Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 11 November 2017

Jonathan Draper Afterthoughts What is Remembrance For?

Martin Sewell Archbishop Cranmer Church U-turn on sex abuse: from the victim ‘must be believed’ to being ‘taken seriously’

Bosco Peters Liturgy Agreeing on The Holy Spirit

Philip Jones Ecclesiastical Law The Coronation Oath: Right and Rite

Philip Lockley Church Times Laboratories for disagreeing well
Ordination training offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn the meaning of ‘mutual flourishing’

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Susannah Clark
6 years ago

I enjoyed Bosco’s reflections. The Triune nature of our God is so amazing, so wonderful, that it’s great that it should permeate our liturgy and day-to-day life. The idea that God, in all eternity, is a community, a household, is truly majestic. The thought that God longs to open our hearts and souls, and draw us – day by day – into that community and household… simply humbling. And I think our stumblings, our unknowing, our glimpses of the Trinity… help us recognise in parts that who God is – is a sharing. A shared consciousness, a shared awareness… such… Read more »

Susannah Clark
6 years ago

Philip: “a most alarming possibility… perhaps ‘unlawful oaths equal unlawful reigns’. Just imagine the constitutional chaos that would ensue! If the Monarch failed to take the oath as required by the 1688 Act and by the Act of Settlement perhaps she is not really Queen. All the laws passed during her long reign will be invalid, since she had no authority to approve them.” As a member of the House of Stuart and descendant of the Stuart Kings and Queens, I’m tempted to cast a wry smile and suggest that a religiously-based usurpation took place, that my family’s castle should… Read more »

Barrister
Barrister
6 years ago

Archbishop Cranmer has found this passage in a recent Church of England safeguarding document:

“For ease of reference this guidance will use the terms ‘victims/survivor’’ and ‘respondent’ without presupposing the accuracy of the complaint.”

“Victim/survivor”does, however, presuppose accuracy.

The fair equivalent to “respondent”—a procedural term that does not imply anything as to the merits—would be “complainant.”

Janet Fife
Janet Fife
6 years ago

Thanks to Martin Sewell for a very helpful piece.

Cynthia
Cynthia
6 years ago

Re “disagreeing well” and “mutual flourishing” The fundamental problem with teaching ordinands, or anyone else, to “disagree well” on WO, WB, and LGBTQI equality, is that being a woman or LGBTQI is a state of being and not a “position.” So the position of “disagreeing” on the validity of WO, WB, and SSM, is actually an attack on our being. And it is hard to “flourish” under such attacks. Some women and LGBTQI people may have the strength to flourish, but girls, LGBT teens, and other vulnerable people struggle in ways that are not understood by those who simply “hold… Read more »

Doug Chaplin
6 years ago

Though (should you be interested) I have taken a rather more dyspeptic (but limited) view of the Anglican-Oriental Orthodox agreement than Bosco Peters, not least for it’s potential to deny the BCP acts as an unchangeable doctrinal standard. http://www.dougchaplin.uk/church/anglicanism/throwing-cranmer-out-at-constantinople/

Interested Observer
Interested Observer
6 years ago

“the divine right of kings and queens is not insubstantial. They retain the right to call or dissolve parliament.” Only until they use it. Were a monarch to actually exercise that power, other than as a rubber stamp for the clear desires of an elected parliament or prime minister, then the country would be a republic within six months. In military theory, a distinction is drawn between fleets in being and fleets that actually put to sea. A fleet in being is able to exert considerable influence by its mere existence, without actually risking itself by putting to sea and… Read more »

Susannah Clark
6 years ago

Great naval analogy, IO. Just to stress, my second post – about my claimed Stuart inheritance – was simply good humour.

There is one sovereign country, and only one, where I truly claim my royal identity and heritage. It is an eternal one.

Father Ron Smith
6 years ago

re Bosco’s interesting article on the Filioque Clause, and its relevance, or not, to the ongoing mission of the Church; I cannot see too many of our ordinary people in the pews getting too excited about it – except from the point of view of ongoing efforts to reconcile the Church. There is no doubt that the charismatic movement in the 1960s did much to enlighten both clergy and laity on the dynamics of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church and the World. Vatican II was one of its fruits (now in recess in some parts of the… Read more »

Kate
Kate
6 years ago

Jesus asked us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, that is a triune response, mirroring the three-fold nature of the Trinity. Most Christians have few, if any, direct encounters with God the Father. Ron says that the Filioque debate is theological navel-gazing but for me it is much more dangerous because the debate, as presented by both sides, encourages us to rely upon our minds to ascertain the nature of God the Father rather than encouraging us to engage with Him with our hearts and souls too.

John Bunyan
John Bunyan
6 years ago

Doug Chaplin refers to the BCP as our unchangeable doctrinal statement. In the Church of Australia it remains, with the Articles, the standard of worship and doctrine. However, the requirement to subscribe to every statement in the BCP was abolished as long ago at 1865. (Dean Stanley tells the story of the long campaign to achieve that change). It was replaced by a general assent never legally defined. I assent to the BCP and the Articles and the Creeds in so far as they are in accord with the Scriptures – and reason and what we know so far of… Read more »

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