by Martin Davie
On 8 October the Archbishop of Canterbury gave an address to a meeting at Lambeth Palace of the Primates of the Anglican and Lutheran churches that form the Porvoo Communion of Churches.
Archbishop Sarah’s address, entitled ‘Being the Church at turbulent times’ can be found in full here.
In this post I want to consider two key sections of this address and explain why what the archbishop says omits several important aspects of Christian truth.
Christian Hope
The first section reflects on Paul’s summons to the Church to ‘abound in hope’ (Romans 15:13).
Archbishop Sarah says the following about what this summons means today:
‘At my installation, on the Feast of the Annunciation, we heard the words spoken to Mary: ‘Nothing will be impossible with God.’ They seem especially important when hope appears difficult.
Christian hope is not the conviction that everything will be easy, but that we make this journey with God. We do not bear our calling in our own strength, but by the grace and power of God.
That has increasingly shaped the vision I have for my ministry as Archbishop of Canterbury: to build confidence in the Gospel – confidence that God is at work among us, that the Gospel still speaks to our deepest hopes and fears, and that the Church, for all its frailty, can still be the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
For me, that has several dimensions.