Today in the Times the former Bishop of Oxford, + Richard Harries, offers a very helpful post to those considering the option of joining the Ordinariate.
The rich and rather delicious irony is that, in his defence of Anglicanism, he in fact re-enforces the very reason many of us want to find a new home under the pastoral care of the Bishop of Christ. How insulting, ignorant and deluded this rant is! Does he REALLY seek to write off the entire Roman Catholic church as outdated and flawed? Does he REALLY want to suggest that a willingness to embrace the Spirit of this age as opposed to the Spirit of God equates to being forward thinking? Strikes me this man looks all the way ahead to the 1960′s and needs to return to college to learn what the Roman Catholic church ACTUALLY says – as opposed to how it is deliberately misrepresented in the secular press.
as someone who is relatively new to going to church i am still struggling to get my head around the arguments that are going on within the church of england.
I welcome any opportunity to read and try and understand more about both sides, or to be fair all sides, as there are many different positions circulating at the moment. I don’t think that this piece in The Times was a ‘deluded’ ‘rant’ anymore than i would call you deluded for your rants, i may not agree with you always but i don’t understand why you appear to feel so persecuted by people disagreeing with you.
I read your blog and others, papers articles and am still struggling to understand what exactly is the problem for you and the other church leaders. Is there any way you could try and explain it really simply, in plain english for those of us who do not have as full an understanding of the terminology and history. Your recent blogs appear so full of anger and venom against other members of the church that it becomes harder to read and try and listen to what you are saying. I’m trying to understand why you seem so angry at people who have a different view than yours. Isn’t tolerance and understanding and acceptance a large part of your faith in Jesus or am i just being too simplistic. However i’m trying to work out how i can explain these issues to my children and i feel at a loss at to know how to do so, as everything that they have learnt up till now, has been about the bible and what it tells us about God and Jesus and the implications for our life, not about how the church should be organised , led and by whom. These are not the issues they care about. I wonder how you will go about talking about these things with the children within your own parish and with your own children when they are old enough.
Whilst i understand you might consider this a question too personal to answer here, can i ask, if your beliefs and understanding of what they mean align so much more with the catholic church, why you did not pursue this route in your desire to be a preacher and leader of people within the church? Maybe this would help people to understand your position more clearly.
Caroline my real advice to you would be ditch the blogs and really focus on building up your faith in Christ crucified. That is the essential in your early walk with God. The reason all this matters is because the Anglican church is now presenting the faith as a range of opinions which are all equally valid. When in fact much of what is being presented is not in keeping with the faith of the ages. Take Bishop of Oxford here- he suggests it is quite in keeping with Christian tradition to support gay marriage when in fact scripture makes it abundantly clear that the only forum in which sexual activity is sancitoned by God is marriage. The bishop suggests that the destruction of embryos is somehow a good thing when the teaching of the church promotes the view that all life is sacred and the destruction of any life an abberation to the Almighty. The Bishop casually remarks that women priests is a progressive thing when it runs counter to everything the church has ever taught about the sacred ministry. So you see…we are angry because there are some who are deliberately rewriting the Christian faith to make it compatible with worldly thinking and this easily confuses people like you….for the words are pleasant on the ear.
Yes, Lord Harries of Petregarth – I too have looked into the future of the Church “that is open to the future” and I see a vision of division and schism if it chooses to go down the primrose path that you promote and advocate in retirement. You know what someone once said about a house divided against itself?
There should be no bitterness when we are all trying to understand God’s Will. We are also free to think and believe what we want. What we do not have a right to do is endlessly alter the nature of the Church itself according to our individual and passing fashions. Bishop Harries is entitled to his opinions, but he cannot claim that they are more than his opinions. The Catholic Church being grounded in apostolic continuity inherits its faith and simply passes it on. It can do no other if it is to be true to itself.
Should anybody take Bishop Harries seriously? Remember that when women were first ‘ordained’ in the Church of England in 1994 he voiced the opinion, loud and cler, that this was the opening of a new era when Anglican churches would soon be bursting at the seams with huge congregations drawn by the unique sensitivity and warmth of women after years of brutal male ministry which had kept churches empty and moribund. So much for a man who see the future. Nothing but division and decline has resulted from this disastrous move. He’s best ignored and forgotten.
Eloquently said Maureen. Petros
It does rather call to mind the comment from the then Bishop of Taunton in 1992, who was in charge of the ill-fated Decade of Evangelism. His comment on those driven out by the ordination of women to the priesthood was, “we should not be thinking about all those who will leave, but all those who will come in.”
The same numbers did not come in as left, and the said bishop was subsequently translated to Manchester, and is chairman of the GS Revision Committee on Women Bishops.
Enough said …