notices 29.7.07
30 July, 2007
Saturday, 4 August — 10 am - 12 pm. The Growing Season gathering. Coffee, cakes and conversation to share our experince of The Growing Season.
Sunday, 5 August — 11am Mattins.
Looking ahead:
Sunday, 12 August — There will be a meeting after the 11am eucharist to discuss the Draft Anglican Covenant, which can be found here. The Faith and Order board has suggested a number of questions to help our thinking which can be found below.
From the Faith and Order Board:
Some key questions as we reflect upon the text of this draft Covenant -
Background Issues
- Do the Provinces of the Anglican Communion share a common origin? Are there common documents to which we can all appeal?
- Will this proposed Covenant re-establish trust within the Communion and restore order?
- What is for the common good - truth or unity?
Practical Issues
- Should an Anglican Covenant facilitate, above all, our continuing conversations over contentious issues or respond to particular crises?
- Who decides that a particular issue is an essential matter of common concern?
- If decisions are to be made in areas of disagreement who is to make them? Should they be made by those concerned primarily with the needs of a particular province or by those concerned primarily with the unity of the Communion?
The Future of the Covenant
- Should this proposed Covenant be dynamic or static? Will it be reviewed as we change and develop?
- Would we wish this proposed Covenant to allow us to be doctrinally permissive, pragmatic and inclusive?
These are important questions that we should take the time to consider. In reflecting upon this proposed Covenant it is not enough simply to express unease. “If not this, then what else?” is a question we must be prepared to answer as we study this text.
Rt Rev D Chillingworth
Rev Canon Dr M Fuller
Rev James Milne
April 2007
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1.
rosemary | 10 August, 2007 at 9:42 pm
I’ve been looking for somewhere to say that my otherwise believers came trickling back, with a number of different issues. Of course the price of really listening is that the conversation goes where others chose to take it, so results are, well, interestingly uneven. One wanted to talk about funerals - which was interesting. One wanted to share what made for faith and what for doubt. Apparently Richard Dawkins irritates so much that he creates faith. And being part of a church community creates faith - but being accused of blasphemy, unsurprisingly, drives people away. Sadly (yes, I did suggest the obvious) liturgy is a barrier. Another interesting conversation was about the latest Harry Potter with a non-believer. Apparently it was all going well, till the end (that is, the last half dozen chapters) which seemed rather meaningless. I did wonder how accessible the last book would be to those outside the tradition. Interesting!
2.
wonderfulexchange | 14 August, 2007 at 11:38 pm
So I wasn’t the only one who thought J.K. Rowling revealed her Piskie heritage at last…
It sounds like you had an interesting conversation (not that I would expect anything less). I’m delighted to hear Richard Dawkin’s attempts at evangelism (’malevangelism’?) are back-firing. Perhaps we should do a study group…
The liturgy thing is sad and worrying, but not suprising. A recent study in the States suggested that one of the descriptors of worship most likely to be used in a declining church was ‘reverent’. I very much doubt that irreverent churches grow, but the thought of reverence seems to put people off.
Perhaps it is just as well that at St Paul’s we sometimes struggle to live up to the second half of intent that worship be ’seemly and in good order.’