Dr Eeva John talked about the radical new Christian inclusion described by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in their letter published in February 2017 in a presentation ‘handing over’ the work of the Next Steps Group to the new Synod that will meet for the first time in November 2021. The inclusion offered is not radical nor new nor Christian nor inclusive.
I’ve been reading a review of Some Day I’ll Find You and the opening chapters of True Resurrection, books written by Harry Williams, priest (1919-2006), a member of the radical 1960s school of Cambridge theologians and later a member of the Anglican Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield. Fr Harry has restored me to a sane, emotionally more stable place after a week in which events in the Church of England and my personal life severely disturbed my emotional equilibrium. Harry has restored my confidence in my own spiritual and wisdom core when the Church seems to be heading more and more deeply into a realm of dangerous, abusive and very un-Christian LaLaLand
I’ve been helped in my assessment of what changed at last weekend’s meeting of General Synod by reading the reflection of Rob Munro, a Synod member and a member of EGGS, the Evangelical Group on General Synod. Rob describes the outcome of the debates as a watershed moment when the radical held sway over the Christian. I spent Synod weekend re-reading books written forty years ago by Bishops John Robinson and Stephen Verney. I was somewhat astonished to discover how wonderfully honest, open, visionary and prophetic both men were, and amazed to discover that theological ideas and teachings that were commonplace then are thought to be dangerous today.
People are identifying recent events as signifying the moment when the Church of England’s version of Christianity is being forced to face up to the expectation from within and outside the church that it must become a genuinely inclusive organisation modelling radical equality in gender and relationships in the context of ministry, practice and teaching. Some predict that a tipping point has been reached. What are the significant events that suggest this might be so?
