Osama bin Laden's death has created some wonderful jokes but discretion advises me to not to repeat them here save to say that some of the best I have heard verbally I have not found yet on the internet. His death has also led, inadvertantly, to a weird legacy in the form of common cause for Anglicans and Episcopalians in the USA: going by internet comments on diverse sites, they are all united in being singularly unimpressed by ++Wright's attempt to suggest that the US acted this week as though it were cowboys in a Hollywood Western (see previous post) and not terrifically impressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury's intervention in media debate either (e.g. here and here).
[Aside: As I think further about the matter I think the mistake ++Williams and ++Wright make their criticism of the USA is that they do not allow for the fact that the USA is involved in a war. It is not a war in the WW1 and WW2 sense of 'war' with formal declarations from one country to another followed up by (or immediately following) invasion by one country of another (or of an ally). But it is a war of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century: an international network of fighters engaged in periodic action against one country in particular and as well as allied countries in a manner which is not readily categorised in terms of "freedom fighting" or "internal rebellion" or "civil war." Rules of engagement are having to be made without precedent. Osama bin Laden was not a terrorist like IRA terrorists once were within Ireland and the United Kingdom, nor was he a mere criminal. His actions did not entitle him to treatment we accord to criminals or to (at least some) terrorists (where their actions occur within the ordinary legal framework of the nation in which they seek revolution). He was a combatant in a war. So, yes, there are questions about whether he was armed at the point when shot, whether he constituted a threat to the Navy Seals and so forth. But there is no question in the minds of US leaders that he was an enemy who needed to be overcome and neutralised if the war on terror is to be won. It is not clear to me that capturing him, treating him to the usual protections afforded by the law when trying criminals etc, would assist the war on terror, since the very fact of his continuing existence, consistently communicated by a relentless media, would constitute greater inspiration to his network than news of his death.]
Meantime life goes on and a sermon awaits tomorrow on the raising from the dead of one genuine fighter for freedom, Jesus Christ our Lord. Any help with this question on John's "third" appearance narrative of Jesus and his disciples would be appreciated (21:1-14): why do the disciples after two previous recognitions of the risen Jesus now not recognise their Lord on the shores of Galilee?
It strikes me that whether we understand John's gospel to be the most historically accurate or the least historically accurate (but theologically deepest in mining the resurrection for meaning), this question is quite a deep one. It might be too difficult to answer or its answer might yield tremendous theological fruit.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Rowan at less than his best (Tom too)
"Rowan at his best" was the title of a recent post by Bosco Peters on Liturgy. Quite right, too, on the matter of spiritual wisdom shown by ++Rowan. But now we have Archbishop Rowan Williams commenting on the death of Osama bin Laden. Thinking Anglicans has the quote and a range of reports about the view expressed in the quote. Here's what he said:
"Lambeth Palace press release: Archbishop on Osama Bin Laden
…Q: Do you believe that the killing of Osama Bin Laden is justice for the 9/11 attacks and indeed other attacks? And was the US morally justified in shooting him even though he was unarmed as the White House now admits?
A: I think that the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done, in those circumstances. I think it is also true that the different versions of events that have emerged in recent days have not done a great deal to help here. I don’t know the full details anymore than anyone else does but I do believe that in such circumstance when we are faced with someone who was manifestly a ‘war criminal’ as you might say in terms of the atrocities inflicted, it is important that justice is seen to be observed. "
Why is this ++Rowan at less than his best?
(1) He is commenting on something which requires no comment from him as ABC (and, by contrast, I see that his English RC counterpart is refraining from comment).
(2) He sets himself up to be taken down by the press. His first sentence is fine as far as it goes, for example, if he were having a conversation at the water cooler. But it permits the most minor of media distortion to make it into a "++Rowan uncomfortable at Osama's death" seller of newspapers.
(3) The last sentence is just awful. If someone is manifestly a war criminal how is justice not being seen to be done if he is killed? ++Rowan is imprecise here: what he means is that he thinks "legal justice" should be seen to be done. But where is the case for the requirement that this happens? Start thinking too much along these lines and you will be arraigning soldiers all over the place for being a little hasty with the trigger in war situations. Legal justice for manifest war criminals is a "nice to have" not a "must have." Further, what is said by ++Rowan is naive about how justice would be seen to be done in this situation. Any trial would be either a celebrity trial (with all that could go wrong over the celebration of the criminal as some kind of victim and thus perpetuating the suffering of the victims of 9/11 and other atrocities) or a secret military trial (with all that could go wrong about people like ++Rowan banging on about justice being "seen" to be done). What kind of punishment would be "just" if this had continued through the normal legal processes? Where would the trial take place (the Hague, New York or Guantanamo)? There are a host of very difficult questions here about the simple desire for justice to be seen to be done.
