The development of the person of Jesus of Nazareth as a symbol that is used to dominate and manipulate, a development warned about thirty five years ago, wasn’t heeded. It has continued to expand until it dominates the Church of England’s life today. It is one of the reasons why abuse and discrimination are common within the Church. Historical and contemporary reports of abuse and the failings of the safeguarding regime are manifestations of this unhealthy conception and caricature of Jesus.
In the Church of England I believe we urgently need a far more open and widespread conversation about what are the essences of Christianity for today. Without this conversation we are never going to find ourselves living either in agreement or with good disagreement. This is what I and some of my friends and followers of Changing Attitude England are longing for – open conversation about ideas, practices, teachings and theologies that underpin prejudice and abuse in the Church for some and inspire faith for others.
There is a strong “Neanderthal” dimension to the beliefs, values and truths that constitute Christian faith today. I am part of the movement seeking to create a post-Neanderthal faith. The divine, sacred presence that began to dawn in Neanderthal and Homo sapiens consciousness 40,000 years ago is a seamless reality, a continuously evolving awareness. Our awareness continues to evolve and we can, when we awaken to this truth, open to and give ourselves to the evolving process of consciousness. Meanwhile, General Synod will be presented with LLF proposals intended to prioritise unity by ignoring and suppressing human consciousness.
If the Church of England is unable to recognise God as manifested in the life of Jesus to be the presence of unconditional, infinite, intimate love in creation and evolution, a presence that all human beings are able to experience through the presence woven into creation of what Christianity identifies as the Holy Spirit, then the Church needs to reflect on what, from the Biblical witness to the life and teaching of Jesus in a twenty-first century understanding of reality, God might look like and where the Church has got God wrong.
Many in the Church of England are involved with movements and campaigns for justice and equality: for women, LGBTQIA+ people, black and ethnic minority people, those living in poverty, the abused, those denigrated and despised as unwelcome and unwanted immigrants. All these campaigns and movements are transforming our moral universe despite the resistance of many in the Church. Progress towards creating a healthy Church, working towards the full equality of all creation, rooted in the Jesus essence of life in all its fullness is the vision of the progressive, spiritual, prophetic, evolutionary movements working constructively together.
On Wednesday afternoon, 6th September 2023, five members of the Church of England met for three hours in a London garden. Two members of the group were unable to join us. When I first suggested that we met in person, I did so because I wanted to know whether my ideas and visions were off the wall or accorded with their experience of Christianity today. By the time we met this week I knew my ideas weren’t off the wall. For several months I have been writing and circulating a series of papers. Tuesday’s blog, What is the Christian Story today? was the briefest outline of elements of our thinking. It is time to explore whether this can be converted into a movement within the life of the Christian Church. In the course of the coming weeks I will publish some of the other papers I circulated. This blog is the briefest survey of evolution, Christian origins, Western Church history from the sixteenth century, contemporary crises and possible responses.
The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, speaking at General Synod about LLF on Saturday, said: “It strikes me that all our children and grandchildren are having sex – they’re having sex. More than half the people who come to us for marriage are living together and they’re having sex, so what is it about homosexual sex that we’re reacting in such a visceral way? Can we make sure at the end of the day God’s love is on the table and that we do not allow people to feel less than human but instead made in the image of God?”
A friend suggested that I am daring to believe and trying to articulate is that something unarticulated is lying out there which, when named, will generate a widespread response. To put it out there as I am gradually trying to do is an act of faith. Getting it out there in a way that attracts maximum attention is the only way to find out if the Spirit is moving in the way I and some of my friends think she should.
The General Synod of the Church of England meets from 7th July for five days in York. There are a number of significant items on the agenda relating to issues affecting the well-being of our planet and members human race: climate change, Living in Love and Faith, safeguarding, and Church governance. Well, perhaps that last item isn’t of global or even personal significance, but it got me wondering: Who is responsible for the spiritual health of the Church of England and how does an institution with such an incredibly complicated structure better focus on what you and I might take to be the primary essence of being Christian.
