-
Moseley Chimes
September 2008
Many of us will have followed with interest news of this year's Lambeth Conference, when bishops in our Anglican Communion met together to reflect, pray and plan for the future. This event only happens every ten years, and this year about 600 bishops from all over the globe convened in Canterbury. However, despite the pageantry, excitement, and the building of relationships, this year's conference, perhaps more than any before, met in a shadow as 200 bishops gave their apologies to Rowan Williams before the conference. Prior to Lambeth, an alternative Conference of Bishops called GAFCON (Global Anglican Conference Futures Conference) met in Jerusalem. In a real and concrete sense these two Conferences represent the current situation of the communion: we are on the verge of a parting of the ways.
Just think of all the issues that divide brother and sister: Human Sexuality, Women Bishops, the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson. All these issues and many more are played out both globally and locally and display the painful reality of today's Anglican Church. Is there a way forward? Is there going to be any solution to our current situation? Will there be reconciliation?
I am afraid there are no easy answers, but the different groups have found it increasingly difficult to )ray together and to share communion with each other. Inevitably this situation will soon develop into normal splits in the church both locally and globally. We have already seen in the Church of England now when women were ordained as priests a small number of churches united under the banner of Forward in Faith and could not accept the full Episcopal authority of their diocesan bishops. It is not lard to predict that something similar might affect us again in the near future, only this time a greater lumber of churches and communities might be involved.
Division, though, is nothing new, and from the time of the New Testament the Church has often faced situations where brother and sister have parted ways. Look at Acts 15:36-41 where Paul and Barnabas disagreed about taking John Mark with them and ‘the disagreement became so sharp that they parted company’ (v39). St Mark and St Paul both are saints in the church of God, and yet, because of personal reasons, were unable to work together.
There were many more conflict situations amongst the apostles in the New Testament. Look at the disagreement that Peter and Paul had over eating with gentiles in Galatians 2:11-15. This was a real and divisive issue that the church faced when it began to grow. Thankfully Paul's view eventually won, as the church welcomed people of all nations and backgrounds into its communion as equal members. Division has been part of the Church's own story from the start.
We face a similar situation today. We are on the verge of a new way forward for our Communion. But, the key teaching of the New Testament is that when it comes to division, God can work within both integrities. Although it is hard to imagine, especially where we instinctively feel drawn to one side rather than the other, the Bible teaches us that God works in all of our lives. Mark and Paul parted ways and could not pray together on earth, but both of them are saints in God's Church in heaven. So, even if our Communion splits and established structures change, this will not end of our Church. instead, as Christians, we believe that the Holy Spirit will guide us for the future, for God's future is greater than any human structures. God will care for us all in the future, even if that means a temporary parting of the ways on earth.
His body was later brought back to Constantinople, and over the ensuing centuries, the Church came to see him as having been a great church leader, in fact, one of the Four Greek Doctors (with Athanasius, Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus).
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is not the first mighty bishop to come out of Wales. Deiniol was a monk of Wales who came to be the ‘first bishop of Bangor’. And a mighty bishop he was, too.
Deiniol founded the two monasteries of Bangor Fawr (on the Menai Straits) and Bangor Iscoed (Clwyd), which, according to Bede, became the most famous monastery of British Christianity and came to number over 2,000 monks. Sadly, they were defeated at the battle of Chester by the pagan Aethelfrith, king of Northumbria. Deiniol is also remembered for his skill in getting disagreeing bishops to come and talk things over at a Synod — surely a skill which his 21st century successor had to put to great use this summer at the Lambeth Conference!