Archbishop of York on interpreting the bible: Moral Equivalence and Moral Equivocation
by Stephen Noll, Contending Anglican:
In his Presidential Address to the General Synod of the Church of England last week, John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, in referring to the issue of human sexuality, had something important to observe about interpreting the Bible:
The kind of disagreement we have is exactly the kind of disagreement one would expect to find in a church where the old habits of reading the Bible consistently and thoroughly, as part of a liturgical pattern or a pattern of private devotion, had broken down. The expectations we have of Biblical literacy – not only of laity but of clergy too – would strike most earlier generations of Christians as sadly low.
It is hard not to say Amen to that! Indeed that is exactly the kind of habits of reading, interpreting, and applying of the Bible which Archbishop Cranmer called for in his Scripture Collect:
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
It is the kind of approach affirmed in the Jerusalem Declaration from Gafcon 2008:
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