Anglicanism begins and ends with The Book of Common Prayer.<\/p>\n\n
Obviously, this volume is full of prayers \u2014 morning prayers, evening prayers and prayers for all the times in between. There are hundreds of pages of prayers for Holy Communion, baptisms, ordinations, funerals and other events and most begin with \u201cO God,\u201d \u201cHeavenly Father,\u201d \u201cEternal Lord God\u201d or similar phrases. The working assumption is that the God of the Bible hears these prayers and can answer them.<\/p>\n\n
Wrong, argues America\u2019s most famous Episcopal bishop.<\/p>\n\n
The Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong believes the time has come for intelligent Christians to grow up and admit there isn\u2019t a personal God of any kind on the receiving end of these prayers and petitions. The bishop of Newark fired this shot over the bow in a recent missive containing 12 theses, starting with: \u201cTheism, as a way of defining God, is dead.\u201d The logical implication appears as his 10th thesis: \u201cPrayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Traditionalists will jeer him, writes Spong, just as they attacked Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin and Freud. Also, this call for what one bishop describes as a \u201cvirtual atheism\u201d may cause fireworks in Canterbury at next month\u2019s once-a-decade Lambeth Conference of the world\u2019s Anglican bishops \u2014 including Spong.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe renewal of Christianity will not come from fundamentalism, secularism or the irrelevant mainline tradition\u201d of Catholicism or Protestantism, writes Spong. \u201cHistory has come to a point where only one thing will save this venerable faith tradition at this critical time in Christian history, and that is a new Reformation far more radical than Christianity has ever before known. \u2026 This Reformation will recognize that the pre- modern concepts in which Christianity has traditionally been carried will never again speak to the post-modern world we now inhabit. This Reformation will be about the very life and death of Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
After ditching theism, the bishop says it\u2019s \u201cnonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity.\u201d He rejects miracles in general, humanity\u2019s fall into sin and any belief that the Bible contains revealed, transcendent moral laws. He rejects the virgin birth, resurrection and ascension of Jesus as historical events.<\/p>\n\n
In some of his most sweeping language, Spong writes: \u201cThe view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.\u201d Later he adds: \u201cThe hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Spong asked for open debate and 50 bishops responded with a letter publicly disassociating themselves from his views. \u201cA bishop of the Episcopal Church,\u201d they note, \u201cvows to guard and defend exactly the truths John Spong now denies. As a bishop he requires those he confirms and those he ordains to confess beliefs he himself now repudiates. Such self-contradiction is morally fraudulent and spiritually bankrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The bishop of Newark\u2019s supporters cheerfully note that nearly 100 bishops have signed an earlier Spong statement opposing traditional church teachings on marriage and sex. As for the statement of disassociation, none of the 50 bishops dared to break communion with Spong or called for him to be disciplined. One Spong supporter, Father J. Michael Povey of Pittsfield, Mass., notes the bishop\u2019s Anglo-Catholic and evangelical critics didn\u2019t even call for public rites praying for the bishop\u2019s conversion. \u201cI have to ask,\u201d adds Povey, \u201cwhy is this statement so spiritually wimpy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The bottom line is that Spong yearns for a media-friendly trial and the candor it will force on his church. Also, bishops on an Episcopal court in 1996 \u2014 hearing charges against one of Spong\u2019s assistant bishops \u2014 decided that their church has no \u201ccore doctrines\u201d on sex and marriage. However, the bishops said some \u201ccore doctrines\u201d do exist, including doctrines that \u201cGod became incarnate in Jesus Christ,\u201d \u201cChrist was crucified,\u201d \u201cChrist rose again\u201d and \u201cThere will be a day of judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The question facing the Lambeth Conference is whether a specific bishop can get away with attacking the few specifics in Anglicanism\u2019s doctrinal core.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anglicanism begins and ends with The Book of Common Prayer. Obviously, this volume is full of prayers \u2014 morning prayers, evening prayers and prayers for all the times in between. There are hundreds of pages of prayers for Holy Communion, baptisms, ordinations, funerals and other events and most begin with \u201cO God,\u201d \u201cHeavenly Father,\u201d \u201cEternal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n