ACNA Report Day 4

Jun 29, 2014 by Jill

By Andrew Symes:

With Foley and Alison Beach

Bishop Beach began his sermon by announcing the date for his investiture, 9th October in his home town of Atlanta Georgia, a date which is convenient for some of the GAFCON Primates who will be present. “As we say in the South, now y’all come now”, was his informal invitation. The Conference had been a wonderful mountain top experience of worship, fellowship, learning. But now comes the challenge to go forward to the work God has called us to do. Taking as his text the New Testament lesson of 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Beach centred on the priority of the proclamation of God’s Word to be passed on faithfully and to be shared creatively. There is a wonderful message of new life in Jesus, but we cannot avoid the hard parts of the message – as Paul says there are times when we need to “reprove and rebuke”. Wrong behaviour and thinking needs to be challenged and set right. The Archbishop-elect spoke of his own experience of taking over as Rector of a church where few members were converted, and only after a patient work of 8 years were all the church council fully committed to Christ and the church began to grow in earnest.

The reason for the urgency of intentional teaching and instruction in the Word, he continued, is that as the culture and even the church drifts away from the ability to hear the truth, a point is reached where many become hostile to biblical teaching. Our response should be to continue in faithfulness to God’s task. Mention was made of erosion of religious freedom, for example on university campuses where equality and diversity legislation trumps all. “Its time to stop playing church”, Beach concluded, describing a type of religion based on “what’s in it for me?” Instead, the world needs us to reflect Jesus, not to be a reflection of the world. This will involve suffering, but as a church which takes seriously Paul’s command to “do the work of an evangelist” we need to “get out of our homes and churches” and take the good news to the world.

Its clear that Foley Beach is a conservative evangelical, committed to church growth through Gospel work in communities and intentional discipling through bible teaching. Like many of the clergy I spoke to on the conference he does not think that the ethical teaching of the Christian faith should be confined to inside the church walls, but should be creatively and prophetically put forward in the public square as part of the missional call to repentance and the church taking a lead in enabling human flourishing in society. He will face challenges going forward, especially issues of women’s ordination and leadership, and holding together those with a more Reformed understanding with those wanting more Catholic and/or Charismatic practices. But on the basis of what I have seen this week, what binds this genuinely diverse but apparently sound movement together is shared love of Christ and the Bible, shared experience of Spirit filled life and worship, shared understanding of the dead-end of liberalism and its visible consequences in church and society, and shared commitment to mission. They can go forward unencumbered by crumbling buildings, hostile Synods, equivocating Bishops or parish share to support theologically questionable projects. Looking at ACNA from the C of E, I want to take note of lessons that can be learned.

CONGO TRIP DRAWS NEAR

Changing the subject, please remember my trip to the DR Congo which begins on Wednesday. I will be in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, learning about the Anglican Church there, and taking part in teaching workshops on issues of marriage, sexuality and culture. It is particularly relevant because of the horrendous recent conflicts which are still ongoing in some areas, the high prevalence of rape, and of course HIV/AIDS. Also, Western donors are becoming more aggressive in wanting to tie aid to promotion of LGBT rights.

So please pray, and donate if you can. 

Related Posts

Tags

Share This