wfn.org | Archbishop of Canterbury addresses "Christianity in the crucible'

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James Solheim
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2000-109

Carey addresses 'Christianity in the crucible' in Texas 
lectures

by James Solheim

     (ENS) In a series of lectures in mid-May in Wichita 
Falls, Texas, honoring a prominent American Methodist 
family, Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey explored 
the theme, "Christianity in the Crucible."

     After expressing a personal tribute to the Methodist 
Church as a sister church "in the glorious business of 
proclaiming and living the Christian faith," Carey 
announced in his first Perkins lecture that he would draw 
on the great themes of faith--Christ, Scripture, Gospel and 
Church, placing them in the context of Paul's letter to the 
Ephesians and the 21st century "which is our fleeting 
home."

     "The apostolic writers felt no embarrassment, no shame 
and no regret in presenting Christ as the 'hinge of 
history' and as one who makes all thing new," Carey said. 
"Paul states that Jesus is the source of our entire 
existence as Christians," that "we have been chosen to be 
his children."

     He added, "The Christian faith is not an arid, erudite 
religion locked away in studies for the benefit of scholars 
who like that sort of thing--but a practical faith known in 
the act of living and believing. To read Ephesians is like 
listening to someone's experience of God. It is the 
intimate language of the heart."

     Other faiths also recognize the uniqueness of Jesus, 
Carey said. In his conversations with other religious 
leaders he is convinced that "it is possible to be a whole-
hearted Christian and still be able to understand, accept 
and work with persons of other faith traditions," and that 
it is important to witness but also to listen to the 
stories of other believers.

Spong and Falwell

     In a lecture on The Scriptures in a Transient Age, 
Carey contrasted the approach of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, 
who insists that Scripture is "inerrant" and "absolutely 
infallibe," and Bishop John Spong, who says that the Bible 
must be understood and interpreted in the light of our 
knowledge and suppositions.

     "For Falwell, the Bible hedges us in on every side. It 
is God's total truth about everything. It must measure 
everything we believe and everything we do," Carey 
observed. "We cannot escape it and thus we must embrace it 
totally."

     And for Spong "the Bible is merely history," and 
"modern Christians cannot look to it as a source or guide 
to contemporary truth and behavior."

     Carey said that he had problems with both approaches. 
"Each in his own way sounds like a fundamentalist--reducing 
complexities to satisfactory simplicities," with one 
arguing that the Bible is "nothing but the pure voice of 
God," and the other that the Bible "is nothing but the by-
gone voice of the church." It is necessary, therefore, to 
look for a middle way, not abandoning Scriptures to "the 
dogmatic voices of either the fundamentalist literalist or 
the fundamentalist radical."

     Since the Bible is at the same time a simple 
collection of stories which speak "directly to the human 
heart, it is also a complex and deep book over which 
generations of scholars have pored with delight." The 
Anglican tradition, he pointed out, "has always given way 
to the authority of Scripture in the light of reason. This 
way of doing theology means hard work, constant prayer, and 
dialogue with those who disagree with us on the basis of 
respect and toleration."

The church as a blessing

     "Although there will always be some for whom the 
church has been a hateful symbol of repression or class or 
establishment or rigid morality, there also will be many 
more for whom it has been the channel of blessing, grace 
and God's love," Carey said in his final lecture.

     Drawing on his extensive travels, Carey said that the 
church "has blessed our world with humanitarian aid, with 
educational opportunities, with medical science, and has 
introduced human rights and equality to untold millions of 
people." Of course, there is much that is wrong with the 
church, he added, "because it consists of fallible people 
like you and me who daily need God's love."

     One of the aims of the church, according to Carey, is 
"to be prophetic churches which are unashamed of our 
Christian witness." And we should build a church "where the 
work of God is joyful and where each person has a 
contribution to make."

     "In spite of the great challenges facing churches 
today," Carey concluded, "we have much to encourage us. We 
are not in business to please ourselves, and we belong to a 
fellowship whose success is already guaranteed by God. We 
shall never go out of business--neither will there be any 
end of the pleasure of serving our Lord and Christ."

     Carey received an honorary doctorate from the Perkins 
School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

Local option?

     According to participants, Carey told a gathering of 
clergy in the Diocese of Fort Worth that allowing 
individual dioceses to set their own policy on the 
ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians and the 
blessing of same-sex relationships could threaten the unity 
of the church.

     "The moment you have a diocese that goes it alone, you 
break with catholicity and fundamental belief," Carey is 
quoted as saying by the Rev. Scott Albergate, 
communications officer of the diocese. "One creates 
schism."

     Carey said an approach such as the one recommended by 
the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to resolve the 
issues at the diocesan level, could "endanger the Anglican 
Communion." He pointed to the communique issued by the 
primates of the Anglican Communion at the end of their 
Portugal meeting as a "real warning" against such an 
approach. And he said that such tendencies are signs that 
the culture is driving the church. "We must as Christians 
stand against this," he said.

     In a press conference after the lecture series, Carey 
answered a question about the prospects of the church 
changing its stance on homosexuality. "I'm a 
traditionalist," he responded. "If we are to make changes, 
then we must be convinced that there are good theological 
reasons for doing so."

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's 
Office of News and Information.