about the protection of Muslim converts from honour crimes:

Dear Lord Waddington, Homophobic incidents are being assiduously followed up by the police. Equality and diversity departments have been rigorous in ensuing that. But what about honour crimes against Muslims who convert to Christ? How assiduous are the police in following up reported crimes of violence against converts to Christ?

In short, is politically-correct ideology leading the police to prioritise resources toward combating homophobia and to soft-pedal on religious freedom?

Yours sincerely,

Julian Mann

This piece by Cranmer's Curate about an unbiblical image of male headship appeared in Friday's Church of England Newspaper.

This piece about the Reform regional consultations appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline.

HOPE FOR THE CHURCH FROM CLEGGLAND

2011-03-30T02:00:00.000-07:00

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.

MRS DISCRIMINATES IN FAVOUR OF MARRIAGE - THAT IS THE BEAUTY OF HER

2011-03-29T00:00:00.001-07:00

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.

ISLAM WINS WHEN CHRISTIANS STOP PERSUADING

2011-03-04T00:42:00.001-08:00

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:

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?

PAUL'S SUFFERINGS & MODERN MINISTERIAL INCONVENIENCES

2011-03-01T00:03:00.001-08:00

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:

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.

PRECARIOUSNESS OF CofE REFUSAL TO HOST CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS

2011-02-23T03:13:00.001-08:00

The Church of England has declared its opposition to its buildings being used for civil partnership ceremonies, but an ominous question mark must hang over the security of that commitment.

Clearly, it is to be hoped that the line holds. But can an institution that allows its clergy to enter into civil partnerships be relied upon to hold the line?

The shameful fact that openly immoral clergy continue to hold licences to officiate does not inspire confidence. Nor does the recent news that the Church of England is trialling an application form for posts that will not ask clergy about their marital status.

The change is supported by those who perceive ordained ministry as akin to a secular career where a person's private life is divorced from their capability for the job. But this essentially Clintonesque approach is contradicted by both the Pastoral Epistles of the New Testament and by the biblical doctrine of the Church of England as expressed liturgically in its Book of Common Prayer.

The Apostle Paul's epistles to Timothy and Titus could not be clearer that the marital and family circumstances of church leaders are decisive for their suitability for office (cf 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1). And the BCP Ordinal, reflecting the biblical doctrine of the Church of England, enjoins clergy to 'be diligent to fashion your own own selves, and your families, according to the doctrine of Christ'.

Anyone who thinks that Anglican doctrine embraces politically correct 'diversity' in its conception of the family would be advised to read the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony according to the Book of Common Prayer. It makes clear that the first God-ordained purpose of heterosexual, monogamous, life-long marriage is 'for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of his holy Name'.

The Roman Catholic Church's refusal to host civil partnerships has a robust theological basis judging by the statement from the Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Reverend Peter Smith:

Marriage does not belong to the state any more than it belongs to the church. It is a fundamental human institution rooted in human nature itself. It is a lifelong commitment of a man and a woman to each other, publicly entered into, for their mutual wellbeing and for the procreation and upbringing of children.

Unfortunately, such clarity exposes the precariousness of the Church of England's current stance against civil partnership ceremonies on its premises.

EDMUND GRINDAL AND THE NEED TO UPHOLD BIBLICAL INERRANCY

2011-02-19T01:05:00.000-08:00

Cranmer's Curate this week spent a lovely four days at Wycliffe Hall, in the company of Archbishop Edmund Grindal (c1519-1583) and J. Weingreen's classical Hebrew grammar, on a study break cum retreat. He thanks the administrative staff very much indeed for making his time out of the parochial front-line so refreshing.

Patrick Collinson's 1979 biography of the Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury who clashed with the Queen because of his refusal to suppress local preaching classes, known as 'prophesyings', was a wonderful book to read in the library of an Anglican evangelical theological college.

In the course of his spiritual reflections at Wycliffe, it struck your curate forcibly that the need for a clear conviction about biblical inerrancy is the underlying issue facing the modern Church.

Inerrancy is essentially the conviction that the Bible does not err in the theological, moral and historical truths that the God of all truth wishes to reveal to mankind this side of the Second Coming.

The truth of God's Word written is inseparably linked with its supreme authority in the Church because, unlike human reason and experience and church tradition, the Bible is unerring.

Incidentally, inerrantists have to work harder at biblical interpretation than liberals. We must pay careful attention to the literary genre through which God wills to communicate his truth, to questions of authorial intent and to the unfolding salvific narrative of the Bible.

It is the case that a robust notion of biblical inerrancy has become necessary because of the institutional ascendancy of liberalism in the mainline Protestant Churches since the 19th century. But Grindal's struggle for biblical authority was closely related to the struggle inerrantists face in the modern Church. It was surely his commitment to the truth of the Word of God written and its supreme authority in the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ that got him into trouble.

Professor Collinson shows convincingly that to describe Grindal as a 'Puritan' Archbishop out of sorts with the 'via media' institutional flavour of the Church of England is to read the 1640s into the 1570s. It is anachronistic. Grindal was a moderate Calvinist episcopolian dedicated to the Reformed doctrine of the national Church as expressed in its 39 Articles of Religion and their commitment to God's Word written.

Biblical inerrancy is thus a belief that belongs to the mainstream of Anglicanism - it cannot be dismissed as a hobby horse for narrow-minded bigots with loose commitment to the Church of England.

To be reminded of that at Wycliffe Hall was both apposite and spiritually energising.

GONGS, MARGINALISATION, REFORM & FISHING PLATFORMS

2011-02-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Some evangelicals do get made bishops and some gain gongs for services to the Church of England, but not if they join the Reform Council.

What Reform stands for is too counter-cultural to earn garlands from a compromised church and a politically-correct world. So anyone wanting to stand firm for the classic evangelical convictions Reform stands for can kiss good-bye to that purple shirt or Birthday Honour.

Which is one reason why we should thank God for the spiritual courage of those men and women who do volunteer to serve on the Council.

Reform chairman Rod Thomas says the Council decided not to form a Society purely for the purpose of providing episcopal oversight for those opposed to women bishops because

the effect might be to marginalise us. We needed to show that we occupied, and argued our case from, the middle ground.

Below the news story about this on this blog Ugley Vicar Revd John Richardson pointed out that Reform is already institutionally marginalised in the Church of England. Evidence: one Reform bishop appiointed since the network formed in 1993 and he a suffragan of Lewes, the Rt Revd Wallace Benn.

Who can argue with the prophet Richardson on that? But just because Reform is institutionally marginalised does not mean that what it stands for is marginal in terms of what the living God is doing in his world - building his Kingdom through the transforming power of the true biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So why worry about the institutional 'middle ground'? It may constitute a raised platform at the centre of the pond. But below the surface and indeed increasingly above it, the wood is rotten to the core.

