Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 19 December 2020

Giles Fraser UnHerd Hope rises from the rubble of my church
“My ancient parish stands firm as the demolition diggers move in”

Kelvin Holdsworth Conversion Therapy and why I can’t join calls for it to be banned

Laudable Practice ‘Moderation, Learning, Usefulness, Piety’: An Old High Church Alternative To ‘Simpler, Humbler, Bolder’

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Power games in Church life

Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News To Sign or Not To Sign – A Bishop’s Dilemma

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John Wallace
John Wallace
3 years ago

Thank You, Fr. Giles, for showing the reality of incarnational ministry. Not for our Anglo-Catholic forbears were the leafy suburbs. Your article brought back to me words of George McLeod of Iona, which sum up for me the essence of the Gospel of the love of God in the Incarnate Christ.            ‘I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the centre of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town… Read more »

Kate
Kate
Reply to  John Wallace
3 years ago

Thank you for that quote.
 
Had Jesus been born in 20th century Texas, would we now have artistic models of an electric chair framed between two candles? Would we have little enamel lapel pins? I think it is far too easy to forget the horror of the cross, that it was an instrument of torture.

Fr John Harris-White
Fr John Harris-White
3 years ago

Giles, A masterpiece. Thank you. It is why I was ordained, and my heroes the Thames side priests. Who rang their bell, prayed for his people and cared for them. It is no accident at this time of pandemic that that the Star of Bethlehem will be seen again in our skies on December 21st.

Blessings for Christmas, and the new year 2021.

Fr John Emlyn

Kate
Kate
Reply to  Fr John Harris-White
3 years ago

I agree. Best piece of writing I recall seeing from Giles.

FrDavid H
FrDavid H
3 years ago

Giles’ article recalls the glory days of a Church which existed to serve the people with a message meaningful to the English people. What a contrast to today’s mean-spirited, narrow-minded sect which wants to tell part of the population that the Bible tells them how horrible they are.

Janet Fife
Janet Fife
Reply to  FrDavid H
3 years ago

‘there is no health in us….have mercy on us, miserable offenders…we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table…’

There’s nothing new about the Church telling the population how horrible they are. The difference, possibly, is to concentrate on one particular section of the population.

Simon Dawson
Simon Dawson
Reply to  FrDavid H
3 years ago

I am not sure if there is a contrast. Within Giles’ article is a story of how a group of men were inspired to minister in the inner cities as part of the Oxford movement. They were motivated to develop new styles of liturgy inspired by their understanding of the Catholic model. These liturgical developments were vehemently opposed by some more traditional authorities, to the extend that some of the Anglo-Catholic priests were imprisoned for contravening legal controls on liturgical development. What is less often explored in that story is how many of these young men drawn to inner city… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Simon Dawson
Dave
Dave
3 years ago

Jayne Ozanne comments about church leaders declining to sign the staement against conversion therapy and homophobia… “I will be honest and say, without breaching any confidences, that these letters from known allies made me very angry.” How sad that such church leaders don’t stand up publicly and tell the people they lead why they will not sign…

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