The Oxford Faith Debates are continuing every fortnight and there are two more to go. Full details of the programme are here.
Debate 3 titled People – how can Anglicans of all kinds be engaged in the Church of the future? included contributions from four panelists and another four “provocateurs” including one of the editors of this website. Recordings of the entire proceedings are available here. (My bit is close to the end at minute 41 of the discussion.)
Lorraine Cavanagh another of the Provocateurs last week has written this article: The Church of England must remain credible as well as viable also available over here.
Both she and I will be returning for Debate 4 this coming Thursday when the subject is Diversity – what kind of unity is appropriate nationally and internationally, how can diversity become a strength?
Regarding the ‘Faith debate’reported above. If one of the issues regarding the future of the Church of England is its inability to identify and use the gifts and talents of the clergy, how much more does this apply to the laity? Many congregations have people with high level skills in management, promotion, teaching, project management, finance, human resources etc; all congregations have people who are skilful sensitive listeners, full of life’s experiences who can offer welcome and companionship and who have gifts of contemplation and prayer. All too often the laity are reduced to the flower and coffee rota. A… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more with Richard. I know a parish which uses the talents of a former Director of Barclays Bank – to run the raffle at the Church Fete.
I couldn’t agree less with Richard about the parable of the talents – especially after what has happened to millions of people over the last few years through no fault of their own but very much the fault of irresponsible and sometimes downright criminal behaviour by bankers. Listening to the parable I could not help feeling very sorry for the poor sap who simply buried his talent and kept it safe (which in a time of zero interest rates seemed a sensible thing to do!) And look what happened to him. Personally I would not let a former banker anywhere… Read more »
I wonder how the former Director of Barclays Bank feels about it though. Is he desperate to become treasurer (of the parish, the deanery or the diocese), or be used to lead that high profile fund-raising campaign? Or does he feel a profound sense of relief at only having to run the raffle, after a lifetime of having to be in charge of billions of pounds of other people’s money? Perhaps running the raffle gives him a new sense of satisfaction as he gets alongside the people buying their tickets? I minister in an area where there are quite a… Read more »
I always remember the preacher at Mandela’s funeral who had a different take on the parable.
http://www.methodist.org.za/news/12152013-1129
I am sorry that those responding to my comments have largely focussed on the iniquities of the bankers rather than what I was trying to say about the church making the best use, in the context of its stewardship, of the gifts and talents of all its members. I agree that the most interesting of the three is the slave who burried his talent, just as the most interesting person in the parable of the prodigal son is the one who stayed at home. Both are disparaged because they’d stayed safe. But staying safe won’t help the future of the… Read more »