Abuse of language

How would you feel if I killed your family, perhaps most of your townfolk too, in the name of my politics and then said to you and a few of the other survivors languishing in some hellhole of a prison that you should just think of it as "one of modern history's pivotal experiments."

Not much :(

In fact I think you would rightly want to punch my face in.

Yet this phrase, "The revolution that birthed one of modern history’s pivotal experiments" has been used in NBC's opening montage to its coverage of the Winter Olympics to deftly cover the whole history of Russia from 1917 to 1990. (H/T MCJ)

The slide of Western civilization into historical oblivion continues unabated. When we stop telling the truth, darkness waits pouncing at the door.

As Christopher Johnson rightly observes, thank goodness Germany is not due to host an Olympics anytime soon.

Yet more light to be revealed from God's Word?

Some recent argumentation here concerns the ever recycling question of 'authority' and 'interpretation' of Scripture, as well as the role of the Spirit in inspiring Scripture and illuminating its meaning for each generation. Hint: when engaging in such discussion it is helpful to be really clear about what aspect of the matter is being worked on. (It saves tiresome debate when a riposte tackles something one didn't think one was trying to say).

Anyway, all that means I think it worth drawing attention to this Down Under post by Jason Goroncy which (at the end) includes this phrase,

"God has yet more light to break out of his holy word."

Also at the end is a bit of a clever comment about N.T. Wright. Last year I had the privilege of travelling in the same train as Tom Wright. I can report that we made it to our planned destination.

The Tickle Down Theory of Ecclesiology?

Stand back from the details of debates here there and everywhere in 21st century Christianity. Get a perspective which is appropriately post-Christendom on a pluralist, secular Western world, while seeing the rest of the world through a different lens as sometimes strident, often times alarmingly extremist growth spurts are made by Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. What do we see?

One answer, bubbling away for a few years now, but not recently addressed here, is that we are in the midst of massive religious change. 2015 is 1515. Just as the Reformation in Europe was to the then world - massive seismic shift, change in paradigm, revolution in consciousness - so is the Something which is going on now. Whether we are worried about decline in our local parish as members age with no replacement generation in sight, or press carefully in reflective research into how people are 'spiritual' but not 'religious', or just hammer away at the question of why otherwise sane Christians today seem intent on (say) ignoring biblical truth, chucking away liturgical heritage, reversing nostalgically into some past (e.g. reviving Mass in Latin, reworking BCP 1662), the deep issue may be something else.

In specific Anglican terms, whether we rejoice or despair in the lead which Nigeria/Uganda/TEC/Sydney/Holy Trinity Brompton is trying to give the Communion, the actual question of Anglican future in the midst of this Something might have an answer no one is currently proffering. That is, Christians generally and Anglicans reading blogs such as this (tends to mean you are concerned about the Anglican future!) need to get hold of the Something which we are in the midst of, which hasn't yet received a name like 'Reformation' (or, for that matter, 'Renaissance'), smell the roses and realise that what is dying is a now useless version of Christianity (and Anglicanness).

Just as there is a point in a body which is dying where attempts to revive and resuscitate should give way to preparation for death, so (this answer) would say that a lot of huff and puff amongst Christians today is pointless. But or BUT, in preparing for the death of what has been, we should act and think Christianly, that is, we should also prepare for resurrection. Out of this Something will arise a new and vigorous Christian movement, with as much or more dynamism than Protestant Christianity once had (and, indeed, post Counter Reformation Roman Catholicism had). So, a thesis goes.

With all that as background musing, check out this interview of Phyllis Tickle about her new book, co-authored with Jon Sweeney The Age of the Spirit: How the Ghost of An Ancient Controversy is Shaping the Church.

What do you think?

Even if, on the basis of the interview, you demur from the detail of Tickle's argument for 'Spirit Christianity' to be the new 'Great Emergence' of our faith, do you think we are in the midst of change as significant as the Reformation (or the Great Schism or ...)?

If so, is the Holy Spirit kind of the 'key player' of the Trinity in this new phase?

Living wage or minimum wage?

One of the privileges of my current work is sharing a building with our Diocesan Social Justice Unit, spearheaded by Jolyon White, Kate Day (pictured front/centre) and Lyndon Rogers. The details of our many stimulating discussions need not be rehearsed here but occasionally their work makes the pages of the newspaper, if not the front page.

On page 3 of this morning's Press is an excellent report of their presentation to the City Council arguing that it ought to pay all its employees at least the 'Living Wage' (worked out here to be NZ$18.40 per hour, compared to our law-required Minimum Wage of NZ$13.75 per hour). The paper carries a beautiful picture of many supporters seated behind Jolyon and Kate as they present. Unfortunately the Stuff report is just text now includes the picture. Here is an excerpt:

"Advocating on behalf of the Living Wage movement, Jolyon White, from Anglican Life [Ed.: an alternate name for the Diocese of Christchurch], acknowledged the council was in a difficult financial position but told councillors that it was in hard times that good decisions really mattered.

He challenged the completeness of the report presented to the committee, saying it failed to draw on the experience of hundreds of overseas cities which had instituted a Living Wage.

Their experience showed the cost of introducing the Living Wage was often far less than initially envisaged.

"It is a far too important thing, affecting far too many lives, to be made on incomplete information," White said as he urged the council to commission a full feasibility study rather than accept the report's recommendation.

