Glimpsing Heaven through the Haar

This is a rather niche post, but as a bishop attending the Lambeth Conference this week, I have been giving much thought to the publication last week of a document containing text of ‘Lambeth Calls’ https://www.lambethconference.org/programme/preparing-for-the-lambeth-conference-a-lambeth-calls-study-document-is-released/ . These have the stated purpose of guiding the careful discussions at the conference.   I’m maybe a cynic, but I was a little suspicious of a process where each ‘Call’ is rooted in ‘ …what the Church Catholic wider teaches on this matter… ’ and then giving ‘ …a summary of what Anglican churches have taught about it… ’ (p.3 of the document).   Even that is a nuance of guidance from June 2022 https://www.lambethconference.org/lcalls/ , which said that Calls would contain ‘…a summary on what the Christian Church has always taught about these matters… ’ (my emphasis). This felt like setting up the same old conflict on matters of culture and sexuality.   B...

  I just read a social media post from a retired church leader, asking for forgiveness from God for the decline in numbers of their church during their time as a leader.  This leader appeared wracked by the anxiety about their failure. In Scotland (and most European and some US 'mainline' churches) there is, indeed, a story of decline in those who belong to these Christian denominations.  The pandemic was a shock to Scotland - zero 'in-person' attendance mandated by law - but the reality in most denominations is decline. The Scottish Episcopal Church overall is declining, and has been for many years.  The numbers dying, or drifting away are not being replaced by new people walking through the doors, either connected to existing members or 'converts' from either other denominations or from a position of no faith.  A great deal of anxious discussion takes place (like the social media post described above) about 'what are we doing wrong?'.  The comments on ...