wfn.org | THE PRIMUS OF SCOTLAND SPEAKS ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

Sept. 3, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.8.5.9]

FEATURES SERVICE

A TRANSCRIPT from NEWSNIGHT

THE PRIMUS OF SCOTLAND SPEAKS ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK "DANCING ON THE EDGE"

The Most Revd Richard Holloway Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus

Q:  You argue in your book that the Church should no longer give an
absolute moral lead.  But, isn't that exactly what the Church is all
about?

A:  No, I don't think so.  I am not saying the church should abdicate
the role of moral guide, or moral friend, but I don't think that we have
the absolute authority to say to people 'this is how you ought to
behave'.  The church has done that very often in history.  I am saying
that role is now at an end and that we should be accompanying people in
their confusion, in their anxiety.  We should no longer, as it were, be
ordering them from on-high, from a position of absolute certainty,
because, I think, absolute certainty no longer exists.

Q:  The reason for that is because, as you say in your book - in fact
the title of your book is 'There Are So Many People Dancing on the Edge
of the Church' - who are alienated from the church so the church has got
to change its message?

A:  I don't think the church has to change its message.  I think people
misunderstand the message of the church.  The church's message is God's
unconditional love and grace to sinners.  That is absolutely guaranteed.
You don't earn that by behaving perfectly.  You have that, it's a
guarantee.  You then ask yourself, given that I'm already redeemed by
that love, how then should I respond to my own needs, the needs of
others, what's the best way to organise relationships, what's the best
way to run the world?  The steam comes out of it, the tension comes out
of it.  But a corrupt version of Christianity says, unless you get those
things absolutely right you're going to hell.  That is no way to help
people be moral.  You may scare them into conformity, but that is not
morality.

Q:  Bishop Holloway, isn't one of the reasons why so many people have
abandoned the church because, it seems, it's woolly and liberal and not
offering the old certainties.

A:  There may be some people who have abandoned it for those reasons.
There are some people who join churches that offer that kind of
certainty. This book is for people who are not in that position.  They
are honest people on the edge of Christianity who can not buy its
absolute certainties.  But, they love Christ and they want to understand
the meaning of God for their lives.  I want the church to be generous
and wide enough to include them.  I think we would learn a lot from
them.  The church has constantly changed its attitude toward things. 
Look how at, only recently, we have changed our attitude to the
emancipation of women.  Women were subservient in Christianity.  My own
church only started ordaining them four years ago.  It has taken us 2000
years.  So don't tell me that Christianity has not been about change,
but about resisting good change...

Q:  But with the ructions that the ordination of women has caused within
the church, surely the kind of things that you're suggesting; the
blessing of gay relationships, these new-fangled weddings, surely
they're going to alienate people within the church and who knows if they
really will attract the people who are 'dancing on the edge'.

A:  That may well be true.  But that in itself is not necessarily an
argument against doing it.  The fact that the ordination of women caused
ructions was no argument against doing it, it was a just and right thing
to do.  I produced this book to get the argument going.  I am not
actually suggesting a variety of marriage rites for people not until
death.  I am simply saying that if people do not want to go through a
marriage-till-death ceremony come and ask for some kind of support from
the church.  I think we should be offering it to them.  I do strongly
believe in the appropriateness of offering same-sex people assistance to
be faithful in their relationships.  I believe in faithfulness.  I
believe in these bonded relationships.  But, at the moment, the church
only has one way of helping people: Get married or forget it.  I think
that is unrealistic.