July 2008

VICAR: The Revd. Martin Fredriksen Tel: 694109

PARISH OFFICE (Mondays to Fridays 9.30am - Noon) Tel: 697641

FROM THE VICAR: For twenty days in July the bishops of the Anglican Communion will be meeting for the Lambeth Conference – an event that takes place every ten years – only this time it will be radically different. A significant proportion have indicated that they will not be attending and at least one, to my knowledge, has not been invited.

There are major issues in the Anglican Church – over same-sex relationships and whether or not to bless those relationships, over divorce and re-marriage, over the ordination of women and what will happen when women become bishops, as well as many other social and ethical problems. There are those who feel that the Church has become too liberal – pandering to what people within the Church and outside it ‘want’, rather than what the Bible teaches and maintaining the Faith that has been passed down to us from our Lord and his Apostles.

It is fair to say that there are other denominations who wrestle with these situations as well, and a few lines in a parish magazine are totally inadequate to discuss them in any balanced way. As I see it, it is our Lord’s will that his Church should be one – based on the ‘High Priestly Prayer’ in John 17 – and that any splits are contrary to his will and are a means of the forces of evil to dilute the mission of the Church and the growth of the Kingdom.

The Church of England claimed to be part of ‘the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’ but is in danger of becoming a fragmented number of religious sects – each of which ‘do their own thing.’

The Lambeth Conference is an exceedingly expensive event – and not an eco-friendly one, considering all those ‘air miles’ involved – but whatever our feelings on any or all of the issues, they all need our whole–hearted support through prayer, whether attending or not.

Martin Fredriksen.

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