Bishop's Blog

Bishop’s Letter - February

Tuesday 31st January 2012 5:51 PM

Dear Friends,

I don't know about you, but I'm getting fed up with a Church that's constantly obsessed about gender and sex! For years we've been listening to the argument between those who lobby for gay rights and those who oppose them. The argument is getting even more strident, even if the content of the argument has hardly changed and the gulf between the extremes is as wide as ever. The meeting of the General Synod in February is dominated, not only in its agenda but certainly in the media, by the gender argument: should women be eligible for consecrations as bishops.

Now we're bound to divide over these matters and I am certainly not suggesting that anyone should be restricted in being given the maximum freedom to express their ideas. Nor am I saying - and I need this to be noted - that these arguments are unimportant: they are both about very important questions. However, I am saying that I'm tired of the way we have become preoccupied with these debates, such that the majority of references to Church or clerics in the media is turned into something to do with gender or sex.

While I was grumbling to myself about all that, someone sent me news of Alain de Botton's new book, 'Religion for Atheists'. In it, he rejects the rage and scorn of writers like Dawkins and Grayling, and points to the great religions as 'the most successful educational and intellectual movements the planet has ever witnessed'. Science and the humanities can teach you much but can leave you without what de Botton calls 'a source of guidance' as to why something should matter.

Of course, de Botton's starting point is atheism so we must not be tempted to baptize his views into Christian doctrine. One of the things he says to me is that religion - and let's move on from religion - the Church is wasting too much of its energy on the important arguments about sex and gender and is too tired to speak of that which is at the centre.

I can hear Christians all over the Island saying that they agree with this but then they keep their mouths closed. Ask Christians about sex: an opinion. As them about faith: silence. We will not see a change until every one of us (not just the clergy) is willing to speak about what really matters: reconciliation, righteousness, peace, or, as Saint Paul put it,'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.'

Your own in Christ,

+Robert.

Posted 5:51 PM | Permalink