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When
possible the Sermon from the Family Service will be reproduced here for
people to reflect on.
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If
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Sermon
for 10.00am Sunday 29th June 2008
preacher: John Routh
The Anglican Communion
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The Anglican church has a presence throughout the world. As the
British Empire expanded, the Church of England and its missionary
societies went with it. Christianity was taught in lands across
the globe, and new locally focused churches were born, national
churches following the general model of the Church of England.
These churches were like offspring of the Church of
England, closely tied to their mother and to each other but, once they
had a sound foothold in the world, self-governing. Members of the
Anglican family can try to exert influence over each other, but they
have no power to insist, to direct what each can do. Each
national church within the Anglican family has the right to determine
its own future.
Of course, we don’t want to fall out. Despite
our independence we want to maintain ties, to remain as family members
on good speaking terms with each other. So there are regular
meetings of the most senior bishop from each church, chaired by the
Archbishop of Canterbury. And once every ten years, all the
bishops of the Anglican Communion get together to meet and talk, or at
least as many of them as possible. That meeting is called the
Lambeth Conference.
2008 is the year of the Lambeth Conference. In the second half of
July, Anglican bishops from across the globe will meet to discuss the
current state of the church and the world, and to discuss the future of
both. But not all bishops will be there. Somewhere around
850 would usually attend Lambeth; but this time 250 or so have decided
to meet elsewhere – in fact they are meeting right now – in an
alternative conference in Jerusalem. Why an alternative
conference? Because the Anglican Communion is tearing itself
apart, ostensibly over the issue of the morality of homosexuality.
For one party, homosexuality is a heinous sin
against God and nature, which is explicitly condemned by scripture and
is well-nigh unforgiveable. To denounce homosexuality is to stand
out against the watering-down of the gospel, against the tendency to
accept the decaying values of the surrounding culture.
For the other party, homosexuality is not sinful but
is in fact a quite natural state of being for some people.
Properly considered, scripture no more condemns homosexuality than it
does the eating of prawns or the wearing of poly-cotton clothing.
To accept homosexual behaviour is to stand up for the marginalised, and
express the over-riding gospel ethic of love.
Today is not the day when I present to you the
theological arguments surrounding homosexuality. I have my own
position on the subject, but I’m keeping that to myself. That’s
not what this sermon is about. The point of this sermon is that
there are people within the Anglican Communion with widely differing
views. And those on the extremes of this difference are pushing
their views to the point where the Communion – and subsequently the
‘mother of this family’, the Church of England itself – may well
split.
What on earth are we doing? Why is the church, yet again, getting
itself so hung up about sex? I mean … is homosexuality really the
major issue of the day?
We should be talking about climate change, and about
humanity’s relationship with the rest of creation – about how we
balance our right to use its bounty with our duty to care for its
integrity. We should be talking about the huge inequalities in
living standards, and about human beings’ relationship with one another
– about how we balance our right to improve our society with our duty
to ensure that no-one is excluded from that society.
We should be talking about the war and oppression
which reigns on our planet – about how we balance our calling to
protect other human beings with our calling to be a people of
peace. We should be talking about multi-cultural societies
– about how we balance the proclamation of Christ’s message with the
recognition that God reveals himself in all cultures.
For me, those are the issues of our day. Those
are the issues we should be raising in our world. But all the
people of this nation hear about the church is that we are fixated with
sex and gender. Either we’re talking about gender rights in the
church; or we’re arguing about homosexuality. And we wonder why
people don’t flock through our doors!
Throughout all this Rowan Williams has tried to do what he was called
to do when he was asked to take on the mantle of Archbishop of
Canterbury. He has tried to find a way of holding the Anglican
Communion together, respecting the views of both camps … bearing in
mind that he is called to maintain unity without actually having any
authority with which to force anyone to do anything.
I know of no-one who has been in the presence of
this man who does not sense that he is both an intellectual giant, and
one of the most godly men they have ever experienced. And yet he
has been excoriated by those of his fellow bishops meeting in Jerusalem
right now for daring to follow his perception of God’s will for the
Anglican Communion rather than theirs.
I don’t know what we can do except pray. Pray
for those on both sides of this divide that they might have the
humility to meet together and talk with open minds, with an
understanding of each other’s viewpoints, with an understanding of the
precipice to which they have brought the Anglican Communion. Pray
for the bishops meeting in Jerusalem now, where they are isolated from
any voices other than those which they want to hear; and those meeting
at Lambeth next month, where they seek a way forward in unity.
Pray for our Archbishop, who has the unenviable
calling to stand at the centre of this storm and help us discern a way
to move forward, whilst being condemned by both sides. Pray that
whatever the outcome of all this, we might be focused on the real
issues of our day, that the gospel of Christ will reign in all our
hearts.
John Routh
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