The Church of England is, IMHO, uniquiely poised to make a great contribution to the church's mission to Islam, and I don't mean here in MENA, but there in the UK. Why? It has a nice combination of sensible liturgy and order, it is connected to the government (which makes sense to a lot of Muslims), and can be evangelical without being fundamentalist. So here is some good news, the C of E still has a sense of hte uniqueness of Christ (yeay!) and has publicly and offociailly endorsed evangelizing non-Christians and non-practicing Christians. This might seem like a no-brainer to evangelicals back in the USA, but trust me when I say that this is good news.
Bishop David James of Bradford introduced "Presence and Engagement" on ministry in multi-faith areas. He reminded Synod members of the overwhelming need to share the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ alone with all. He then challenged Synod members whether God might be calling them to do this by moving, living, and working in areas where there are those of many different faiths. Christians are called to relate to those of other faiths, to show love rather than hate, to make peace, to witness to Christ and to engage lovingly. The Bishop stated that we should build bridges of friendship, but bridges over which Christ can walk.
The debate that followed highlighted differing views about the nature of engagement. Several speakers also spoke about the problems faced by converts from other faiths and the apparent discrimination against Christians in modern day Britain. After debate, the motion to take note of the report was passed unanimously.
By its affirmation of the personhood and salvific work of Jesus, the Church of England affirmed the singular view that Jesus uniquely alone saves. While interfaith dialogue will continue, it cannot be pre-empted by a firm statement of the need of the gospel of Jesus Christ for all people.
From HERE. Note how this is quite different than the total lameness of The Episcopal Church (USA) (my denomination, incidentally) which has about the theological acumen of a half-empty bottle of flat Coke.
5 comments:
It's interesting to note that a resolution declaring the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as man's road to God went down in flames at GC 2006.
My concern re state involvement is that the UK will sooner or later attempt to use the CoE as a conduit for its PC agenda and that the CoE will be unable to stop it.
Religious dialogues are good. They help familiarize people of different beliefs with one another, to learn tolerance, acceptance, and to show that we can live together in harmony even as we hold to very different fundamentals. To learn to agree to disagree.
Christians will always have different approaches to sharing their faith. That's quite okay, it can be a healthy internal debate.
It has a nice combination of sensible liturgy and order, it is connected to the government (which makes sense to a lot of Muslims)
I presume that the connection to the gov't mentioned here is not the kind that violates separation of church and state---since for Muslims, Islam is both a religion and a system of government all in one (i.e., a theocracy).
Hi Don,
You are quite right, and that is part of my charge that TEC is a more or less absurd body at this point.
Samuel,
I am saying that a state church, for some Muslims who are interested in conversion, provides an easy entre into the church world. I am talking about evangelism and conversion, not religious dialogue, which in my experience is of questionable value, except when done by the pope.
I'm sure this will go over real well with the Muslims:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021603.html
I had a fairly extensive back and forth with Deborah Pitt, the woman mentioned in the article and who "outed" the ABC on this issue.
One of these days the homosexuals and the Muslims are going to collide in a big way. And the result won't be nice. Consider this: how would things go if the reaction campaign to Proposition 8's victory taken place in Michigan rather than California?
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