Category Archives: Church

What is the church for?

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Jim Gordon writes:

‘I’ve spoken with a number of folk for whom the church is a problem, or an irrelevance, or a menace. When the church becomes obsessed with ethical arguments about sexuality, or fails to speak with any authoritative, joined up and consistent voice about the genocide in Gaza, or appears so timid and morale poor in the face of its own declining clout in a culture that’s moved on without a backward look, then it;s time for Christians to ask the question: ‘What on earth is the church for?’…

‘Like flowers in a garden’

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‘Christians are like the several flowers in a garden, that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, which being shaken by the wind, they let fall their dew at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished and become nourishers of one another.’

‘Behold the flowers are divers in Stature, in Quality, and Colour and Smell and Virtue, and some are better than some: Also where the gardener hath set them, there they stand, and quarrel not with one another.’…

1 Cor 11:29 – Eating and drinking ‘without careful regard for the body’

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11:27 Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 11:28 A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. 11:29 For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself.

What is meant by eating and drinking ‘without careful regard for the body’?…

The Catholic doctrine of Mary

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Dave Armstrong seeks to present ‘Biblical evidence for Catholicism’.

I find his writings irenic, if ultimately unconvincing on distinctive Catholic teachings such as the doctrine of Mary.

In The Blessed Virgin Mary: Hail, Full of Grace Armstrong seeks to define and justify various aspects of that doctrine.

The following summarises the main points.  I refrain, for the time being, from making critical comments.

(a) Mother of God

Lk 1:43 (“The mother of my Lord”) is appealed to in support of the doctrine of Mary as ‘Mother of God’. …

Church membership not optional

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‘I love Jesus, but not the church’.

This is the sentiment, I suppose, of those who call themselves ‘Christians’ while having little or no commitment to a local congregation.

But to love and serve Christ is to be in union with him.  And that union is corporate.  Consider the following biblical metaphors:

  • We are the body; he is the head – it is a living union
  • We are the bride; he is the groom – it is a loving union
  • We are the building; he is the foundation – it is a lasting union

So far as membership of a local church is concerned, Thom S.…

Cathedrals: playgrounds or ‘sacred spaces’?

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Earlier this year, Chichester Cathedral was the venue for a ‘silent disco’ (where the music was played through wireless headphones, rather than loudspeakers).

Previous uses of cathedral space have included:

  • Stars Wars event (Peterborough)
  • Crazy golf course (Rochester)
  • Helter skelter (Norwich)
  • Indoor skate park (Gloucester)

Not surprisingly, these have provoked a certain amount of outrage:

‘Rochester Cathedral was founded in AD 604. It survived the Norman Conquest, 2 fires in the 12th century, and several rounds of pillaging.…

The Jesus Prayer

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A short, repeated, prayer which takes the form of ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’, or some reduced version of this (such as ‘Lord Jesus have mercy on me’).

It is based on the plea of the two blind men in Mt 20:30–31 and the tax collector’s prayer in Lk 18:13.

Its usage by the Eastern branch of the church dates back to the 4th or 5th century.

It has also been used in Roman Catholic devotion (often in the form of ‘Lord, make haste to help me.…

Do most Anglicans support gay marriage?

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The Ozanne Foundation has recently published a piece of research, carried out by YouGov, which claims that 55% of Anglicans believe that same-sex marriage is ‘right’.  The resulting headling in The Times was ‘Majority of Church of England worshippers back gay marriage’.

But this is deeply misleading.

In the representative sample used in the survey, 23% of the population of England and Wales said they were ‘Anglican’.  That’s 13.5 million people!  But we know that the average weekly attendance in Anglican churches is just under 750,000. …

1 Corinthians 3:15 – ‘Saved, but only as through fire’

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1 Corinthians 3:15 – ‘If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.’

Does this verse support the doctrine of purgatory?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

…

Christian Unity, Jn 17:20-23

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17:20 “I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, 17:21 that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 17:22 The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—17:23 I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.…