Category: theology

conversation starter

wonderfulexchange3 Comments

I’ve been preparing tonight’s topic for Deepening:  ‘What do we mean when we say God inspires scripture?’.   We’re starting (and perhaps ending) with a True/ False game.  I offer it here for your use or amusement.

The idea is to do this in pairs — some some of the words are deliberately ambiguous in order to stir debate.

True/ False?

  1. scripture is inspired by God
  2. all the words of scripture are inspired by God
  3. God dictated the words of scripture
  4. scripture is the word of God
  5. scripture contains God’s words
  6. scripture is the only place we can read God’s word
  7. the bible tells us what we must believe
  8. the bible tells us what me must do
  9. the bible gives us stories about God that shape what we believe and do
  10. the bible offers us a framework for understanding God, ourselves and the world Continue reading “conversation starter” →

surrogate blogger

wonderfulexchange4 Comments

My blogging brain continues to rebel.  I’m hoping to sort it out when I’m on holiday at the start of September.

But thankfully, Elizabeth keeps coming up with fabulous questions worth turning into blog posts of their own.  Today’s offering is:

Does transformation always require death?

on Cranmer, Dix & Mayhew

wonderfulexchange7 Comments

as promised, and at long last…  (and at last, long…)

On the night of my institution, as I read out the legal bits required for my licencing, the bishop might just have noticed a small stumble, a choking on words, as I read aloud and remembered that I would have to give my assent to the prayer book.  It wasn’t quite as bad as the time when — as we processed down the aisle — the bishop of Coventry said to me “you know I’m about to ask you to consent to the 39 articles, don’t you?”, but still, I stumbled.

Each time this happens, I don’t have time to stop and think about the niceties of ‘consent’, ‘assent’, and the like.  And then, when it’s over, I banish the thought, only to get caught out again the next time.

For you see, while I can affirm the place of these documents in the history and tradition of the church, they were never part of my formation.  Had any of my DDO’s, PDO’s, selectors stopped me and said ‘you know you’ll have to agree to the prayer book, don’t you?’ I might well have hopped back on the train, or even the plane, and sought a life elsewhere.

I realise that may sound extreme.  But honestly:  if all we had were the 1929 prayer book, I doubt I ever would have considered ordination nor even found a vision of God worth living for.

Which is not to say that I think that the prayer book is untrue.  No, I’m not quite so foolish.  But I think it is terribly limited, and never more so than in the 1662 English Communion Office.

(oh dear… I can almost hear the shrieks of ‘heretic’)

The problem is that the 1662 rite — or rather, the 1552 before it– is shaped so very definitely in the crucible of Reformation wrangling.  Mustn’t risk anything that implies that there is a real offering here, lest someone mistake it for sacrifice:  so lets break the offering up into a thousand pieces, and lose any hope of a coherent shape to the liturgy.  Oh, and confession?  Well, it must be public, and frequent:  a bit of penance here there and everywhere just to be safe.

Truly, I am trying to find sense in it.  Continue reading “on Cranmer, Dix & Mayhew” →

imagining otherwise

wonderfulexchange10 Comments

So, I seem to have gotten away with re-writing the 10 commandments.  The faithful at Tighnabruaich were a bit alarmed, but Dunoon didn’t bat an eye.

The question on the floor was how can we help the text be heard by a generation that can’t bear with Thou Shalt Not long enough to find any good in law.

The tentative answer was that we play with it, and invert speech.  So, I ended up with this:

10 Offerings (an inversion of Exodus 20.1-17)

Then we said to God:

  1. You are our God, who brought us into freedom:
    we shall have no other gods before you.
  2. We shall not make idols, or try to contain you
    in the things of this world;
    we shall not worship the work of our own hands,
    for if we turn from you we will be miserable.
    We know that we and our children
    will be miserable without you.
  3. We shall not abuse your name,
    or use it to gain our own ends.
  4. We shall remember the Sabbath, the day of rest.
    We shall remember that our worth comes from you,
    and not the things we do.
    We shall honour that worth in others,
    and let strangers and all your creatures
    be blessed by your Sabbath.
  5. We shall give honour to those who nurture us,
    to all who give us life;
    so that we learn to live long and live well.
  6. We shall respect life, and help it flourish.
  7. We shall honour the commitments of love,
    and walk carefully with one another.
  8. We shall share our wealth freely,
    so that no one is left desperate.
  9. We shall speak what is true, and what is kind and good.
  10. We shall rejoice in our neighbours’ wealth and good fortune. We shall rejoice when they love and are loved.

I realised after the fact that I began with ‘nots’, but by the end was looking for affirmations only.  I’ve left the descrepancy in hope that maybe you will have a go at editing.