Melanie McDonagh in The Times The Anglican wars are bad for all of us subtitled “If the pews of the Church of England empty, we’ll lose an army of public-spirited volunteers”
Giles Fraser in the Church Times When slaves turn on their oppressors
Damian Thompson in the Telegraph Women bishops? Just get on with it.
Robin Harris in the Times The disaster for Christians in Iraq subtitled “They used to live peaceably with other faiths but now they have been driven out and become refugees”
Andrew Brown in The Guardian Pennies for heaven subtitled “The Church of England relies heavily on its collection plate to fund each diocese – but a threat to solvency is threatening tolerance”
“But for those liberals, homosexuals, women, and any others who are on the receiving end of any Christian hate-speech, the Church feels a nasty place to be.”
As someone who is perceived as all 3, sometimes even *I* (Episcopalian lifer) have to ask “Why do I bother?”
…then I remember that hateful “Christians” (so-called) are even worse to those OUTSIDE the Church, than within. Lord have mercy!
An interesting set of articles. There is a theme that most of these articles touch, even if indirectly. Namely, the concept of the return of Jesus and how Jesus would intereact with this world. Several years ago I put forward to a local parishioner that Jesus would return to heal this world and bring about healing and peace with the occupants. I was tersely told that was an incorrect interpretation of scripture and that the only manifestation he (inferring all Christians) would accept was the Jesus who came down from the clouds, eyes flashing fire and murdering all the “infidels”… Read more »
Kudos to Giles Fraser although I fear some will pillory him for raising a non-PC issue that highlights the racial issues- that will be their loss.
Maybe like to be buried under all the C of E general synod stuff and it has only been reported in the Beflast Telegraph on Saturday 5th July [I think] but ++Alan Harper’s comments on gay relationships is surely a seismic shift for the C of I. The newspaper headline is “Church of Ireland may accept gay marriages”. I cannot remember if it is acceptable to post URLs here but if you google _Belfast Telegraph_ and then “Church of Ireland” it should produce the story for any one who is interested. ++Alan Armagh is Primate of All Ireland and was… Read more »
Dion
Thanks for reminding me of this address by Archbishop Alan Harper which I had intended to link to when I had a few spare minutes. The TA article is here:
http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003222.html
Please make any further comments on the Archbishop’s address there and not here.
“hateful “Christians” (so-called) are even worse to those OUTSIDE the Church, than within.”
In my experience, such people do not count anyone as being within the Church unless they believe the same things. I’m used to having my faith denied because I am an Anglican. Now, I am getting used to other Anglicans denying my faith because I am not an Evangelical Anglican. Get used to it, those who must define themselves as pure and holy in the eyes of God do it by comparison with those they deem impure and unholy.