Dear Editor,
Your report on Bishop Nazir-Ali’s joining the Catholic Church in the November issue of en offers no explanation, though some insight may be deduced from his proposed affiliation with the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, established under the patronage of John Henry Newman.
The danger of Newman’s subjectivism is well illustrated in the experience of Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990) who became a Christian in the late 1960s. He later converted to Catholicism, in part through the influence of Mother Theresa. Addressing his concerns at the contradictions between Rome’s many flaws and its concern for the poor, she wrote: ‘You are to me like Nicodemus … “unless you become a little child …” I am sure you will understand beautifully everything if you would only become a little child in God’s hands … The small difficulty you have regarding the Church is finite. Overcome the finite with the infinite …’.
Theresa conflates the objective necessity for regeneration with the subjective necessity of a changed attitude. Both are required; but it is Rome’s genius to obfuscate where clarity is most needed. Comfort is offered for weary souls – but at the very high price of replacing reason (sense) with affections (sensibility).
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Marsay Camperdown, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dear Editor,
The news about Michael Nazir-Ali’s defection from the Church of England to the Church of Rome has filled many with concern.
When Paul wrote to the troubled Corinthian church he had to remind them that ‘there should be no divisions among you’ (1 Cor. 1:10). We have unfortunately descended into factions: ‘I follow Paul’; ‘I follow Apollos’; ‘I follow Peter’. Paul’s concern is that churches should make following Jesus their only priority.
Michael is a man of integrity and he has not made this move lightly. He knows more than most what is happening in the Anglican communion, its drift away from promoting Christ and this appals him. He longs for churches to return to teaching the apostolic truths about Jesus and insist that all Christians, whichever denominational camp they are in, devote themselves to living for Jesus seven days a week. This alone is true worship.
We can cast stones or we can pray for him. If he is able to help Roman Catholics, as well as members of other fallen denominations, understand that it is the centrality of Jesus and not membership of a church or denomination that saves us, could this move not help many nominal Christians find salvation in Christ? Let us instead pray for him that he will not be silenced, as so many making this move have been in the past, but may continue robustly to promote the Lord Jesus, apostolic truths and godly values from within another church, which, as he well knows, has many problems of its own.
Yours sincerely,
Bernard Palmer By Email
