June Osborne, the Dean of Salisbury, preached at the ordination of the new bishops of Salisbury and of Stepney. The full text and a video of her sermon are available.
George Cassidy, the retired Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, was recently interviewed by the Church of Ireland Gazette about reform of the House of Lords. The printed version of the interview is not available online, but there is a link to an audio recording of the complete interview here.
Read the Spirit has published this interview with Marcus Borg about his new book Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power—And How They Can Be Restored.
You can also read the interview here.
Giles Fraser writes for the Church Times that If there must be fences, let there be gates.
Adrian Beney writes in The Tablet about The price of a gift: Ethical fund-raising.
Carl Medearis asks in The Huffington Post Why Are We So Angry About Hell?
Matthew Engel writes in the Financial Times, in a series on British Institutions, about The Church of England.
Though I have only got past reading the first link to the Very Reverend June Osborne’s sermon at the consecration of the bishops in Salisbury, I had to leave word that I believe the sermon is splendid. I had chills near the end. Her words are truly inspired.
May God bless Bishops Nick and Adrian.
On cathedral admissions charges, Matthew Engel of the FT: “Durham Cathedral…unlike some of its southern equivalents…does not attempt to charge admission, even though it needs the money. In part, that’s a matter of principle, says the dean: “You can’t ever know why people are there.” Even the sternest pay-up-or-elsers such as St Paul’s (£14.50) and Ely (£6.50) try to avoid fleecing genuine worshippers.” Durham deserves credit for remaining a house of prayer and not becoming a theme park. Some cathedrals publish their annual report and financial statements on their websites, some do not. I wrote to the Church Commissioners about… Read more »
Impressive interview with Marcus Borg. He’s so right. Whereas Wright is so wrong.
I worry about Marcus Borg’s representation of the God and it’s not particularly because he suggests that the Bible is sometimes wrong. He appears to have built a perfectly sealed box that contains his neatly dovetailed theology of God’s responsibilities and human rights. Where the biblical record stands outside of that box, he declares that it’s wrong. In the case of Saul, (1 Sam. 14) Borg suggests that since God, by reason of love, is incapable of wholesale extermination Himself, He could not have commanded Saul to do so, especially as it involved the slaughter of innocent babies. Yet, most… Read more »
The Tablet article, Ethical fund Raising is interesting. In what hopefully is not too big a reach from the subject at hand, folks may find this Jesuit article interesting (linked at Episcopal Cafe).
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12963
David, With regard to your second paragraph, surely it’s complete orthodoxy to say that OT theology in these areas is ‘trumped’ (‘sublated’ is a useful word) by NT theology? As for natural disasters, what’s wrong with saying (a) that these things are absolutely inevitable in a universe constructed as it is; (b) that the universe has to be constructed as it is in order to produce ‘carbon’ beings like ourselves; (c) ultimately, all these things will be put right by the general resurrection/immortality? These things have been endlessly discussed, of course, but a pure ‘sin narrative’ isn’t going to be… Read more »
Hi John, Yes, I agree with most of your points. However, it’s clear that the ‘Thunder-boys’, James and John were happy for a while to think that God would sky-fry (sorry, I couldn’t resist) the Samaritans without hesitation and had to be censured by Christ. However, Ananias and Sapphira still faced immediate fatal consequences for their deception. Luke also claims that King Herod’s sudden demise is a consequence of his vainglorious acceptance of idolatrous worship. Paul also mentions that some sicknesses of the Corinthians and even their deaths were attributable to irreverent behaviour while celebrating the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor.… Read more »
I was privileged to hear Dean Osborne preach at the “graduating” Salisbury Choristers’ Sunday Evensong on July 17. She is splendid!
The more arguments I hear about Christian theology, the wiser it seems to me for God to become a Buddhist.
What utter uselessness in the face of reality, sound and fury signifying nothing. At. All.
Mark God does have great love for us, but he does actually ask that we love Him in return, a love that results in us seeking to follow His ways. You may say, that sounds a bit too much like rules. But His ways reflects his character, which is who He is. Rejecting His ways is rejecting Him, as the Amorites found out, although He was so merciful to wait 4 generations before bringing judgement on them, although in doing so he was showing love to the isrealites. It doesnt seem to unreasonable that if you return nothing but hatred… Read more »
Yeah, David W, that’s persuasive.
{sarcasm/Off}
C’mon, you know you can’t treat the OT/Hebrew Bible as ANYTHING like historical fact? You do realize that? Right?
{Le Sigh}
I love the Bible, I do. Read/Mark/Inwardly Digest it All.The.Time.
But I don’t treat it as anything other than *containing* “the words of God” (so to speak).
For the Word of God, I’m sticking w/ Jesus of Nazareth. Who loves us REGARDLESS of whether we “return nothing but hatred for His love.”