(4) When ++Rowan has such obvious signs in many other speeches and writings of original thought, why when he commenting on political matters such as this do we get responses which more or less could have been composed by a left-leaning robot? Here is an opportunity for a creative, Romans 13 based supportive comment for the leadership shown by President Obama. It gets missed all over the shop by church leaders. How hard would it be for some church leader somewhere to actually endorse what Obama has done here? It's not as though he's a Republican or anything impossible like that!
Fortunately a commenter at TA, Edward of Baltimore expresses a great deal of wisdom on the matter:
"The U.S. justice system is based on presumed innocence and a fair trial: I don't think Osama bin Laben could have counted on either of those today. Is the world better off without him? No doubt. Is the world a safer place without him? Likely. Was "justice done"? Not so sure. Was there an alternative? Can't think of one."
UPDATE: Following up on an alert by Steve in a comment below, I have to agree with Steve that now we find +Tom Wright at less than his best. As cited in Steve's comment and (fuller) in Ruth Gledhill's blog, +Tom Wright tries to come up with a parallel hypothetical situation in which Britain sends helicopters into the USA to shoot-to-kill a couple of terrorists. I don't think so. We are talking about a situation in which there is no doubt that Osama bin Laden was guilty of a succession of horrific war crimes against humanity and against the USA. I cannot think how such a parallel would arise between Britain and the USA. Why can we not have Christian leaders simply say, "It is a good thing that this evil man is dead"?
"Lambeth Palace press release: Archbishop on Osama Bin Laden
…Q: Do you believe that the killing of Osama Bin Laden is justice for the 9/11 attacks and indeed other attacks? And was the US morally justified in shooting him even though he was unarmed as the White House now admits?
A: I think that the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done, in those circumstances. I think it is also true that the different versions of events that have emerged in recent days have not done a great deal to help here. I don’t know the full details anymore than anyone else does but I do believe that in such circumstance when we are faced with someone who was manifestly a ‘war criminal’ as you might say in terms of the atrocities inflicted, it is important that justice is seen to be observed. "
Why is this ++Rowan at less than his best?
(1) He is commenting on something which requires no comment from him as ABC (and, by contrast, I see that his English RC counterpart is refraining from comment).
(2) He sets himself up to be taken down by the press. His first sentence is fine as far as it goes, for example, if he were having a conversation at the water cooler. But it permits the most minor of media distortion to make it into a "++Rowan uncomfortable at Osama's death" seller of newspapers.
(3) The last sentence is just awful. If someone is manifestly a war criminal how is justice not being seen to be done if he is killed? ++Rowan is imprecise here: what he means is that he thinks "legal justice" should be seen to be done. But where is the case for the requirement that this happens? Start thinking too much along these lines and you will be arraigning soldiers all over the place for being a little hasty with the trigger in war situations. Legal justice for manifest war criminals is a "nice to have" not a "must have." Further, what is said by ++Rowan is naive about how justice would be seen to be done in this situation. Any trial would be either a celebrity trial (with all that could go wrong over the celebration of the criminal as some kind of victim and thus perpetuating the suffering of the victims of 9/11 and other atrocities) or a secret military trial (with all that could go wrong about people like ++Rowan banging on about justice being "seen" to be done). What kind of punishment would be "just" if this had continued through the normal legal processes? Where would the trial take place (the Hague, New York or Guantanamo)? There are a host of very difficult questions here about the simple desire for justice to be seen to be done.
(4) When ++Rowan has such obvious signs in many other speeches and writings of original thought, why when he commenting on political matters such as this do we get responses which more or less could have been composed by a left-leaning robot? Here is an opportunity for a creative, Romans 13 based supportive comment for the leadership shown by President Obama. It gets missed all over the shop by church leaders. How hard would it be for some church leader somewhere to actually endorse what Obama has done here? It's not as though he's a Republican or anything impossible like that!
