Being rather fond of St Feria I am foregoing the Optional Memoria of St Denis, bishop and martyr, and companions, martyrs today.
The Ferial first reading (Galatians 3:1-5) begins "Are you people in Galatia mad?" Of course, St Paul is referring to the fact that the Christians in Galatia, having accepted Christ as their Saviour, were now listening to Jewish Christians who were telling them that, in order to receive salvation, they needed to be circumcised as well. St Paul would have none of this and the matter was finally settled to his satisfaction at the First Council of Jerusalem as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
However, is not this type of interference with God's People likely to happen in any age? In our own land, during the Henrician Schism, surely it must have seemed as if the King had gone mad and many people with him?
With all the current debates in the Church of England and the Anglican Federation it is surely understandable that those of us who seek to uphold "the faith once delivered to the saints" should think that St Paul's cry of bewilderment "Are you people mad? Has someone put a spell on you...?" can be applied to our own situation.
Why do we want to put a further rift between ourselves and the rest of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church by resorting to the unilateral introduction of "experiments in ministry" to quote the Archbishop? Are we mad... has someone put a spell on us? Well, as CS Lewis taught us, Screwtape might well be proposing a toast as he knows that the best way to make a mess for Christians is to work within the Church.
We are being led further from the Rock from which we were hewn, and often by those who should know better. However, we are called to believe "what was preached to you" not to swallow the latest secular thinking that is being imported into the Church.
The Ferial first reading (Galatians 3:1-5) begins "Are you people in Galatia mad?" Of course, St Paul is referring to the fact that the Christians in Galatia, having accepted Christ as their Saviour, were now listening to Jewish Christians who were telling them that, in order to receive salvation, they needed to be circumcised as well. St Paul would have none of this and the matter was finally settled to his satisfaction at the First Council of Jerusalem as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
However, is not this type of interference with God's People likely to happen in any age? In our own land, during the Henrician Schism, surely it must have seemed as if the King had gone mad and many people with him?
With all the current debates in the Church of England and the Anglican Federation it is surely understandable that those of us who seek to uphold "the faith once delivered to the saints" should think that St Paul's cry of bewilderment "Are you people mad? Has someone put a spell on you...?" can be applied to our own situation.
Why do we want to put a further rift between ourselves and the rest of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church by resorting to the unilateral introduction of "experiments in ministry" to quote the Archbishop? Are we mad... has someone put a spell on us? Well, as CS Lewis taught us, Screwtape might well be proposing a toast as he knows that the best way to make a mess for Christians is to work within the Church.
We are being led further from the Rock from which we were hewn, and often by those who should know better. However, we are called to believe "what was preached to you" not to swallow the latest secular thinking that is being imported into the Church.
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