As you rightly say: “Dr Williams is a very bright fellow…”. But he is also VERY academic. Being TOO academic can sometimes be a disadvantage. (I use ‘academic’ here as opposed to ‘educated’.) People who are too academic in their approach often have a great deal of difficulty coming to a decision. The reason: They see things from all sides; as a result, they see everything in shades of grey, rather than in black and white. To be a good decision-maker, it helps to see things clearly, and not become paralysed by arguments from all sides. This is one reason why academics tend to make poor politicians and poor business leaders; for they simply cannot be decisive enough, quickly enough. I think that Dr Williams is such a person. He seems to be trying to please all, but he actually ends up pleasing nobody!

The Anglican Church is now in the business of syncretism and interfaith dialogue. It will be its downfall. Its leaders seem to have little idea why the pews keep on emptying. I can tell you why the pews keep on emptying: It’s because the Church itself is not evangelizing, and nor is it sure-footed. It keeps on changing the message because it is not convinced of the verity of the original one!

The fact is that there is one very BIG lesson to be learnt from Islam. And it is this: Don’t change the message, regardless of the times you live in! That’s the way the Muslims go about things; and, as if by magic, Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world today! Surprise! Surprise!

The Church, by contrast, is busy accommodating this one and that, busy changing its message to be more in keeping with modern times. And what’s the result? The Churches are emptying quicker than a football stadium in a bomb scare! When will these people learn?

If the times go against you, but you are sure that your message is correct, and you are sure that there is only ONE way to Salvation, then you should keep on keeping on, preaching the same old message. The Muslims are right: What was right before is right now too, and the same message will be right forever more!

The Church leaders are far too faint-hearted. And you know what they say about being faint-hearted, don’t you? Faint heart never won fair lady! ~ Mark Alexander

I agree with so much of what Mark has written that I wanted to bring his comment to my previous post forward to be part of this next post to follow.

There is an Aesop’s Fable about the man, the boy and the donkey and how they kept changing the various combinations and permutations of who rode/carried who, much to the derision of all onlookers in the end. I think that fits very well in this instance.

I believe that Truth is absolute, not relative. If you try to change it, then it is not the truth you are speaking - that truth does not change, but the speaker has simply moved away from it. Yes, the Muslims have at least got that right. You will never appease all, just as that fable illustrates so well. God doesn’t change His message, so when Dr Williams bends this way and that, he simply indicates that he has stopped following his Master.

There is a minority of Biblically faithful in the over all Anglican communion who are extremely concerned and distressed, but these folk are being pushed out as their witness is unwelcome in the “inclusive” revisionist rest-of-the-Church that now alienates them. I know some who have posted to Anglican forums of this ilk, and in courteously expressing their own views have challenged those of others. These folk have had their posts expunged and themselves banned from posting again - and this is the supposedly inclusive Church? Of course, the inclusive Church is just being politically correct, protecting members from perceived insult under the guise of relativism, that all views are considered equally valid and none should be contested by another.

I am hearing the revisionist majority in the Church say “It doesn’t really matter that you are living an expressly sinful life and need to clean up your act before becoming one of our leaders - God loves you, we are all sinners, and you can become a leader anyway.” I am left wondering if the Church has forgotten that Jesus said “Follow me” and that meant, not just wandering off in the same general direction, but actually emulating the Master in all things, actually following His commandments - all of them, including the one about immorality - and loving Him with all our being. Of course we are all sinners, and will constantly stumble and require His forgiveness and strength, but there are choices to be made and we are called to be holy, which in itself is a big part of loving our Master.

This interfaith thing… I am wondering if the Church actually thinks of this as a form of evangelism. Maybe this is a way to interpret the great commission, to go into the world and spread the gospel? This won’t be the whole of their evangelism, but is it part of it? And what gospel is being spread? It could be that we must love one another. But will that mean lots of “feel good” stuff, that we must love each other regardless of our differences, and accept everyone’s differences as being right for them and keep quiet if we chance to disagree? Will it be that we shall accommodate each other, and let each other know how much God loves us all. If the Church is so uncertain about what it believes now to be the Truth, then the gospel to be shared can hardly be anything other than that.

Evangelizing is not just going interfaith and telling everyone that God loves them. As followers we all share the great commission, to preach (demonstrate in our lives, share, encourage, exhort, teach, help and assist - all these things according to our gifts and talents) the Good News. And what exactly is that?

To start with, there is a little bit of groundwork that often needs to be done. It goes along the line that God, being our Creator, actually knows something about how we should best conduct ourselves. That means there are ways we are supposed to behave, and ways we are not supposed to behave. When it comes to interfaith, there are going to be some disagreements over that but it can still be accepted by most folks that whatever those rules are, as human beings we all keep breaking them anyway.
Humans everywhere are blighted with the ability to offend their own consciences.
God not only commands us to love one another, but here it is yet again… He also calls upon us to be holy. That is the part that tends to be ignored. We unholy lot fail miserably, which is partly why that bit is so unpopular, and by failing miserably we alienate ourselves from Him whose character is holy and righteous. Of course He is still around, and still there for us, but our relationship is seriously impaired by this one sad fact. The unsavoury part of the news is that this makes us headed for death, and death eternally. Then comes the central business of the Gospel… that God loves us enough to have given His only begotten Son to pay the price for all of us.
We must only turn around, sincerely ask his forgiveness and believe what He did.
I don’t know what exactly goes on in interfaith dialogues, but this Gospel is not usually a welcome topic on the agenda where folks prefer to stay clear of anyone with serious Christian beliefs. Does the Church have serious Christian beliefs? When such beliefs come with the “intolerant” John 14:6 message as well - that Jesus is actually the only way to God - then it would not be surprising that all the non-Christians may well want to change the subject to something quite a little lighter. So what is talked about instead… the weather?

I know I am viewing this as an outsider looking in, but that is how it appears to me. Looking in from the outside I am seeing a Church whose Liberal majority has stopped believing in absolute Truth, who has decided that God must be made to keep up with the times and allow His message to be revised since anything supernatural about Him is just too unbelievable to be taken seriously anymore. I see people who believe they are more rational than God, who have put Him in the dock and become His judge and jury, and who have decided their own rules are far more relevant to today’s quickly changing situations than anything God might once have said. And seeing people like that, I have to wonder just what the point is anyway with interfaith dialogue unless it is for support to abandon Christianity and set up as a New Age Church of Syncretism. I hear that Prince Charles, who as heir presumptive, has indicated that the monarch’s long-standing title of “Defender of the Faith” (Christian faith as per Church of England) will become “Defender of Faiths”, something totally and radically different but immanently suited to such a Church as it is becoming.

The faithful minority who consider themselves conservative, orthodox and mainstream Anglicans are wondering where they should go. Some are joining other churches elsewhere, including the Roman Catholic Church. Some are just leaving to sit outside and watch and wait. Some are lucky enough to belong to parishes with conservative vicars and bishops, and meanwhile feel safe enough to continue to worship and pray for the best. Some are raising their voices and trying to be heard above the din. And where am I in all this? I did once belong to the Anglican communion, but rather than return to so much strife, I am sticking it out on the “outside looking in” just for the meantime. Is the Church circling the drain? And if so, can Dr Williams find the plug in time? It doesn’t seem to me that he is looking in the right places to find it.