Fortunately a commenter at TA, Edward of Baltimore expresses a great deal of wisdom on the matter:
"The U.S. justice system is based on presumed innocence and a fair trial: I don't think Osama bin Laben could have counted on either of those today. Is the world better off without him? No doubt. Is the world a safer place without him? Likely. Was "justice done"? Not so sure. Was there an alternative? Can't think of one."
UPDATE: Following up on an alert by Steve in a comment below, I have to agree with Steve that now we find +Tom Wright at less than his best. As cited in Steve's comment and (fuller) in Ruth Gledhill's blog, +Tom Wright tries to come up with a parallel hypothetical situation in which Britain sends helicopters into the USA to shoot-to-kill a couple of terrorists. I don't think so. We are talking about a situation in which there is no doubt that Osama bin Laden was guilty of a succession of horrific war crimes against humanity and against the USA. I cannot think how such a parallel would arise between Britain and the USA. Why can we not have Christian leaders simply say, "It is a good thing that this evil man is dead"?
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Kiwi Anglicans should think about voting for Don Brash
With apologies to overseas readers for a momentary focus on a local matter, I have been thinking that it is unlikely that Kiwi Anglicans will seriously consider voting in November's election for the Don Brash-led ACT Party (which, in political spectrum terms, is far right cum monetarist). For the best of reasons - desiring to support people by supporting the most caring (or apparently caring) political party - Anglicans here will profess to voting for just about any party except the ACT Party. At times our synod resolutions resemble policies of the Labour, Maori and Green parties, but we can be pretty certain that, just quietly, many Anglicans do vote for the National Party.
But here's the thing about our church, how does it run in financial terms? If we "follow the money" in our church, where does the money come from that pays for ministries and missional initiatives? I suggest there are three significant sources. In no particular order of ministry priority or size of resource, first, we have a fair share of the chaplaincies which are funded by government money (health, military, prisons).
Secondly, we have some significant trust funds which pay for offices of the church. The main trust available to the church as a whole is the St John's College Trust which pays some $12 million annually to fund educational via St John's College and via episcopal units. There is also the General Church Trust which pays the bulk of administration costs for our whole church, includng costs of General Synod meetings. Then episcopal units have access to endowments and trust funds. Across seventeen episcopal units there is significant variation so that some bishoprics are completely endowed and others only partially so, some dioceses can pay substantial costs of curacies and others cannot. Finally, some parishes are endowed, and a few of those are well endowed.
Thirdly, there are offertories. In my understanding the majority of stipended parish positions, lay and ordained, rely on money paid through offertories. In general terms city parishes collect most offertories in the "better suburbs" which is more or less commensurate with the suburbs in which there is high employment of residences. In some dioceses a certain amount of socialism may occur in respect of this source of funds as better off parishes may be asked to contribute via their share of the diocese's costs to the subsidization of ministry and mission in the less financially viable parishes.
In short, the economy of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia relies on the overall NZ economy functioning well. Our Trust funds yield greatest returns to the church, along with increase in capital base, where the environment for investment is healthy. Our offertories tend to grow in response to the needs and visions of the church where people are in employment. The warmth of the government's affirmation of the chaplaincies it funds also seems to vary with the health of our economy.
The most important question facing any democratic country in a general election is the question of its future economic well-being under its next government. All the desires in the world for better health systems, improvements in education, appropriate targeting of needs with welfare and so forth are whistles in the wind if the economy is malfunctioning.
Unfortunately in NZ we have often not understood this most important question. We often fool ourselves that the most important question is who is most fit to distribute our wealth, or who offers the most care to the most needy. Prior to those sorts of questions are more important questions such as how is wealth being created in our country? Allied with that is this question, what economic policy over the long term will sustain the creation of wealth in our country?
If I am right, then Anglicans (and others, of course!!) should take seriously what a Don Brash-led ACT Party has to offer our economy. I realise ACT will propose some social and political policies around principles of choice and equality which, however important they may be, tend to put people off voting for ACT. But on the matter of the economy, Don Brash is committed to our economy growing, developing, and rising in wealth but with the catch that his policies will not yield immediate gains. In fact, probably the opposite - a yield of immediate pains.
Now I can almost imagine the comments which may come in response to pressing this challenge. But I wonder if commenters tempted to protest might help us all by offering their recipe for the future prosperity of our country! After all, we Anglicans know the value of being the church which sticks around through all the ups and downs of history. If we still want to be here in 2050, what kind of economy will best serve the financial resourcing of our church through the next 40 years? Our instincts are to vote for wealth distribution, but some careful thinking might suggest we vote for wealth creation instead.
