Distinctly Welcoming

Unity and Diversity: bishops, covenant et al

                                                                                                                                             

I spend a lot of my time encouraging an engagement with other faiths that aims to seek the best in the other and as a bottom line, disagree well. This last week then has been a sobering reminder of the need for us to follow similar principles as we relate to our own brothers and sisters. A week of washing our dirty linen in public or sweeping dirt under the carpet, depending on how you look at it. The very human tendency to draw our lines in the sand and push people away is all too evident in a church that should be characterised by risky, vulnerable love. Now I'm not suggesting that this means the church should "let everything go", have no boundaries or disciplines. Rather, in expressing our boundaries, and truths that we may hold dear (tick your choice from the following: women should be free to become bishops, women should not be bishops, practising homosexuals should not be ordained, faithful homosexual relationships need to be recognised by the church) we learn to hear the voice of the other and disagree well.

The thing is, there are bigger Truths that ought to bind us as a family (that's an alternative helpful designation for the church!) and I dare to propose that humility, forgiveness and reconciliation are integral to what binds us a believing fellowship. Yup, it's all there in the breaking of bread/eucharist/communion (tick your choice from the preceding): men, women, old, young, whatever culture, colour, or sexual orientation are restored through the death and resurrection of Christ. Oh, and the "small business" of the centrality of the cross is that we are not just restored to God, but to each other (and creation!).

How can we learn to bless those we struggle to agree with and hear God speak to us in those we might oppose? I remember that a few years ago, Tony Campolo and his wife famously sat on a platform and gave a vivid illustration of this when Mr Campolo talked of his own conservative line on homosexuality. He then passed the mic over to his wife who admitted that she disagreed with Tony and welcomed more progressive interpretations of sexuality in scripture. They still shared the same bed! Sacre bleu!

Whether we like it or not, we are bound to each other in often uncomfortable ways: that's part of the beauty of the church and not an issue that just relates to the current politics of the Church of England. It can be depressing to witness the exclusivism, the labelling and the defensiveness. Going back to the issue of  interfaith relations, I suspect that one of the key processes to get beyond the impasse of Christian disunity  is a more faithful engagement with the world in mission. As we step out and forward, embodying Christ's love in a broken world, we may well find alongside us brothers and sisters, also broken and sometimes of very a different persuasion. In the place of being poured out for the world, in the name of Jesus, our differences are likely to look exceedingly petty.

The Church's Biggest Challenge?

Back in the 1980's, when Britain's beaches were strewn with litter and sewage and acid rain fell over Scandinavia from the muck our factories coughed out, we were known as the "dirty old man of Europe". Listening to Condeleeza Rice being heckled at the Bali climate change conference, I wonder now whether the USA is the "dirty young man" of the world.

I know there are huge issues about the emissions of China, India and Russia, not to mention Europe again, but the wealth and privilege of North America surely gives it an added responsibility to take radical steps forward in cutting down on energy use and concentrating on renewables. I was out with some friends last night, all active in politics and committed to the cause of conservation. As a Christian, I find myself wanting to distance myself from what someone labelled last night, "the loony Christian right". Is there hope for the word "evangelical" to be redeemed while the White House is occupied by an evangelical that all commentators admit is holding back on costly but necessary measures to correct the downward spiral of climate change?

Now I tend to be biased, as anyone is with particular vocations and hobby horses, about the priority for the church to engage constructively with other faiths in an age of religious extremism. I have to admit, though, that climate change seems to be the number 1 issue of our age and tops even that in my book. It's an issue that is inextricably linked with wealth, inequality and the plight of the most poor on our planet. It's an issue that affects our children and our children's children in a way that perhaps no other issue before now has. For those of us in the church, it ought to be of the essence of mission and gospel. For those of all faiths and none, it can be a rallying point of unity and dialogue, because without positive steps it is bound to become a rallying point of war.

So, in the meantime we campaign, recycle, educate, vote, and some of us maybe even praying that the evangelical President of the United States has another conversion.