Title: Scripture: What Is at Issue in Anglicanism Today?
Abstract: I would like to begin by thanking you for inviting me here to take part in this Healing Leaves Conference. It is a great honour and joy for me to be here with you all. I must confess, and perhaps some of you already know, that I am not a complete stranger to these shores. In 1990-1991 my family and I made a temporary home here while I was on sabbatical. At the time I was Chief Executive Officer of our Church under Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Shortly after I returned to South Africa I was made Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman and, about five years later, stepped into Archbishop Tutu's shoes as Archbishop of Cape Town. So you may well believe that there is something special in the air of this Bay area. When I succeeded Archbishop Tutu many questions were being asked as to how this relatively unknown young man was going to fill the shoes of such an effulgent personality. This was captured in a cartoon in one of the national newspapers. It showed me standing by the church door at the end of a service with a mitre almost covering my ears and my eyes. A parishioner was shaking my hand and saying sympathetically, Your Grace, it will fit in time. If we reach the end of this address with more questions than answers, I shall be well satisfied. In my own exploration of this topic, the more I have delved into the questions, the less sure I feel about any of the answers. That, for me, is good theology. But it should serve as a warning to those who want sure and certain truths that I am not going to meet that need here. There are two ambiguous words in the title we are set to explore: scripture and Anglicanism. Superficially, we assume we know what they mean, but I do not think it is all that clear. For example, when we talk of scripture, do we mean the Old and New Testaments? the Apocrypha? the non-canonical texts? commentaries on and interpretations of the foregoing? Then there is the tricky question of what is meant by Anglicanism. What is its essence? Is there something definitively Anglican? Can we even point to varieties of Anglicanism? Anglicanism, as we are all aware, grew out of the Reformation in England. In other words it was formulated and developed in a particular context. Though the context remained quite similar for several centuries there has now been a radical shift from Anglicanism's roots. One used to be able to point to the Prayer Book as the central essence, but in the last forty years or so there have been many new translations in various parts of the Communion as we attempt to inculturate the Prayer Book and translate it into languages other than English. Inculturation has diluted or removed altogether the colonial English Church. I am not suggesting this is to be deplored. Far from it. But it raises questions as to what is definitively Anglican, Are we simply to acknowledge that anyone who wishes to be called Anglican should be recognised as such? This is the debate surrounding the so-called continuing Anglican churches, which oppose women's ordination. As if these questions were not difficult enough, we are faced with our rapidly changing global context. Though the Church is slow, even loath, to recognise it, our context is now postmodern and that influences our attitudes toward the reading of scripture and the question of authority-issues we will examine in more detail. Then there are issues which are peculiarly twentieth-century phenomena and which have, depending on one's perspective, revolutionised, reformed or severely harmed the Church. I speak of the feminist movement, the growing recognition of the place of interfaith dialogue and the issues debated most fiercely by the last two Lambeth conferences, namely the ordination of women and the place of homosexual people. Let us start, though, by looking at scripture and its place within the Anglican Church. Scripture The place and role of scripture within the Anglican Church, as an authoritative directive on issues of Church order and Christian conduct, came under the spotlight at the recent Lambeth Conference, particularly in relation to the debate around homosexuality. …
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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