[Disclosure: I have never voted for the ACT Party, or, in his previous political life, for Don Brash].
Being a democracy we have alternatives. Anglicans might also consider voting for the Mana Party whose leader thinks that Osama bin Laden was a freedom fighter.
But here's the thing about our church, how does it run in financial terms? If we "follow the money" in our church, where does the money come from that pays for ministries and missional initiatives? I suggest there are three significant sources. In no particular order of ministry priority or size of resource, first, we have a fair share of the chaplaincies which are funded by government money (health, military, prisons).
Secondly, we have some significant trust funds which pay for offices of the church. The main trust available to the church as a whole is the St John's College Trust which pays some $12 million annually to fund educational via St John's College and via episcopal units. There is also the General Church Trust which pays the bulk of administration costs for our whole church, includng costs of General Synod meetings. Then episcopal units have access to endowments and trust funds. Across seventeen episcopal units there is significant variation so that some bishoprics are completely endowed and others only partially so, some dioceses can pay substantial costs of curacies and others cannot. Finally, some parishes are endowed, and a few of those are well endowed.
Thirdly, there are offertories. In my understanding the majority of stipended parish positions, lay and ordained, rely on money paid through offertories. In general terms city parishes collect most offertories in the "better suburbs" which is more or less commensurate with the suburbs in which there is high employment of residences. In some dioceses a certain amount of socialism may occur in respect of this source of funds as better off parishes may be asked to contribute via their share of the diocese's costs to the subsidization of ministry and mission in the less financially viable parishes.
In short, the economy of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia relies on the overall NZ economy functioning well. Our Trust funds yield greatest returns to the church, along with increase in capital base, where the environment for investment is healthy. Our offertories tend to grow in response to the needs and visions of the church where people are in employment. The warmth of the government's affirmation of the chaplaincies it funds also seems to vary with the health of our economy.
The most important question facing any democratic country in a general election is the question of its future economic well-being under its next government. All the desires in the world for better health systems, improvements in education, appropriate targeting of needs with welfare and so forth are whistles in the wind if the economy is malfunctioning.
Unfortunately in NZ we have often not understood this most important question. We often fool ourselves that the most important question is who is most fit to distribute our wealth, or who offers the most care to the most needy. Prior to those sorts of questions are more important questions such as how is wealth being created in our country? Allied with that is this question, what economic policy over the long term will sustain the creation of wealth in our country?
If I am right, then Anglicans (and others, of course!!) should take seriously what a Don Brash-led ACT Party has to offer our economy. I realise ACT will propose some social and political policies around principles of choice and equality which, however important they may be, tend to put people off voting for ACT. But on the matter of the economy, Don Brash is committed to our economy growing, developing, and rising in wealth but with the catch that his policies will not yield immediate gains. In fact, probably the opposite - a yield of immediate pains.
Now I can almost imagine the comments which may come in response to pressing this challenge. But I wonder if commenters tempted to protest might help us all by offering their recipe for the future prosperity of our country! After all, we Anglicans know the value of being the church which sticks around through all the ups and downs of history. If we still want to be here in 2050, what kind of economy will best serve the financial resourcing of our church through the next 40 years? Our instincts are to vote for wealth distribution, but some careful thinking might suggest we vote for wealth creation instead.
[Disclosure: I have never voted for the ACT Party, or, in his previous political life, for Don Brash].
Being a democracy we have alternatives. Anglicans might also consider voting for the Mana Party whose leader thinks that Osama bin Laden was a freedom fighter.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
How not to respond to a significant political event
Barely time for even a brief post today. So, unashamedly drawing on Cranmer, I point you to this article about the death of Osama bin Laden in Ekklesia (which styles itself Britain's premier religious think tank). A few days ago I pointed out the grizzling at Ekklesia over the royal wedding. Now we have grizzling over the death of Osama with loaded language ("murdered by the United States of America"). Some readers here will be unsurprised by such language if they start at the end of the article and see that the author is a specialist in 'post-colonial studies'.
Is Ekklesia becoming Britian's premier site in taking a contrary religious view on matters of the day?
