The focus on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible continues with reflections from the Archbishop of Canterbury on the Bible itself:
"The church has listened to the Bible." Rowan Williams says in this video from Lambeth Palace, "and the Bible has echoed in the life of the church." He says it's not the Bible that hold us together, but the Holy Spirit for conversion and transformation by Jesus Christ. This is a very good talk and it's not just what he says that resonates, but also how he says it. His audience is broad. It is worth seriously pondering by all sides of the division in the Episcopal and Anglican churches in the United States, especially as we remember this year the magnificent gift to the world of the King James Bible.
4 comments:
Rowan has it quite wrong about the role of the Bible in the Truly Catholic Church, to wit, that it is not that that holds us together.
He knows that is not the Catholic view of Scripture, but fobs it off on the soft-and-weak minded. Let's do some reading here, e.g. Martin Chemnitz, esp. Vol.1., of the Council of Trent.
Thanks for the lead on the Rudderless-Rowan. Will post at my site.
Can we not be at least kinder? Pay attention to HOW Rowan William speaks in this video and consider who is he speaking to? We are just completely missing the point - we may get facts right, but our attitude undoes it all. Our focus becomes so narrow we find we are only speaking to those who's opinions we share. We = perhaps inadvertently, perhaps foolishly, act like we're know-it-alls and the wisest of us know that in the end we know so very little. It's not WHAT we know, it's WHO we know. It's not weak-minded or soft-minded, because that infers that the one speaking is superior, is mighty and strong and that is contrary to the very scripture many attempt to defend. Our witness is our undoing. Must I shout? When we are weak, then we are strong. When we not show, but actually inwardly digest humility, how much more gravitas is attributed to our words? How many times do we remind ourselves that it is in giving that we receive, that we have been forgiven for so much, how can withhold mercy - and that means our attitude, most especially it means our attitude.
Please consider HOW Rowan speaks in this video. We - evangelicals and progressives alike - have so much to learn from him on that score and if we can't see it or refuse to see it because of the overconfidence of our personal position, then we are less for it.
bb
Any project that attempts to increase the use of the bible in the church is to be encouraged for according to the 39 Articles “The visible church of Christ is a congregation of believers in which the pure Word of God is preached…” (Article 19). However all too often today, rather than being treated as the word of God written, to be read, preached, taught and obeyed in its ‘plain and canonical sense’ (clause 2 Jerusalem Statement), its authority is called into question by the very process of endless debates, listening groups and indabas.
Steven Pascoe
Cheltenham UK
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