"We are foolish if we think there are not ongoing costs of paying low wages in Christchurch," she said."Kate Day, also from Anglican Life, said experience in cities that had introduced a Living Wage showed it boosted morale and productivity."

I am all for people being paid fairly but I am wondering whether the argument for the Living Wage being paid to workers not currently on or above that level is not also an argument for the Minimum Wage being set at the Living Wage level?

Can the Bible tell me when I am wrong?

Rightly drawing attention to the strongly biblical case mounted and maintained for apartheid in South Africa by Bible believing Reformed Christians, David Runcorn asks the question, "And how do I know when I am wrong? Evangelical Faith and the Bible." We have already had some discussion on David Runcorn's views on homosexuality and the Bible when the Pilling Report was reported on here (he wrote an appendix to the report). I have no wish to rerun that discussion (which issue figures prominently in the article I link to above). Rather, given some past discussion here on Sola Scriptura, I am keen to take up the general question posed in the title, How do I (who believes in the authority of Scripture) know when I am wrong? And making that question have an edge with particular reference to apartheid for which the support of the Bible was once claimed and now it is difficult to find biblical Christians who still support such social policy.

In one way I think the Bible can tell me I have drawn the wrong conclusion from the Bible: I keep reading the Bible, with more depth and more width than previously, and reconsider. I probably (thinking of apartheid's grip on South Africa in the past) need to read the Bible in such a way that my reading opens a cycle of critical assessment of previously reached conclusions (rather than reading the Bible to confirm previously reached conclusions). Of course, if, try as I might, I cannot dislodge the previously reached conclusion then maybe that conclusion stands. In particular, if I read the Bible with others, so "I" becomes "we" then some grounds for thinking the conclusion is correct exist. This was the case with the church in the days of arguments to and fro about orthodox Christology.

Within South Africa those grounds of "we" readers were once thought to exist by the many readers who shared a similar conclusion about biblical support for apartheid. That then raises the question of the width of the community reading the Bible: in those days the rest of the Bible reading world was not supportive of apartheid. Generally the church has recognised that for a conclusion from reading the Bible as God's authoritative Word to be authoritative for the church, the whole worldwide (i.e. catholic) church needs to share that conclusion. (It is not clear to me that David Runcorn recognises that).

Something Protestants likely under-appreciative about authority in the Roman Catholic church is that the Pope's 'Infallibility' relates to one individual giving voice to the reading of Scripture (and Tradition) of the whole church (rather than one individual giving voice to that individual's reading of Scripture).

Protestants may also under-appreciate the difficulties of organising an agreed worldwide conclusion when reading the Bible if we have cast aside the papacy and resisted the possibility of worldwide councils/synods having power over local churches.

Nevertheless a strength of Protestantism (under-appreciated by Romans?) is that over time some conclusions do become agreed around the world (one example of which is, in the present context, that apartheid is wrong). The convoluted process to get there has the virtue of not being affected by the deaths of particular individuals, nor by corruption of officeholders in the church nor by the winds of fashion and favour.

It also has the virtue that it is going to be a biblical conclusion, anchored in the one source of God's revelation that all Christians are agreed is God's revelation to us.

Can the Bible tell me when I am wrong (even about the Bible)? Yes. Likely, however, I will need to listen to what all readers of the Bible are saying rather than what my reading (or even my tribe/clan/wing of the church reading) is saying to me.

For the right person, this job is yours

Mission Educator, St John’s Theological College.

The Anglican College of St John the Evangelist is wishing to appoint a full-time Mission Educator.  

The role will be broad in scope and application. It will include an holistic approach to local and global mission education, based around the ACC 5 Mission Statement, incorporated in the constitution of our three Tikanga Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

The Mission Educator reports directly to the Principal/Manukura of the College, but would liaise with Provincial organisations such as the Anglican Missions’ Board, the Church Missionary Society and the Anglican Church Army, however, in essence the role is to provide teaching, training and mentoring, as a member of the faculty of the College, in ways that will assist the Anglican Church to effectively minister in a multi-cultural, multi-religious, post-Christendom era.

In brief: to assist in developing an ‘outward-focussed’, mission-engaged culture within the College; with ripple effects into the Province.

Person specifications beyond a need for tertiary level teaching qualifications and mission experience (in the broadest sense of that term), the appointee will need superior creative communications skills to be able to link at all levels of the Church and across Tikanga, excellent planning and reporting experience along with a willingness to undertake some travel within the Province.  The appointee will be fully engaged in College community life, along with fellow faculty members, to ensure that the seminary nature of the college is developed and enriched.  The successful applicant would hopefully begin during May of 2014.   

Applications close on Friday 14 February. 

Further details can be obtained from the Principal/Manukura, Rev Canon Tony Gerritsen; t.gerritsen@stjohnscollege.ac.nz  09 521 2725

Do not read this while drinking your coffee

I cannot be responsible for the result of reading this excellent post, reproduced at Liturgy from the Orthodoxy and Heresy site.

Whether your laughter causes you to splutter coffee over your keyboard, or the coffee you are drinking suddenly induces a feeling of guilt because you are drinking heresy, you are responsible for choosing to click on the link and then for choosing to read.

However, if you do not click and read, you will miss one of the most important doctrinal lessons of your life, taught in memorable form!