That is why it makes sense to build a fishing platform adjacent to the rotting one that is firmly established on the Reform Covenant. It may not be as fancy. But there are some nice people on the rotting one who are willing to lend a supporting hand, just as they are for the Anglo-Catholics who are building a SSWSH platform.

A fishing platform with the Reform Covenant as its basis has the significant advantage of being theologically coherent on the male headship issue unlike one built on the Jerusalem Declaration.

RELOCATING THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

2011-02-13T00:03:00.000-08:00

This appeared in February's New Directions:

Julian Mann explains why the current location of Anglican evangelical theological colleges is not ideal for the challenges of twenty-first-century mission

If it was ever right to locate Anglican evangelical theological colleges in Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, the needs of biblically faithful ministry and evangelism in twenty-first-century Britain urgently call for a re-think. The question is now whether these rarefied and socially elitist collegiate universities are the right environments for the training of Christ’s missionaries to the United Kingdom.

Late Victorian Anglican evangelicals wanted theological colleges in influential universities to combat the rise of Anglo-Catholic ritualism. But the centralization of Anglican evangelical theological training in Oxbridge was one factor that undermined the broad social base of our movement in the eighteenth-century revival. As the twentieth century unfolded, Anglican evangelicalism became more socially narrow, southern-based and obsessed with ‘strategy’, i.e. reaching the influential upper echelons of society.

In the face of the twenty-first-century missionary challenge, why not move Ridley Hall, Cambridge, to Luton; Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, to Leicester; and Cranmer Hall, Durham, to Darlington or Middlesbrough? Arguably, Trinity Bristol, though not suffering quite the same locational disadvantages as the above three, might be better off in Swindon.

There is a good argument for moving either Ridley or Wycliffe to the north-west of England, which currently does not have a residential theological college – in which case Blackburn, Lancashire, would be a very strong contender. There are several advantages of relocation to such multicultural cities and towns.

Firstly, it would sort out the motivation of the teaching staff, weeding out the career academics wanting to associate with the big published names at a collegiate university. Staff willing to take up posts in Luton, Leicester, Darlington, Middlesbrough or Blackburn are much more likely to be committed to training men and women for front-line Bible ministry in a diversity of communities.

Secondly, moving ordinands out of the collegiate cocoon would set a much better tone for future ministry. Their placements in local churches would be much more varied, cross-cultural and socially challenging. Trainees would gain experience in unfamiliar situations where they would see the need for risk-taking and self-sacrifice in ministry. This could help to break the evangelical gravitational pull towards the safety of affluent southern suburbia.

Thirdly, ordinands would no longer be distracted from the core purpose of theological education. That is to gain a theological grounding in preparation for a lifetime of Word ministry and some practical experience of the diversity of Gospel opportunities in the Church of England. The denomination is not paying for them to do student ministry on the cheap for evangelical networks and churches in Oxbridge and Durham.

It is important to stress that this is not about middleclass guilt or inverted snobbery. If I may make a personal comment, I hugely enjoyed Cambridge as an undergraduate. This issue is about mission: does not the unchanging Gospel of eternal salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone urgently call Anglican evangelicals to break free of late Victorian priorities in the training of Gospel ministers to the nation?

Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire

REFORM REPORTS PROGRESS ON PANEL OF ORTHODOX BISHOPS

2011-02-10T00:10:00.000-08:00

This news story by Cranmer's Curate appeared on the US-based orthodox Anglican news service VirtueOnline:

Revd Rod Thomas, chairman of UK Anglican Evangelical network Reform, reports significant progress on the development of a biblically orthodox Society within the Church of England with its own panel of bishops.

In his latest newsletter to the 1600-strong membership including 500 clergy, he reveals that the Reform Council has decided that the new Society announced at the October 2010 conference would not be formed "purely for the purpose of providing episcopal oversight for those who cannot accept women bishops. Not only was it unlikely that the General Synod would respond in a way that would be adequate but the effect might be to marginalise us. We needed to show that we occupied, and argued our case from, the middle ground. However, the development of a broader based Society, able to operate with its own panel of bishops across a range of issues could be a positive development".

He reports that "a considerable amount of work has been done on this within the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) in the UK and an initial panel of (existing) bishops has been proposed. The Primates of the FCA worldwide have also been consulted. The doctrinal basis of the Society would be the Jerusalem Statement agreed at GAFCON in 2008. There might be two categories of membership – one for those who were supportive but who had no immediate ministry need, and another for those who did need alternative episcopal oversight".

Mr Thomas continues: "The existence of such a panel of bishops could well be a help to the English House of Bishops in dealing with the current dilemma over women bishops. One possibility is that the House of Bishops may decide that in the light of the consultations in the dioceses, the present legislative proposals should be amended in order to provide better safeguards for those who are opposed to them. If this turns out to be the case, they might be open to positive proposals for changes that would enable parishes to have oversight from a recognised panel of bishops."

He argues that "quite apart from the issue of women bishops, the formation of a Society could help in situations where irregular ordinations have had to take place over the last few years or will be taking place in the future. Where the ordinands involved have been through the Reform Panel of Reference, there is every reason to commend them and their congregations to the FCA’s initial panel of bishops for recognition and oversight. The Reform Council was warmly supportive of this – and supportive too of the idea that in due course a way should be found to give all those involved a public welcome".

He concludes: "Needless to say, there is still much work to be done on all these proposals. In order to help the process, the Council agreed to set up a joint working group with Church Society to consider how a future panel of bishops might be selected."

THE CAMERON DECLARATION: CHRISTIAN ISSUES THAT NEED RESOLVING

2011-02-07T04:13:00.002-08:00

This section of Prime Minister David Cameron's Munich Security Conference speech is highly significant for desirable orthodox Christian engagement in British civic life:

Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism. A passively tolerant society says to its citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It stands neutral between different values. A genuinely liberal country does much more. It believes in certain values and actively promotes them. Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality. It says to its citizens: this is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe in these things.

The New Testament exhorts Christians 'to strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord' (Hebrews 12v14 - RSV). In the light of Mr Cameron's call for social coherence and our New Testament imperative to pursue civic peace and maintain our Christian integrity, efforts need to be made to resolve the following outstanding issues between us and government:

• Does 'a genuinely liberal country' understand that freedom of worship for a Christian means the ability to present his or her body as a 'living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God' (Romans 12v1)? That means worship affects the whole of life, and is not confined to what Christians say or do in church or in their private devotions.

• What should be the outcome in a genuinely liberal country when freedom of worship and a perception of equal rights clash as happened in the Cornish B&B case?

• Will a genuinely liberal country allow churches and indeed other religious organisations to employ people for a range of roles who adhere to their beliefs on faith and morals?

• Will a genuinely liberal country allow Christians and others publicly to point out what they see as the theological and moral errors of the Koran without being proscribed for 'Islamophobia'?

• Will a genuinely liberal country allow Christians and others to proclaim and uphold their belief that the expression of sexual love should be exclusively reserved for heterosexual marriage without being proscribed for 'homophobia'?