More importantly here on this site, I raise the question whether the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is well served by this kind of response to a significant political event (for that is what Osama's death is). In the premier epistle on the gospel as the fulcrum on which the history of the world turns, Paul's Epistle to the Romans, we find that its 13th chapter - as pointed out by Bryden Black commenting below - includes affirmation of the role of the state in bearing the sword. Could Christians do better than cavil at the execution of an evil leader? I think we can. I think we could honour our good leaders by affirming that they have acted properly in these kinds of instances. Obama has done good. Let's have the grace to congratulate him. In the end the gospel is a message that evil shall not triumph in the long-haul of history. In specific instances where evil is vanquished these actions are flowing with the grain of salvation history.
Is Ekklesia becoming Britian's premier site in taking a contrary religious view on matters of the day?
More importantly here on this site, I raise the question whether the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is well served by this kind of response to a significant political event (for that is what Osama's death is). In the premier epistle on the gospel as the fulcrum on which the history of the world turns, Paul's Epistle to the Romans, we find that its 13th chapter - as pointed out by Bryden Black commenting below - includes affirmation of the role of the state in bearing the sword. Could Christians do better than cavil at the execution of an evil leader? I think we can. I think we could honour our good leaders by affirming that they have acted properly in these kinds of instances. Obama has done good. Let's have the grace to congratulate him. In the end the gospel is a message that evil shall not triumph in the long-haul of history. In specific instances where evil is vanquished these actions are flowing with the grain of salvation history.
Monday, May 2, 2011
I rejoice when justice is done, don't you?
It is a matter of great joy that Osama bin Laden is dead. There is no reason for a man so callous and persistent in disregard of the sanctity of human life to remain alive; to say nothing of being so unrepentant of his crimes against humanity as to spend years in hiding from those seeking to bring him to justice.
But not all Anglicans are quite as clear as this. Look around the internet, you will find them wringing their hands wondering how to react.
Funnily enough such Anglicans may have a lot in common with the present Pope who seems to have been unable to find a way to prevent Mugabe from joining him in the beatification service for John Paul II. I am mostly a great admirer of the current Pope - a man of luminous intelligence and learning. But on this occasion, has he lost the plot?
But not all Anglicans are quite as clear as this. Look around the internet, you will find them wringing their hands wondering how to react.
Funnily enough such Anglicans may have a lot in common with the present Pope who seems to have been unable to find a way to prevent Mugabe from joining him in the beatification service for John Paul II. I am mostly a great admirer of the current Pope - a man of luminous intelligence and learning. But on this occasion, has he lost the plot?
Sunday, May 1, 2011
I can put off going to church, cos I'll live forever?
Interesting article about lowering stats re belief in God and church attendance, based on research making a link with living longer. But my bishop, Bishop Victoria Matthews has a robust response, as reported here:
"But the Anglican bishop of Christchurch, Victoria Matthews, is not convinced our longer life expectancy is to blame for the diminished role of religion in our society.
"The reason for a demise in church attendance is due to what else goes on every weekend and also the lure of power and financial advancement over the call to serve the living God and our neighbour," Matthews said.
She believes faith has as much to do with learning how to live in the here and now as it does with preparing for the afterlife: "Indeed, Jesus spent most of his teaching on our relationship with our neighbours.
"So after we come to faith, we learn how to express our faith in daily living." "
"But the Anglican bishop of Christchurch, Victoria Matthews, is not convinced our longer life expectancy is to blame for the diminished role of religion in our society.
"The reason for a demise in church attendance is due to what else goes on every weekend and also the lure of power and financial advancement over the call to serve the living God and our neighbour," Matthews said.
She believes faith has as much to do with learning how to live in the here and now as it does with preparing for the afterlife: "Indeed, Jesus spent most of his teaching on our relationship with our neighbours.
"So after we come to faith, we learn how to express our faith in daily living." "
What was good about the royal wedding?
Some internet grumpiness about the royal wedding can be found at Ekklesia: grrr, growl, grizzle, grinch (H/T Clayboy and EChurch Blog both of whom direct us to good things in the wedding). One of the Ekklesia grumps is by a Kiwi correspondent, Sande Ramage. Well, each makes a point, and each point is part of needed ongoing debate in any democratic society where church and state collide, whether in formal establishment mode or otherwise. But are some points being missed by these e-correspondents?
