Via VirtueOnline:
The following address is a summary of a presentation made by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali at the National Evangelical Anglican Consultation (NEAC) in London recently
www.anglican-mainstream.net
November 27th, 2008
Over the last twenty years I have been able to get to know a large part of the Anglican Communion. As study secretary and co-ordinator for the 1988 Lambeth Conference I visited many provinces of the Communion. I continued this process as General Secretary of CMS and I still continue such visits as a diocesan bishop.
As I have visited I have continually asked myself: "why are these people, as diverse as they are, in fellowship together?" It is not because of Anglophilia. They are Anglican because the Anglican tradition has made it possible for them to respond to what God has revealed of himself in Jesus Christ.; to respond to the work of Jesus; to how he has stood in our place; to how he has done what we could not and were not willing to do; and to how he has turned away God's wrath from our sinfulness. That is the heart of the Gospel.
Anglicanism, in different ways has made this possible: for them to find themselves friends again with God. Our fellowship is based on this friendship with God. That fellowship is shared among us. That is the miracle of being Christian.
God longs for our redemption and the renewal of creation. In the rising again of Jesus, he has given us the guarantee of our own destiny and the redemption and the renewal of all creation. This is why we need a full blooded doctrine of the resurrection - God showing us what he has for us and for his world.
When we talk about moral issues we need to talk about how things are. God's eternal law is deeply impressed on creation even if we have brutalised it. We need to talk about how things are. Because we believe in the resurrection we need to talk about how God wants things to be, what his purpose is for them.
How are we to be in fellowship with one another? The answer is as simple as it was for the first disciples. Their fellowship was characterised by the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking the bread and prayers. What constitutes the church? Each and all together make the church.
Let us consider the apostles' teaching. None of us would be here without the apostles teaching getting to us. The whole Christian story has to do with the giving, the receiving and passing on of the teaching of the apostles. I hope that we are all faithful to this. It is true of course that as this teaching is passed on and received - something that has been neglected or obscured that has not been noted by others will be noted in a new context.
But we have to ask a more difficult question - how is this teaching related to new knowledge? There is an exponential increase in human knowledge. My own experience in the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority was of a huge expansion of knowledge in this field. Relating this new knowledge to what is received from the apostles' teaching has to be principled. We have to take what is offered to us in a principled way.
We must make sure that the good news of Jesus Christ is conserved in our relating to this new knowledge. Bishops need to make sure the gospel is not entirely lost. That is a minimal requirement. To make sure there is a conservative action with relation to the past, present and future; that there is a continuity of principles. What the Bible teaches about sacredness of human person relates to this new knowledge now as much as before.
And then how does the apostles' teaching relate to our vision for the future? What is the apostles' teaching for the future so that the vigour of the good news may be maintained?
In all these matters the question arises whether we are passing on the apostolic teaching at all, or are we passing on something else? The Bible is the way in which we determine apostolic teaching - it is the norm by which we judge disputed questions. Of any issue we must ask: Is this within the apostolic teaching? The question is its relation to scripture.
What is it that is important about the questions we are facing today? There is great value in the critical study of the Bible - to study what lies behind the text. This is a major difference in approach between Christians and Muslims. We are interested in how the Bible came to be.
We are also interested in what lies in the text - grappling with the language and nuancing of the text. And then there are the in front of the text questions. These are the difficult ones.
The foundation documents of Anglicanism encourage us to relate to culture and context. How is the church to embed itself in culture and context? We affirm this process of engagement. There are limits in the Bible itself and these are necessary if we are going to flourish as a church. Nothing we do in relation to culture should obscure Gods love for us. None of this should be set aside.
Further, nothing can be done in relating in one context that damages our fellowship with Christians in another place. Christians cannot engage with Muslims in Iran in such a way that makes it difficult for you here. This is why the Bishops of Sudan have been scandalized by the Episcopal Church, because their own people are being rejected by Muslims because of association with Anglicans who consecrate people in same-sex relations as bishops, ordain them as priests and purport to bless same-sex unions.
The Church is made by the recognition that God has given people gifts - and by the recognition of all the gifts that have been given: particularly the responsibility of those who have been called to teaching in Christ's name. No church will grow or be successful in mission which is not a well taught church. But many are not fulfilling their calling and have not been equipped to teach.
There can be no church that is effective without discipline in the church. There are two reasons why fellowship might be disrupted. The first is systematic false teaching. Again and again we are warned about those who teach falsely and deny the faith far their own ends. Secondly fellowship is disrupted by persistent immorality.
Christians maintain fellowship but not indiscriminately. Letters of communion were constantly being exchanged in the early church to establish who was maintaining the orthodox faith.
The Reformers wanted to discover the liberty of the gospel - but this can only be achieved in a well disciplined church. Article 26 said that the unworthiness of ministers does not hinder the effect of the sacraments but this should not be used as an excuse not to discipline ministers.
Any discipline should be for the sake of restoration of fellowship. But about the necessity of disruption of fellowship there can be no question. Discipline should be exercised in a way that is merciful and firm. This ministry is not some thing we have sought for ourselves.
Engagement with culture has to take place under the authority of scripture. There is no adequate view of the authority of scripture without the view of its nature as God's revelation.
As Anglicans we are committed to engagement with a culture. But in this situation we will need to be more and more counter-cultural. And this will be hard as we are used to working with the grain of culture. But we will increasingly have to face indifference, hostility and counter-ideology.
In this situation it is very necessary for the church to be a strong spiritual and moral community - as every Christian community should be. We need clear frameworks. "Wishy-washy" Anglicanism will not do, people will want to know what we are about. If we are not clear what we are about, they know what they are about and then we have not got a hope.
I saw the GAFCON event as the beginning of a movement - there were saints there and you could see how God was moving mightily among them. GAFCON could be a movement God gives us - another movement to keep the church faithful to what the church should be. We should not get too obsessed with institutional questions - God will move among his people. There will be groups working for the gospel in many different parts of the world and here also. We pray that may be so.
---The Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali is The Bishop of Rochester, England
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