• Will a genuinely liberal country be pro-active in protecting those who wish to convert from one religion to another?

• Will a genuinely liberal country allow traditionalist Christians to incarnate different roles for the sexes in the ordering of their corporate worship? And will it recognise the fact that the mainline churches go about this in a very different way from Mosques?

Christian volunteerism and caring social action are a vitally important part of our witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. As spending cuts kick in, local churches are well placed in communities to serve our fellow men and women, particularly the elderly, in practical deeds of loving service.

The other imperative towards active social engagement by orthodox Christians is the fact that we are or should be firmly on the side of law and order and supportive of government in its responsibility to wield the sword of justice. We are or should be supportive of Mr Cameron's indictment of a cultural climate that has allowed Islamist terrorism to breed.

And we are or should be supportive of the promotion of civic peace by counter-acting a cultural isolationism that feeds off the welfare state.

Mr Cameron's Munich declaration highlights the urgency of resolving our issues for the sake of gospel proclamation, Christian social action, and civic peace.

TIME TO START RECRUITING FOR ST AUGUSTINE'S

2011-02-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

Surely it does not take much to get an ecclesial Society for Reformed Anglicans up and running.

It just takes a group of credible and respected Anglican Evangelical leaders to register a charity, set up a website and start recruiting members.

The model is the Anglo-Catholic Society of St Wilfred & St Hilda. Even Cranmer’s Curate was able to click the right button and fill in the simple online form in order to join it.

It is ironic that the Anglo-Catholics are setting the pace here. Their churches tend to be smaller and have an older age profile than our Anglican Evangelical churches. Yet they are proving to be the whizz kids in the creative use of internet technology and social networking in the cause of Christian orthodoxy.

There is in fact already a website for the Society of St Augustine. According to Thinking Anglicans, it is registered in the name of Canon Chris Sugden, executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream.

If progress on setting up St Augustine’s has stalled in the councils of leading Reformed Anglicans, surely it is fairly straightforward to get the ball rolling – just soup up the existing site so it can take members, and post up some aims, prayer requests and some membership criteria.

These would need to include commitment to:

• pray for St Augustine's and its leaders

• the biblical doctrine and mission of the Church of England

• a structured provision with jurisdiction for those who remain committed to the Church of England but believe that Holy Scripture teaches that it is inappropriate for women to be presbyters or bishops

• the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 on human sexuality.

As for the argument that St Augustine's would isolate Reformed Anglicans from the rest of the Church of England, a few things need to be said:

• That could be an argument against joining Reform.

• Unless we Reformed Anglicans get serious about forming our own ecclesial structure, our movement will become confined to large churches in affluent areas of the south of England, homogeneous church plants and proprietary chapels as liberalism gets further incarnated in the Church of England. That would be regional and socio-demographic isolation.

• Forming an ecclesial Society is a perfectly Reformed thing to do. There is nothing unevangelical about churches supporting one another in ministry and mission and indeed in sharing godly episcopal oversight.

In fact, it is strongly arguable that Christ’s mission in the UK would be greatly strengthened by an Anglican Evangelical Society led by gospel-preaching, Bible-believing bishops.

NO, THE 39 ARTICLES ARE NOT 'LOST PROPERTY'

2011-02-02T00:03:00.000-08:00

This review of Dr Gerald Bray's exposition of the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion appeared in February's edition of Evangelicals Now under the interrogative headline 'Lost Property?'.

The answer to the EN sub-editor's question is - no, the 39 Articles are not lost property, for Canon A5 affirms that, along with the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal, they express the biblical doctrine of the Church of England.

THE FAITH WE CONFESS:
An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles
Gerald Bray
The Latimer Trust, pp236, £9.99 (£8 online from Latimer)
ISBN 978-0-946307-84-5

Dr Bray uses his profound depth of doctrinal and historical knowledge to unearth the firm evangelical foundations of the Church of England.

The established Church is currently in big problems but Latimer's director of research shows that its 39 Articles of Religion contain sound biblical doctrine.

That is why The Faith we Confess deserves to be recommended reading for evangelicals considering Anglican ministry and should inspire confidence.

But it is also helpful for church members. Because it is a collection of pithy essays on each Article, with an excellent introduction, it can be used for example at a church council meeting. I used part of his essay on the Three Creeds (Article 8) at a PCC recently.

I had to point out that there was some specialist language, a bit of Latin and one German location I could not pronounce but that if we listened carefully we would know more about the two creeds we say regularly in church – the Nicene and the Apostles’ – at the end than we did at the beginning.

Dr Bray lucidly shows how Article 8, characteristically of the 39, treats the Bible as the supreme authority:

Acceptance of the creeds was common to the main Reformation churches, but the reasons for this were different from the ones usually put forward by the Roman Catholic Church or sometimes advocated by ecumenical bodies today. The latter like to refer to the tradition of the church, and the more universal that tradition is, the more acceptable is the creed...Article 8 advocates accepting the creeds not for traditional reasons, but because they state the clear and unequivocal teaching of Holy Scripture (p56).

So no ambiguity there. The Christ we confess in the creeds rules his church by ‘God’s Word written’ (as Article 20 refers to the Bible).

POLITICALLY CORRECT COERCION COULD HELP SINK WOMEN BISHOPS

2011-01-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

The news that a cross party group of MPs, including Frank Field and Simon Hughes, is pushing for Parliament to force the Church of England to consecrate women bishops could well turn out to be a boost for traditionalists on the General Synod.

Mr Field has tabled an Early Day Motion to remove the Church of England's exemption from equality laws, which would force Synod to pass the women bishops' legislation. EDMs rarely get debated and there is anyway a glaring inconsistency in Mr Field's motion. If Parliament takes away the Church of England's exemption, why not that of the Roman Catholic Church?

If an unstable coalition government were prepared to blunder into that political minefield, then it really would be missing the services of Mr Andy Coulson.

The fact that Mr Field et al have intervened in this coercive manner in the affairs of God's Church does add to a growing sense that Caesar has got too big for his boots in trying to tell God what to do. That surely could well be turned to advantage by opponents of women bishops on the floor of the Synod.

If Mr Field's gesture were to translate into legislation, that could lead to a face-off between Parliament and Church. If Synod were to refuse to obey Parliament's directive to ratify women bishops, then that would leave the Archbishops of Canterbury and York facing a difficult choice: consecrating women bishops because Parliament has told them to or refusing because the Council of the Church failed to endorse the legislation.

Mr Field is in an interesting position. He is chairman of the King James Bible Trust, which is spearheading the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the Authorised Version.

It is not a very politically-correct book. Take for example its English rendering of the Apostle Paul's statement about the God-created difference between the sexes in 1 Corinthians 11:

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of every woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God (v3).

Its translation of Paul's statement in 1 Timothy 2 is even closer to the bone of the current debate over women in pastoral leadership in God's Church:

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over a man, but to be in silence (v11-12).

How ironic that Mr Field's motion is colluding with church feminists seeking to 'usurp' the teaching authority that, according to the AV, does not rightly belong to them.

