UK: Without local Stewardship Trusts ReNew won’t be renewing
by Julian Mann, Virtueonline:
In January Rod Thomas, the Bishop of Maidstone, and Johnny Juckes, the President of Oak Hill College in north London, ran an event for people thinking of getting ordained in the Church of England.
Given the constituency that gravitates towards Oak Hill as its theological college of choice, one imagines that the clientele at this event was mainly drawn from conservative evangelical churches in England. So, what would life be like for a young man now in his 20s, who truly believes the official biblical doctrine of the Church of England as expressed in its 39 Articles of Religion, Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal, in 20 years’ time as an ordained minister?
Would he get in trouble under the Clergy Discipline Measure for refusing to conduct a service celebrating a person’s gender transition? Would he be disciplined by his bishop, prosecuted by the British State or both for Islamophobia for refusing to take part in a multi-faith service? Could he be subject to a dawn raid by the police, his home searched and his lap top removed and then charged with homophobia for declaring in church that marriage in God’s eyes is between one man and one woman for life?
The real possibility of these things happening, given present trends, surely adds a particular poignancy to the question explored at the Oak Hill event: why get ordained in the Church of England indeed?
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