Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 12 January 2019

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Talking of being in Christ as the gateway to radical new inclusivity

Clare Hayns Consider the Lilies Head above the Parapet

Marcus Green The Possibility of Difference fake good news

Angela Tilby Church Times The trans guidance is not radical

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Church Times Evangelism isn’t just for the Evangelicals
“Progressive Christians have good news to impart, not pre-packaged solutions”

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Susannah Clark
Susannah Clark
5 years ago

Thank you Andrew Lightbown. We only ever have unity “in Christ”. Our unity is not dependent on uniformity. Our unity can co-exist in diversity, because in all eternity our inclusion is “in Christ”, not in holding identical theological views. The Scottish response to the divisions of view on human sexuality seems to ‘get’ this precious truth. We don’t have to dominate one another theologically. We can hold different views in good conscience. But if we are “in Christ”… and drawn by God to that eternal union and household… then that is where our unity lies. And instead of demanding uniformity,… Read more »

Kate
Kate
5 years ago

“Transitioning can cause significant pain to others” – Tilby

The wife of an oil executive earning well into six figures might equally be unhappy if her husband gives that all up for ordination and a posting to a rural parish in the middle of nowhere. All major lifestyle changes can be disruptive for family. I’m not sure it is right or helpful to single out gender transition.

And don’t get me started on divorce. None of the same criticism is levelled at those who divorce and remarry but isn’t that much worse?

FrDavidH
FrDavidH
5 years ago

The 100 Oxford clergy’s latest anti-gay diatribe is an example of those who excuse their extremist views because they live “in Christ” This phrase is a catch-all slogan which can be used to deny one’s ethnicity, gender and sexuality and be the means to slag off anyone (especially gays) one chooses. Andrew Lightbown is correct. Being “in Christ” has become a weapon. As a gay signatory to the Oxford letter, the Vicar of St Ebba’s, Oxford denies being gay, but lives “in Christ” with same-sex attraction. That gives him the excuse to be homophobic.

peterpi - Peter Gross
peterpi - Peter Gross
Reply to  FrDavidH
5 years ago

In the 1980s, I read a book — unfortunately, I have forgotten the name — about men and women in positions of power who are in the closet. Quite often, the powerful men and women around these people know they are in the closet. But as long as they stay in the closet, their position is secure. The author described their closet as being ornately designed, complete with all the creature comforts that the privileged enjoy. But, to come out of that closet risks being ostracized by the men and women the comfortably closeted enjoy the company of. So they… Read more »

Richard
Richard
Reply to  peterpi - Peter Gross
5 years ago

I knew a woman who died last year. She was an editor who held a senior position at an ultra-conservative magazine and was active in her church. The magazine was very anti-gay, but this woman was accepted because her long term female partner was always described as a “roommate.” Because she held conservative views, her sexuality was overlooked.

Father Ron Smith
5 years ago

Andrew Lightbown writes informatively and well about the fact that even John Stott had to recognise the inclusivity of the phrase “In Christ”. its obvious inclusion in the Scriptures is a reminder to all of us that to be ‘en Christo’ is the gift of Christ to ALL the baptised – not just the ‘pure and holy’. Deo Gratias!

Fr John Emlyn Harris-White
Fr John Emlyn Harris-White
5 years ago

Clare,

Thank you for putting your head above the parapet. The students in your care are most fortunate, God continue to Bless your ministry.

A well thought out piece from someone on the front line, caring for students.

Many moons ago as resident senior chaplain at a London Teaching Hospital I had to put my head and heart above the parapet, in the face of the Aids pandemic. My Bishop was not amused in those dark days.

Fr John Emlyn

John Wallace
John Wallace
Reply to  Fr John Emlyn Harris-White
5 years ago

Reading these comments and similar ones on other threads, I am amazed how little progress has been made since John Robinson in July 1620 preached these words to the Pilgrim Fathers on their departure: “I charge you before God…that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveals anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as you were to receive any truth by my ministry, for I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy… Read more »

crs
crs
Reply to  John Wallace
5 years ago

Perfect for New World New Revelation, and ironically a line leading straight to Joseph Smith and Golden Tablets.

Kurt Hill
Kurt Hill
Reply to  crs
5 years ago

Or, in other words, never turn your back on a Brownist..?

Michael Mulhern
Michael Mulhern
5 years ago

Angela Tilby, as always, cuts to the chase, highlighting the Donatist tendencies of conservative Evangelicals ‘who see sacraments as a kind of reward, given only to those who believe the right things and live in the approved way.’ This is the kind of incisive theological language that, even a decade ago, we could have expected to come from the House of Bishops. That it no longer does is, frankly, scandalous. Thank you, Canon Tilby, for succinctly telling it as it is, and reminding us that theologically literacy and mission mindedness can never be mutually exclusive.

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