IS THERE ROOM ON THE SWSH BUS FOR REFORMED ANGLICANS?

2011-01-27T03:59:00.000-08:00

Could the Anglo-Catholic Society of St Wilfred & St Hilda field a Reformed Anglican team?

Or to put the question more ecclesiastically, would it be willing and able to arrange for the consecration of Reformed Anglican bishops to provide pastoral oversight for conservative evangelicals?

That is the question raised by the refreshingly positive pastoral letter from 12 Anglo-Catholic bishops responding to the ordinariate defections. SWSH kindly sent Cranmer's Curate the press release.

In cricketing terms Provision to Remain is good front-foot stuff.

The bishops, including Blackburn, Gibraltar, Chichester, Beverley, Burnley, Plymouth and Pontefract, wish the defectors Godspeed as they follow their consciences across the Tiber but declare that

even at this late hour we are seeking a way forward that would enable us with integrity to retain membership of the Church of England.

They affirm the new Society of St Wilfred and St Hilda as one of the ways of achieving 'a settlement through which we would be free to play our part (in the mission of the Church of England) to the fullest measure':

We believe this could be done by the formation of a society within the Church of England, overseen by bishops committed to our viewpoint. Such bishops would need, of course, the necessary ordinary jurisdiction that would enable them to be the true pastors of their people and to be guarantors of the sacramental assurance on which we all depend for our authentic sharing within the Body of Christ. Given that our parishes are also constituent parts of local dioceses we also understand that some way would have to be identified for sharing jurisdiction with the diocesan bishop.

They added:

We understand it to be something of this nature that our archbishops were trying to achieve in their ill-fated amendment at the July meeting of the General Synod. That amendment, though narrowly defeated in the House of Clergy, was widely supported elsewhere in the Synod and, indeed, a majority of members supported it. It might well be that a revisiting of the archbishops’ proposals, with some further development of them, could still help our Church to find a way forward that enabled us all to remain faithful members of it.

The bishops say they are

continuing to meet regularly and to listen to the views of many different people as they add substance to a draft constitution for The Society.

So, to change the metaphor, would there be room on this bus for conservative evangelicals?

And would conservative evangelicals wanting to continue to serve Christ in the Church of England be willing to hop on and on what terms?

HOW WOULD CHRISTIAN PIRATE BLOGGING WORK OUT?

2011-01-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

Orthodox Christian bloggers such as the Revd John Richardson and the Revd Peter Ould were in the forefront of getting to the heart of the matter over the Cornish B&B prosecution.

That is the fact that the Judge ruled that there was 'no material difference' between marriage and civil partnerships. John explained how the Bishop of Chester had prophesied during the House of Lords debate on civil partnerships that such an equivalence would emerge in English law.

The coming to pass of Dr Forster's prediction is indeed the death knell of Christian Britain.

The superb coverage by orthodox Christian bloggers raised this question in your curate's mind at least: if the UK segues into a politically correct dictatorship and it becomes illegal for Christian bloggers to denounce false religion, false teaching, idolatry and immorality in the robust way in which the New Testament does, what then?

Cranmer's Curate is an ordinary blogspot boy and is very far from being an expert on internet technology.

He does know that the internet is notoriously difficult to censor, as the Wikileaks affair has demonstrated. But what are the ways and means oppressive governments could deploy to suppress Christian blogging?

How would Christian pirate blogging work out in practice? Presumably it would not be necessary to resort to blogging from ships a la pirate radio in the 1960s or would it?

Furthermore, is it worth risking jail for the sake of blogging? Should Christians engage in illegal internet activity whether as writers or readers?

Any wisdom from the youth group on the ethics and practicalities of Christian pirate blogging under a PC dictatorship?

ON REFORMING THE REFORM COUNCIL

2011-01-21T00:03:00.001-08:00

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in The Church of England Newspaper:

Dear ladies and gentlemen on the Reform Council,

The planned new Society for reformed evangelicals within the Church of England - St Augustine's is the name mooted - is very exciting. As you undertake the significant task, under our chairman Rod Thomas’s able and godly leadership, of constituting it, would you please consider this question: would an elected governing body give it a broader social, regional and educational base?

To try to answer the immediate objections:

1). The important thing is to get the best council not to get bogged down in bureaucracy. Certainly, paper shuffling needs to be kept down to a minimum. And it is also important to stress that the suggestion does not cast aspersions on the ability and godliness of the present council as individual ministers. Their high spiritual quality is not in question. This is about the collective dynamic of the council. It is respectfully to suggest that an evangelical Society called to support local churches in Christ’s mission needs as broad a range of experience as possible. Could an electoral process better deliver a more socially and educationally diverse council?

2). You sound like Tony Blair - this push for 'modernisation' is just motivated by inverted snobbery and middle class guilt. Maybe, but it is also possible that the question is motivated by evangelistic considerations. British people have become significantly less institutional in outlook and behaviour since the 1960s with the decline of trade unions, the abolition of National Service and the move towards comprehensiveness in state education. Is it possible that competitive elections could attract people from less institutional backgrounds to serve on the council and thus enable Reform to become more entrepeneurial?

3). Talk of diversity panders to politically correctness. But PC-style gerrymandering with, for example, a fixed 50 per cent female quota on the council is not being suggested here (though 50 per cent laity would be sensible). The question is whether competitive elections could enable our Reform movement better to tap its talent pool. The likely reality is that it would enable some of the very capable women in our membership to serve on the council.

4). Elections will encourage power play. That is possible, sadly, given fallen human nature. But is it not also possible that a self-appointed governing body can be marked by a 'jobs for the boys' mentality - a self-serving human tendency to want to congregate with people of a similar social and educational background?

Finally, it may come as some relief to hear that I would not be standing for election to the Reform Council, if that is the route you choose. My own Oxbridge educational and Iwerne Minster spiritual background is precisely what Reform needs to be broadening out from.

MANCHESTER MODEL OF GOSPEL COMMUNICATION

2011-01-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

Six Steps to Talking about Jesus, produced by Australian evangelical publisher Matthias Media, is designed to be a training course on personal evangelism.

It is that magnificently. But showing the first of the DVD sessions to a couple in their home today, Cranmer’s Curate realised it is also a superb Christian nurture course. After all, upon conversion what did many of the characters in the Gospels do? – go round telling people what the Messiah had done for them.

The main presenter, the Revd Simon Manchester, the rector of St Thomas' north Sydney, is an unusually gifted communicator. But there are principles that those of us who are not so good can seek to imitate:

· Understand the Bible as deeply as we can.

· Communicate it as clearly as we can, using short sentences with short words.

· Come across as classlessly as we can.

· Communicate a controlled passion for Christ and for the gospel.

Mr Manchester models all of the above par excellence. His talent for punchy aphorisms is almost inimitable. Cranmer’s Curate would certainly not like to be his curate – the gulf between our respective levels of ability would be embarrassing.

