1. Church Society reports there was overwhelming support for the merger of Church Society with Reform and the Fellowship of Word and Spirit (FWS) at the Church Society AGM on 12 May.
At a packed meeting, former Reform Chairman Bishop Rod Thomas was elected President of Church Society to succeed Wallace Benn. A new Council was elected unopposed, with members from both FWS and Reform, including Rob Munro, the Chairman of FWS and Mark Burkill, the Chairman of Reform.
It’s sometimes wrongly asserted that Church Society (CS)is committed to staying in the Church of England ‘at all costs’. I’m not a spokesman for them, but clearly this has never been the case and it is mischievous to suggest otherwise. As the CS book The Effective Anglican states: ‘There is a place for contingency planning. There may be cases where we will need to plan for the employment of extraordinary measures… In some situations it may even be necessary for the sake of the gospel to work outside the established structures. Though if there is no plan to re-enter them, then this only saps strength away from our reforming effort – and we mustn’t let our church-planting denude our denomination, such that our church planting strategy works to undermine our church reforming… It is sensible to look ahead and take a realistic view of future difficulties.’
Welby on sexuality
2. Justin Welby once again was unable to give a clear answer on the issue of sexuality. Asked in a Guardian interview in May if his views were different from five years ago, he replied: ‘I hope they’re deeper. I’ve not changed in the sense that I believe the Scriptures, properly interpreted, remain for me the final authority in matters of doctrine, in matters of practice. But the phrase is ‘properly interpreted’. And we are continuing as a church to debate with each other, to discuss with each other, and to listen to particularly the voices of LGBTIQ+ people who historically have been appallingly treated… I think we are changing very distinctly. You talk to [the bishops leading the CofE’s work on the issue] and I think they would say the whole church is on a journey … and I’m part of that.’ A wise comment on this was: ‘Love hopes all things and believes all things – we should not presume this to mean he has become unbiblical just because we fear it, and by doing so impute on him beliefs and motivations he has not actually stated. Whilst we are right to have concerns and to fervently pray for his orthodoxy, until he outright states otherwise we must be very careful not to break the Ninth Commandment by bearing potentially false witness against him.’
Radical Christian hospitality?
3. Southwark Cathedral was reported as holding ‘its second Grand Iftar’ – the meal eaten by Muslims after sunset during Ramadan – in June to ‘mark the anniversary of the London Bridge attacks and bring all communities together to celebrate Ramadan’.
Opinions were mixed on whether this was radical Christian hospitality (akin to some of the meals Jesus had with those whom the religiously conservative frowned upon him eating with) or unacceptable interfaith worship or syncretism. Newcastle Cathedral did likewise. My understanding is there were no prayers, and that Canon Law was not breached. Bishop Christine Hardman was quoted as saying she hoped it would show ‘common purposes for peace and unity’. But she added: ‘It is really important we each retain the distinctiveness of our own faiths.’ Well, indeed…
