All Souls Langham Place Tuesday April 14
At this first of three ‘summits’ called by the Church of England Evangelical Council over 200 people came to All Souls from around the South East and Midlands.
The day opened with a Bible Reading by Bishop Jonathan Gibbs of Rochester. His text was the story of the resurrection of Jesus as told by John (20: 1-18)
He noted how in the late eighties there was a mood of optimism. The election campaign of 1998 had a theme “Things can only get better” and in 1989 the Berlin Wall came down heralding a “Peace Dividend”. However since then there has been 9/11, the 2008 crash, climate change, and numerous wars.
The gods of materialism and humanism had clearly failed. Liberal humanism built on human optimism can only offer more education and support for that part of human nature that is selfish and disobedient and which the Bible calls sin.
We are now paying the price for the folly and hubris of these false gods. They do not understand human nature; they have no answer to evil and offer only optimism, not hope.
A rising generation is waking up to see that they have nothing to offer and are looking for spiritual answers.
Easter is where the answer lies. The answer is rooted in history, not myth. It is totally supernatural and brings life instead of death. There is so much that is scary in the culture we live in, and it has even got into the church. The warped understanding of humanity as free, autonomous and able to make its own choices underlies the sexual revolution; full term abortions whereby women have total control of their own bodies even though they are carrying new life within, and state facilitated ending of life in assisted dying. These developments all go back to the idea of individual human autonomy.
Humanity is however predicated on relationships with other humans and God. We need the wisdom of the Christian tradition, expressed by John Donne,
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were,
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
The Bible Reading was excellent, and all the more encouraging because given by a Diocesan Bishop. There was one area of the current culture on which this listener would have liked him to expand: the ‘cancel culture’ whereby if you do not fully agree with me on an issue, then you are wrong, there is no point in debate, you are the enemy and are to be shut out and cancelled. It appears to me that this is often how those who seek to maintain the Biblical, Anglican and orthodox teaching on man/woman marriage are seen and even treated by those who are pressing for a change in doctrine and practice.