But someone of Mr Manchester’s ability does need to realise that 20 per cent of it is better than none. And if he can mentor a man up to 25 per cent, then that is a real service for the gospel. That of course involves putting up with the 20 per cent initially with good grace.

One blemish cc spotted was an unexplained reference to Dr John Stott, the celebrated evangelical preacher and author, formerly rector of All Souls' Langham Place in the West End of London. South Yorkshire people do not know who John Stott is from Adam.

Also the course does need to feature more testimonies and input from people who are not from university and professional backgrounds. That is obviously a function of the area Mr Manchester ministers it. But courses like these do need to make an effort at greater transferability.

But what a stonkingly good evangelism training and Christian nurture course Six Steps to Talking about Jesus is.

COULD IT BE GOOD FOR THE GOSPEL IF CHINA OWNED THE WEST?

2011-01-17T00:03:00.000-08:00

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

Would orthodox Christians proclaiming the biblical gospel get a boost if the Chinese bought up a substantial slice of the Western economy? Inevitably, this is a ‘what if’ question or, some might say, indulgence in sheer fantasy. But it may be a ‘what if’ game more worth playing than might appear at first glance.

The Revd John Richardson, who blogs brilliantly as the Ugley Vicar, draws attention to an article in the Wall Street Journal by Amy Chua - 'Why Chinese mothers are superior'. This piece prompted John to ask the pertinent question – will parenting decide the ascent of China and the decline of the West?

In other words, the Chinese cultural practice of rigorous parental leadership provides an environment in which children can achieve. It is that sort of culture that is driving China to achieve 10 per cent economic growth, putting both the US and the UK in the shade.

Put the clock forward 20 years to 2031 and Chinese banks own a big slice of Wall Street and the City of London. Chinese companies are substantial employers in both US and UK manufacturing and high tech industries. That gives them substantial political leverage.

How do these Chinese commercial mandarins feel about the permissive society in the markets in which they are so substantially investing? They see the link between marital and sexual chaos and high crime rates even if the Western politically correct establishment does not. They see the impact that single parenthood and high divorce rates are having on the educational performance of children. Certainly their concerns would be not philanthropic. They are worried about the quality of the workforce.

But, albeit with a radically different motivation, it is surely here that the concerns of Chinese investors and those of orthodox Christians regarding the destructive impact of the permissive society could overlap. An alliance could be formed to push for the restoration of heterosexual marriage and the traditional family to its rightful place, which would give us leverage to lobby for better treatment for the Christian community in China and for greater religious freedom for Christ’s servants there to preach the gospel.

And while you’re about it, Mr Mandarin – would you mind putting in a word with the President/Prime Minister to get that piece of anti-Christian, politically correct legislation off our backs so that we can preach Christ's gospel over here as well?

Now that would be an irony.

RECLAIMING GENESIS FROM STERILE DEBATES

2011-01-14T00:03:00.000-08:00

Reclaiming Genesis
Melvin Tinker
Monarch Books, 2010, pp219, £8.99
ISBN 978 1 85424 997 5

Melvin Tinker has come up with a corker here. He is secure about free scientific inquiry as a God-ordained calling, which liberates him to teach the purposeful theological truths of Genesis 1-12 in such an engaging way.

The preface provides the ripe fruit of his sustained and rigorous thinking on what is perceived to be the Genesis v evolutionary science incompatibility. He is persuaded by the argument that the early chapters of Genesis are not concerned with questions of material origins but rather focus on matters of function:

With this framework in mind, a more natural reading of the early chapters of Genesis is one in which we see God bringing about functionality in his cosmos in terms of purpose rather than bringing about the material universe per se. If this is so, then questions of material origin are properly seen as belonging to the domain of science as it deals with the "how" questions, whereas Genesis addresses the more fundamental "why" questions (p30).

From that secure basis, the vicar of St John's Newland, Hull, gives some beautifully applied and memorably phrased expositions of the early chapters of Genesis. His explanation of Satan's strategy in beguiling Eve is particularly striking:

Satan does not show up as a power-crazed monster, stomping around the garden and creating mischief and mayhem, but as a serious student of theology, no less. Here is an important lesson to learn: the devil loves biblical discussions; he is never far away from the Bible study group or the pulpit, and he can wax lyrical at great length about "religion" (p81).

This 'Tinker title' also sports some real gems of illustrative material. Elucidating the truth that the Lord of Noah is the God who rescues, Mr Tinker recounts the story of the conversion of the Scottish doctor William Mackay who as a medical student had pawned the Bible his mother gave him in order to buy whisky. Years later he found that Bible under the pillow of a patient of his who had just died:

He opened it, and there on the flyleaf he was startled to read his own name and the name of his mother, together with the verse of Scripture she had given him all those years ago. This was the very Bible he had pawned for whisky as a student. With both shock and shame he hid the Bible under his coat and ran to his office, fell on his knees, and there and then asked God to forgive him his sins and let his peace come upon him. The very thing he had despised - the Bible - was used by God to bring him salvation. What are the chances of that happening? But it did. Then again, what were the chances that this Middle Eastern family would escape an apocalyptic flood. But they did (p164-5).

The book does not dodge some of the key worldview questions Christians have to grapple with - for example the relationship of the Fall to natural disasters. Did the Fall introduce them into creation or was the potential for them already there? Intriguingly, Mr Tinker asks whether Jesus' calming of the storm may be 'indicative of what man was originally meant to be and do under God, fulfilling the creation mandate of Genesis 1.28 in subduing the earth':

In other words, in the actions of Jesus such as stilling the storm, walking on the water, and feeding the multitude we are meant to see what Adam should have done and would have done had he not fallen' (p116).

Given that the Bible does not explicitly say that Adam could and should have done these miraculous things, such apologetic questions remain to be grappled with.

But it is great to see the early chapters of Genesis so heart-warmingly liberated from sterile debates about creationism v science and to hear the living God preaching purposefully and savingly through them.

THE WAY TO RECOVER YOUNG FEMALE HONOUR

2011-01-12T00:03:00.000-08:00

Muslim-background gangs sexually preying on teenage white girls think their victims have 'fewer morals and are less valuable than our girls', according to Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a national Muslim youth organisation.

In a brilliant analysis of the vulnerability of white girls to such corruption, Melanie Phillips comments:

Who can be surprised that young white girls willingly go with these sexual predators who pick them up when so many stagger in and out of pubs and nightclubs in a drunken haze wearing clothes that leave little to the imagination and boasting of (promiscuous sexual behaviour)?

Who can be surprised when even sex education materials in schools advise on oral sex and other sexual practices; teen-targeted magazines, clothing and popular culture are saturated by sexuality; and family life has often disintegrated into a procession of mum’s casual pick-ups and gross parental indifference, leaving young girls desperate for affection from any quarter?

Melanie Phillips' concerns cannot be dismissed as a right-wing Daily Mail rant. The feminist writer Natasha Walter has also highlighted the degradation of girls in contemporary society.

