Resurrection marks the moment of significant transition in evolution when Homo sapiens becomes more conscious of life’s deepest truths and our human responsibility to leave magical thinking behind.
Jayne Ozanne and Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin speak passion and truth
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?”
How to be a Christian re-imaginer in an era of crisis
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 and effective Church Governance
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.
A Spiritual Health Check for the Church of England
In a heart-felt blog for ViaMedia the Revd Dr Charlie Bell writes of “a sense of almost total, paralysing powerlessness amongst ordinary churchgoers and clergy” in the Church of England. He proposes that “As a church, we need to commit ourselves to undertaking a serious spiritual health check.” Yesterday’s blog attempted to set out in some detail what the landscape looks like to me. When and where is such a radical movement going to start? Going public is the only way such a movement to persuade the Church of England to undertake a serious spiritual health check stands a chance of achieving anything.
The Safeguarding Crisis in the Church of England
We are living at a time of crisis, globally and individually. The crises are multiple: climate, ecosystem, political, economic, spiritual, religious, refugee, health, housing, pollution. Every member of the human race is at risk of being affected by and infected by this systemic state of crisis – emotionally, intellectually, physically and spiritually. In the Church of England, the drama last week about the sacking of the members of the Independent Safeguarding Group manifests the total mess that is safeguarding policy and practice in the Church of England. The Church is directly affected by the unhealthy magical thinking that is a normative part of today’s Christian teaching and thinking.
Loneliness, the climate crisis, mental health and human wellbeing
My experience of life today compared with forty years ago is that our way of being today is more alienated, lonely, crisis- and anxiety-ridden than it was when Capra wrote. I am affected by today’s culture as much as everyone else. I can remember how I felt forty years ago but it has become almost impossible for me to recover or return to that more contented mode of feeling.
The essence of the Christian message - the primacy of God’s unconditional, infinite, intimate love
The place of LGBTQIA+ people in the Church is still unresolved. We are certainly not being granted equality in relationships or ministry. We are being denied equality in marriage. Homophobia and transphobia (and misogyny) continue to be protected as legitimate ‘Biblical’ expressions of ‘orthodox’ Christian teaching and truth. I believe we have arrived at a moment when the essence of Christian teaching has to be reframed to emphasise the primacy of God’s unconditional, infinite, intimate love the Gospels reveal in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, rooted in his core message, his teaching, actions and wisdom.
"I have come that you may have life, life in all its fulness"
Unless spiritually and mentally and conceptually we are drawn towards and become immersed in an open-minded, open-souled, open-hearted, unconditionally loving presence, the dream of God will not come to be. People will reject Christianity and walk away from the Church. They will find healing and truth wherever men and women recklessly, generously pour ointment on feet, where tears and love flow and the broken hearted are healed.
Abusive behaviour from General Synod CEEC conservative evangelical members
Perhaps not every member of CEEC and EGGS is as abusive and arrogant as Ian Paul and Sam Margrave, but they seem to do nothing about asserting a different Christian vision. I have been unable to settle all week. The sheer invasion of spaces that are in theory healthy spiritual Christian spaces for those following the path of Jesus towards a Kingdom of God in which justice and unconditional love, beauty and goodness are primary qualities is deeply disturbing. How is it that neither of these two men understand the damage they cause?