Thursday, September 22, 2011

You could learn something from this Australian

It is not clear in NZ right now that we have much to learn about rugby from Australia (who famously lost last Saturday night to Ireland, and, in any case, are coached by a Kiwi), but we could learn something from a leading Anglican scholar Bruce Kaye who demonstrates a mastery of history and acute theological and ecclesiological insight in this article on Muriel Porter's recent book about Sydney Anglicanism. (H/T Andrew Reid). I am pleased to find that Bruce agrees with my note on the book a few weeks ago, that the influence of Sydney on global Anglicanism is minimal :)

3 comments:

Father Ron Smith said...

I agree with you, Peter: that in the great scheme of things - under God - the influence of the Sydney Diocese
(as far as fundementalism goes) over the Anglican Communion is minimal.
Deo Gratias!

Andrew Reid said...

As learned as Bruce Kaye is, he underplays the seriousness of the debate. His argument is that it's a Sydney vs Melbourne cultural issue, played out in the church arena, with disagreement about living out Christian faith in our context thrown in, and if we all sat down and had a nice cup of tea we might sort it out.

On the Sydney v Melbourne issue, Melbourne is actually quite a diverse diocese. If you were looking for a diocese as liberal as Sydney is evangelical, you would choose Newcastle or Perth. In Melbourne, it's about 40% liberal, 30% evangelical and 30% Anglo-Catholics and others. So, no group controls the diocese and it makes for interesting bedfellows when there are elections. So, I think Bruce's analysis fails in that Muriel Porter doesn't represent Melbourne in quite the way the Jensens represent Sydney.

On the question of Anglican identity, the issues go to the fundamentals of the Christian faith - authority of the Scriptures, belief in the apostolic faith, repentance and holy living - rather than just expression of our faith and Anglican identity in a particular cultural context. These are trans-cultural issues worth fighting for, not secondary issues related to different cultural circumstances.

Andrew Reid

PS I hope to see a denunciation of the following sacrilege on your blog soon. My iconoclastic tendencies are bubbling to the surface, together with a desire to burn this heretic at the stake :)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5664163/What-Jesus-would-look-like-as-an-All-Black

Peter Carrell said...

Hi Andrew
This is a highbrow blog which rarely denounces anything, even sacrileges such as what you allude to.

But for the sake of clarity re your request would you be burning the artist, the purchaser, or the dean?