The dishonouring of the young female sex is an inescapable fact in any city or town centre on a Friday or Saturday night.

To recover female honour, Western civilisation simply needs to recover biblical Christianity.

Contra atheism, biblical Christianity teaches that humankind - both men and women equally - is made in the image of God and therefore the human person - male and female - should be honoured.

Contra permissive liberalism, biblical Christianity teaches that both men and women should remain sexually chaste until they enter the God-created institution of heterosexual marriage. Therefore it provides a vital spiritual and moral safeguard for both men and women from self-destructive promiscuity.

Contra feminism, biblical Christianity teaches that it is an honourable calling for a woman to be a full-time wife and mother. It also highlights the responsibility of fathers to be spiritual and moral leaders in the family. Therefore orthodox Christianity offers the liberation of complementarity for men and women in their marital, familial, and indeed social relations.

Contra male supremacism, biblical Christianity teaches that men and women are equally dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and therefore have equal standing in the community of faith when they embace God's gift of redemption.

Thus, a return to the way of Christ is the only way for Western society to get its young ladies out of the gutter.

CONVERTS TO ISLAM IN THE WEST: YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET

2011-01-05T06:05:00.002-08:00

The news that the number of converts to Islam in the UK has hit 100,000 must be met with the following the reaction: you ain’t seen nothing yet.

All the cultural ingredients are there for an upsurge in conversion to Islam in the decadent, post-Christian West in the second decade of the 21st century.

It is not surprising that Islam is proving attractive to white women in their twenties. What woman in her right mind wants to bring children into the self-destructive values vacuum of the permissive society, particularly if she has had first-hand experience of it?

What sort of Islam are these women going to instil in the boys they bring along to the local mosque? The nice, liberal variety happy to take part in an urbane inter-faith dialogue in a Cathedral conference room?

Memo to the Very Revd Wooley-Convenor: In your dreams.

A very significant passage in former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s memoir, A Journey (Hutchinson 2010), sheds light on the likely ethos of a growing indigenous Islam in the West, especially when the testosterone kicks in.

Commenting on President Obama’s speech in Cairo in June 2009, which Mr Blair described as a ‘brilliant exposition of the case for peaceful coexistence’, he wrote this:

The speech was carefully calibrated. The hand of friendship would be offered, even to Syria and Iran. The implicit message was: We have been disrespectful and arrogant; we will now be, if not humble, deeply respectful. But join us, if you will.

The trouble is: respectful of what, exactly? Respectful of the religion of Islam, President Obama would say, and that is absolutely right; but that should not mean respectful of much of the underlying narrative which many within Islam articulate in politics today.

Here is where the root of the problem lies. The extremists are small in number, but their narrative – which sees Islam as the victim of a scornful West externally, and an insufficiently religious leadership internally – has a far bigger hold (p673).

Western converts to Islam have already grown up in a post-modern culture in which the clamour for victim status is as common as canned music in a supermarket. Of course, they are going to buy into what Mr Blair identifies - and remarkably so for a self-styled progressive whose Faith Foundation is assiduously promoting the inter-faith agenda - as the victim narrative of contemporary Islam.

And that is why they are not going to moderate.

Orthodox Christian churches in the West that faithfully proclaim the supremacy and uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the world's only Saviour and Lord should not be bracing themselves for ‘peaceful coexistence’ as indigenous conversions to Islam escalate.

And the enemies, whom as followers of the crucified Lord we are called to love, are likely to have white faces.

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS MUST BE BAD BOYS IN TONY BLAIR’S BOOK

2011-01-04T00:03:00.001-08:00

Buying a half-price copy of Tony Blair’s memoir, A Journey (Hutchinson, 2010), in the January sales prompted the following reflection: the second decade of the 21st century is likely to present an even more difficult atmosphere in which to make exclusive Christian truth claims than the first.

Mr Blair has that Clintonesque ability to discern and then articulate the spirit of the age. He won three general elections in a row and without him the Labour Party he made electable lost badly.

His description of the ethos of the young volunteers in his Faith Foundation should therefore be taken seriously as a future spiritual weather warning:

There are hordes of volunteers who work with my Faith Foundation, incredibly well motivated, fantastic, interesting dynamic young people, whose religious commitment is totally without prejudice against those of a different faith (p691).

So, who are the bad boys with 'prejudice' against those of a different faith?

Extremists, presumably. To be fair, A Journey pulls no punches against Muslim extremists and their 'narrative' of victimhood which Mr Blair believes, perceptively, has a wider hold within Islam than many of his fellow progressives in the West are prepared to credit.

But only at the cost of our integrity can we orthodox, Bible-believing Christians avoid being summoned to the headmaster's study and carpeted for 'prejudice'.

If 'prejudiced' means ignorant, then that is a charge that must not be allowed to stick. We need to be well-informed about the distinctives of our faith in relation to other religions and world-views and we need to be able to communicate those distinctives graciously and winsomely.

But if 'prejudiced' means clear about the spiritual implications of those distinctives, then we must be found guilty. Against such groundless Faith Foundation optimism about the spiritual prospects for humanity outside of Christ, we must insist that those who seek salvation through obeying the precepts of any non-Christian religion are on the road to eternal perdition.

And that includes Muslims.

We must insist that it is neither glorifying to God nor loving to people made in his image to suppress the truth that eternal salvation is by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

Certainly, regarding religiously devoted and morally upright non-Christians as people who need to convert to the Lord Jesus Christ is to be a bad boy in Mr Blair’s book. And that will mean being bad boys in the eyes of the future politically-correct leaders and opinion formers who emerge from his Faith Foundation.

But is not being bad in their eyes the path of authentic New Testament Christianity?

The urgency of the Apostle Peter’s exhortation to the Jerusalem crowd of devotedly religious people in Acts 2 must surely be our imperative:

Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (v38, RSV).

MEADOWHALL REFUSED MESSIAH BY E-MAIL

2010-12-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

The Sheffield Telegraph reported yesterday:

Hopes of a 'flash mob' choir singing carols (sic) in Meadowhall have disappeared in a flash.

A Sheffield vicar said this week he believed it was because the centre did not want to show any religious bias - but managers insisted it was because they had been given too short notice at the busiest time of year and did not have space (December 23, p7).

In the light of this, Cranmer's Curate needs to make clear that he believed it because he saw it - in an e-mail. The firm refusal to allow a flash mob choir to sing from Handel's Messiah on Meadowhall's food court was e-mailed to cc on Monday by the centre management's public relations company, MK Things Happen:

Meadowhall Shopping Centre is open to the general public and therefore must remain impartial towards any one religion or political leaning. The Centre would therefore be unable to give permission for a flash mob choir - similar to the one in Ontario, Canada - to perform.

Your curate was not offering to organise a choir at such short notice before Christmas. He was merely enquiring whether the centre would welcome a choir proclaiming the Messiah, as did the one in the Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario, last month.