It's all very well having a bash at monied, titled people, for example, especially if in military attire, but has any society ever escaped having an elite and a portion of that elite tied up in its armed forces? I do not recall Soviet Russia getting on top of the problem (remember those special shops for Communist Party hierarchy and the dachas ("second homes") the leadership class enjoyed?). My understanding of Mao's China is that he attempted to get on top of the problem with periodic purges ("class cleansing" we could call it) which involving slaughtering the odd million or three of real live human beings. But, the reply might be made, couldn't the UK be more egalitarian like, say the USA or Australia or New Zealand? To which the answer is 'Yes, of course, come and join us!' Lots of people have left the UK to forge a new and egalitarian life in new lands. Presumably most of those who have not left are comfortable with the class structure in the UK. Certainly the great throng of flag waving Brits who crowded the Mall and pressed against the gates of Buckingham Palace did not look like they were uncomfortable with the nature of British society (let alone forced to offer mass support for the current regime by state apparatchiks)!
It is possible, is it not, that it is a good thing if the very top of the social tree of a society is tied into the church, embued with an ethic of community service, and constrained by constitutional law to exercise power with gentle discretion? Even better if that social tree tip is wealthy enough not to be tempted by bribery and corruption?
The wedding in one aspect was a re-visioning of the tie between sovereign and God. The power of the sovereign (such as it is in a constitutional monarchy) is not absolute power but a gift from God. To that same God the future sovereign came with his future wife (and, conversely, an ordinary citizen of a state with an established church but no compulsion to worship came with her future husband) to seek God's blessing, not to command it. The splendour of the occasion was tinged with humility, not tainted with tyranny.
The way this re-visioning took place happened also to be a marvellous witness to the word and power of Christ expressed through the genius of Anglican liturgy. In a truly egalitarian society in a republican state there would never be a wedding broadcast to two billion people. Would Christ be pleased with this event as a testimony to him?
Would Christ be disappointed that it has turned out that the plainness of Cranmer's approach to liturgy is particularly well suited to colourful pageantry, the varied tonality of English accents, and the splendour of English musical composition (Parry, Rutter, etc)?
(And, noticing this post at Cranmer's Curate, would St Paul be disappointed?)
You be the judge!
It's all very well having a bash at monied, titled people, for example, especially if in military attire, but has any society ever escaped having an elite and a portion of that elite tied up in its armed forces? I do not recall Soviet Russia getting on top of the problem (remember those special shops for Communist Party hierarchy and the dachas ("second homes") the leadership class enjoyed?). My understanding of Mao's China is that he attempted to get on top of the problem with periodic purges ("class cleansing" we could call it) which involving slaughtering the odd million or three of real live human beings. But, the reply might be made, couldn't the UK be more egalitarian like, say the USA or Australia or New Zealand? To which the answer is 'Yes, of course, come and join us!' Lots of people have left the UK to forge a new and egalitarian life in new lands. Presumably most of those who have not left are comfortable with the class structure in the UK. Certainly the great throng of flag waving Brits who crowded the Mall and pressed against the gates of Buckingham Palace did not look like they were uncomfortable with the nature of British society (let alone forced to offer mass support for the current regime by state apparatchiks)!
It is possible, is it not, that it is a good thing if the very top of the social tree of a society is tied into the church, embued with an ethic of community service, and constrained by constitutional law to exercise power with gentle discretion? Even better if that social tree tip is wealthy enough not to be tempted by bribery and corruption?
The wedding in one aspect was a re-visioning of the tie between sovereign and God. The power of the sovereign (such as it is in a constitutional monarchy) is not absolute power but a gift from God. To that same God the future sovereign came with his future wife (and, conversely, an ordinary citizen of a state with an established church but no compulsion to worship came with her future husband) to seek God's blessing, not to command it. The splendour of the occasion was tinged with humility, not tainted with tyranny.
The way this re-visioning took place happened also to be a marvellous witness to the word and power of Christ expressed through the genius of Anglican liturgy. In a truly egalitarian society in a republican state there would never be a wedding broadcast to two billion people. Would Christ be pleased with this event as a testimony to him?
Would Christ be disappointed that it has turned out that the plainness of Cranmer's approach to liturgy is particularly well suited to colourful pageantry, the varied tonality of English accents, and the splendour of English musical composition (Parry, Rutter, etc)?
(And, noticing this post at Cranmer's Curate, would St Paul be disappointed?)
You be the judge!
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