Incidentally, whilst doing some Christmas shopping in Meadowhall last night cc observed that a flash mob choir could easily have performed in the food court to the delight of staff and customers.

Here is the news story on the Christian Institute website about Meadowhall's initial refusal.

Cranmer's Curate wishes the youth group a blessed Christmas celebrating the coming of the King of kings and the Lord of lords (banned from the Meadowhall food court until the media got onto it) and a fruitful New Year in Christ's service.

As he blogs off for Christmas, back God willing in the New Year, your curate leaves the youth group with the BCP Collect for Christmas Night:

O God, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy 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.

LATEST ON THE MESSIAH IN MEADOWHALL

2010-12-22T03:51:00.000-08:00

Cranmer's Curate was invited on BBC Radio Sheffield this morning to talk with Rony Robinson about the Meadowhall flash mob choir affair and there has been a development.

On Monday when cc contacted Meadowhall's public relations firm, MK Things Happen, here in Sheffield, they issued a clear statement that a flash mob choir like the one in Ontario which sang Handel's Hallelujah chorus in the food court would not be welcome. But on the radio this morning Rony read out the latest statement from Meadowhall. Apparently (and cc is going from memory on the wording) they are now saying they would be open to considering such a request in the future and have had a gospel choir singing in the centre, but they issued a refusal in this instance because of the 'timing'.

Odd explanation that. Handel's Messiah remains rather popular in the United Kingdom around Christmas time. But at least Meadowhall are singing a different tune from the firm 'nyet' of Monday.

When cc rang MK on Monday he was curious about whether Meadowhall would allow a flash mob choir to sing Handel's Messiah in its food court. He did not have a choir up his sleeve, but would have been delighted had the answer been yes.

That would have given an opportunity for a good quality Christian choir to proclaim the glorious good news of the King of kings and Lord of lords in the food court. Who knows? Someone munching on a Big Mac might by God's grace begin the journey towards redemption in Christ.

Here is the link to the article on Christian Today.

It is noticeable how a bit of bad publicity can concentrate the politically-correct mind.

NO ROOM IN MEADOWHALL FOR THE KING OF KINGS

2010-12-20T05:32:00.000-08:00

Sheffield Station last week allowed a flash mob choir to sing Christmas carols in its main concourse. Last month Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario, Canada, famously allowed a flash mob choir to sing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah in its food court. But the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield, one of the largest in Europe, does not want a choir singing ‘the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever’ in its food court.

A spokeswoman told Cranmer’s Curate:

Meadowhall Shopping Centre is open to the general public and therefore must remain impartial towards any one religion or political leaning. The Centre would therefore be unable to give permission for a flash mob choir - similar to the one in Ontario, Canada - to perform.

An old friend of your curate sent him the YouTube video of the Ontario flash mob choir as his family Christmas card. It is the best Christmas card cc has ever received. The joy on the faces of the singers and the surprised delight of the shoppers are profoundly moving as the praises of the King of kings and Lord of lords ring around the food court:

And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!

But in the Siberia of political correctness the Hallelujah chorus is frozen out.

No room in the food court for the King of kings and Lord of lords because the centre management must not be seen to favour one religion over another. It must be 'impartial'.

Except of course no shopping centre serving the UK public can achieve such religious impartiality.

The Name of Christ appears in the word 'Christmas', one world religion's festival that gets a much higher profile in the shops than that of any other 'faith group' in the UK.

The banishment of Christmas from a shopping centre would not go down very well with the retailers.

SERMON WITH AN EDGE OF DANGER

2010-12-18T00:03:00.000-08:00

It was a very proficient sermon, engaging, clear in expounding the biblical text, well illustrated and well applied.

But this particular sermon on Revelation chapters 4 and 5 by the Revd Vaughan Roberts, rector of St Ebbe's, Oxford, had a vital element that is quite difficult to isolate or explain.

Cranmer's Curate can only describe it as an edge of danger.

The God, whose sovereignty in an apparently out-of-control world was so clearly communicated, came across as compellingly and gloriously unsafe.

This got cc thinking about preaching. However well expounded and well applied a sermon may be, it can lack that vital edge.

This is not to suggest that preachers who manage to convey it have access to some quasi-gnostic secret denied to the rest of us. Nor is this an attempt to try to resurrect sub-evangelical legalism around the 'quiet time'.

But it is to suggest that such preaching is the fruit of a consistently humble, privately prayerful walk - by grace - with this dangerous God, the glorious God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, may one conclude that an effective preacher of Christ is a faithful disciple of Christ whose discipleship is independent of his status as a preacher?

Is that not what makes him a preacher of sermons with a dangerous edge?

THIS ANGLICAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE IS WORKING

2010-12-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

Cranmer's Curate has just received in the post an astonishingly good leaflet from the Anglican evangelical theological college in north London, Oak Hill. It features articles by four of its former students, and one current part-time student, ministering for Christ in a range of contexts from a council estate in Roehampton to a village in Sussex to a Merseyside urban priority area to south London African-Caribbean communities to Preston, Lancashire.

Below are some excerpts for the edification of the youth group.

Principal Dr Mike Ovey introduces the features (there is no by-line - a small production blemish perhaps - but a side-on picture of him so one assumes he wrote it):

When I think back to when I was growing up in the 70s, the message of the Christian faith often aroused nothing more than boredom or embarrassment when it was aired in public. Very few scientists or writers bothered to spend time on why they thought 'God is not great', in the words of the polemicist Christopher Hitchens.

They do now because the Christian faith, far from slipping into a coma as widely expected in the 70s, has become more powerfully attractive and controversial in our time.

For Christians in Britain today, this is a great moment to be alive and serving God. Our country, which has seen a long and painful decay of faith, is once again a mission field. People are hungry for the good news of God's love.

Particularly striking is the piece by Duncan Forbes of New Life Church on the Alton Estate, Roehampton. He writes:

A bloke just out of prison sat on my sofa and said: "If someone told me a year ago I'd be sitting in a pastor's living room, I wouldn't believe them. But you come from the same place as me, you've grown up the same way as me - but you're a Christian! I look at you and I see there's hope for me, I see what I could become."

He'd thought Christianity was only for middle class people - that it wasn't for someone from a council estate. I understand that, because the church is mainly geared for middle class culture.

It's one of the reasons I planted New Life Church on the Alton Estate - one of the largest council estates in the UK. And it's why we've started from scratch.

The article by the gentleman ministering in Preston is refreshingly honest. Daf Merion-Jones writes:

We came to Preston, Lancs, five years ago because we believe people need to hear the Bible taught in a way that is faithful, clear and relevant.

Preston is a city of 150,000 people, and All Saints church is right at its heart.

Our parish includes council housing, University halls of residence and 19th century terraces which are home mostly to people of Asian heritage. We have three mosques within half a mile.

What drives our ministry? It's the conviction that God will work by his Spirit when his word is preached, bringing people to know and love Jesus. I was grounded in this conviction at Oak Hill as week by week I was helped to understand God's word and equipped to teach it to others.

The challenges are great. We haven't even begun to develop relationships with our Asian community, but our God is great and the gospel of the Lord Jesus is the power of salvation for those who believe.

Oak Hill didn't teach me everything I need to know. But it did teach me that prayer, preaching and loving people are the heartbeat of ministry.

Efrem Buckle, ministering to African-Caribbean communities in south London, writes:

While mainstream Christianity is the fastest dying religion in the UK, according to recent statistics African-Caribbean churches continue to grow at a fervent pace.

There are many possible reasons, one being that such churches are often characterised by vibrant and emotionally charged preaching, together with singing that stirs the soul and lifts the spirit.

From my earliest years of growing up in this kind of church environment in south London, I've become aware of how these factors can be a spiritually incendiary cocktail, slyly creating a smoky fire that feeds on the true gospel, stinging the squinting eyes of those who hope to see the truth in Christ.

No amount of excitement and emotion, and no amount of 'God fearing' good works, can substitute for a theologically sound and robust view of God in Christ.

When the scriptures are wrongly taught, people miss out on the transforming power of the gospel. Oak Hill has really helped me unpack the word of God and distinguish between truth and error - and then communicate the gospel to others.

Praise the Lord - this theological college is working.

PLEASE MR BRADY - DEFEND CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

2010-12-13T06:16:00.000-08:00

A letter to Mr Graham Brady MP, chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, concerning the politically-correct prosecution of Christian bed and breakfast owners, Peter and Hazelmary Bull:

Dear Mr Brady, The peaceful demonstration outside Bristol County Court in support of Christian bed and breakfast owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull contrasts sharply with the appalling lawlessness we witnessed outside Parliament on Thursday.

The Bulls' supporters sang the great hymn by the converted 18th century slave trader, John Newton, celebrating the wonder of the salvation the Lord Jesus Christ has achieved for sinful mankind:

Amazing grace - how sweet the sound - that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

The Bristol demonstrators held up placards reminding the public that the Bulls are being sued for acting to uphold orthodox Christian moral standards in their own home.

The contrast in behaviour between the London and Bristol demonstrators surely contains a powerful message in itself: since the advent of the permissive society in the 1960s and the replacement of Christian values with the ideology of political correctness, our country has become significantly less law-abiding, courteous, civil, and thankful for the God-given privilege of living in a Parliamentary democracy.

I am not a member of the Conservative Party but am inclined to thank God that backbench MPs in the main political parties still have the capacity to hold the executive to account. By God's grace we are not yet an elective dictatorship.

I am writing, sir, to ask you at the next meeting of your 1922 Committee to raise the grave threat to freedom of conscience in our country represented by the politically-correct prosecution of the Bulls. The legal fees of the two gentlemen suing these two pensioners under equality laws brought in by the previous government are being paid for by the tax-payer-funded Equality and Human Rights Commission.

It is not the policy of the Bulls' guest-house near Penzance, Cornwall, to turn people away on the ground that they do not personally adhere to Judaeo-Christian moral values. The Bulls' policy in their own home is to offer single bedrooms to unmarried couples.

Surely in a democracy that owes so much to Christian spiritual and moral values guest-house owners should be free to operate that sort of policy.

Thank you for your consideration.

With all Christian good wishes,

Julian Mann
Vicar
The Parish Church of the Ascension,
Oughtibridge
www.oughtibridgechurch.org.uk

This book review of Shaftesbury: The Great Reformer by Wycliffe Hall Principal, Dr Richard Turnbull, appeared in December's Evangelicals Now.

NARNIA FILM DOWNPLAYS GRACE OF SALVATION

2010-12-12T00:03:00.002-08:00

The new Narnia film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, significantly alters C.S. Lewis's original portrayal of the salvation of the negative secularist figure, Eustace Scrubb.

In both book and film Eustace is transformed into a dragon and restored to humanity by Aslan. But in the film Eustace is portrayed as earning his salvation by feats of bravery as a dragon, which are entirely absent from the book.

In the original, Eustace as dragon is a pathetic figure who undergoes some moral improvement in his humiliation. He is certainly not the fire-breathing, airborne equivalent of Bruce Willis:

But, of course, what hung over everyone like a cloud was the problem of what to do with their dragon when they were ready to sail. They tried not to talk of it when he was there, but he couldn't help overhearing things...And poor Eustace realized more and more that since the first day he came on board he had been an unmitigated nuisance and that he was now a greater nuisance still.

The book stresses the salvation of the helpless Eustace by the unmerited grace of the Christ figure:

"I think you've seen Aslan," said Edmund.

"Aslan!" said Eustace.

"I've heard that name mentioned several times since we joined the Dawn Treader. And I felt - I don't know what - I hated it. But I was hating everything then. And by the way, I'd like to apologize. I'm afraid I've been pretty beastly."

"That's all right," said Edmund. "Between ourselves, you haven't been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were an ass, but I was a traitor."

"Well, don't tell me about it, then," said Eustace. "But who is Aslan? Do you know him?"

"Well - he knows me," said Edmund. "He is the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-over-the-sea, who saved me and saved Narnia..."

That crucial exchange is truncated in the film. Eustace's penitence is downplayed. He apologises for being a 'sop', rendering his previous negativism a sin against the spirit of adventure, which he atoned for by his derring-do as a dragon.

The film's under-emphasis on the grace of salvation is therefore the context for the controversial comment by the actor who provides the voice of Aslan, Liam Neeson:

Aslan symbolises a Christlike figure, but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

Who unlike Jesus Christ taught salvation by works.

POLICE COP IT FROM GODLESSNESS MORE THAN CHRISTIANS

2010-12-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

Christians may be feeling hard done by, but it is much harder to be a policeman in the godless society that post-Christian Britain is increasingly becoming than it is to be a Christian.

Damned if they do take action against rampant lawlessness; damned if they don't.

Tasked to protect Parliamentary democracy armed with a truncheon but expected to perform the physical miracle of never accidentally hitting a violent thug, who is trying to trample over you, on the head with it.

The fact is 12 police officers were injured in the student riots outside Parliament on Thursday. And more police officers are likely to have their Christmases spoiled through injury in the line of duty in further violent demonstrations around the country.

Cranmer's Curate, in common with the rest of the parochial clergy, is very unlikely to get injured in the course of his public duties tomorrow. But those officers went to work with a God-given vocation and ended up hurt as a result of the evil behaviour of people with no respect for the privilege of living in a Parliamentary democracy and a Christian nation's track record in defending it - some quite seriously.

In doing their duty, whether they were Christians or not, those officers were doing the good Lord's work, for the true God, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, upholds good order, as the Apostle Paul affirms:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement (Romans 13v1-2 - ESV).

In the light of that, it is true to say that the lack of gratitude and respect for the work the police do is a poisonous fruit of a godless society.

And the practical reality is that in politically-correct Britain frontline police officers are copping it from godlessness more than Christians.