INNOVATIONS IN CHURCH

Reforming Forwards

www.american-anglican.fsnet.co.uk

Much of the activity of the liberal denominations since the 1960s has been that of attempting to "Reform Forwards;" that is, of introducing innovations in the hope that they will work out well in the near and distant future!

Innovation is often the means by which the human race improves its physical
well- being. New forms of housing, clothing, medical care, transport, machinery, tools and educational apparatus contribute to the making of people secure and well cared for.

However, innovation is not always for the improvement and well-being of human beings. For example, what may be an innovation in design (say of an apartment complex or of a senior citizens' residence) may have disastrous effects socially on the residents and on their common life together. What may be an innovation in the design of a major traffic junction may turn out to be much more dangerous for most vehicles than the junction it replaced. Innovations in the technology of war can both ensure that only specific targets are hit but also that greater destruction occurs. And so on.

And when we turn to religion, its worship (both rites and ceremonial), its doctrine and discipline, its rules and its ethos, its symbolism and its language, the great danger faced at any point in history, and anywhere in the world, is that any innovation may destroy something that has always been regarded as precious & important within the tradition. So whenever an attempt is being made to make a religion relevant to a changed social and cultural setting great care has to be taken in making sure that any changes or innovations do not have the effect of destroying or perverting a part of the received religion.

In terms of Christianity and the Church of God there have been major innovations from time to time but the ones which have gained universal acceptance have been those that were truly part of the essence of the Faith and were waiting as it were to come to full expression. For example, the admittance of the Gentiles into the Church had been prophesied not only in the Old Testament but also by the Lord Jesus who sent his apostles into all the world to preach the Gospel. Nevertheless, for what was at first a wholly Jewish Christian Church the admittance of Gentiles without circumcision was revolutionary when it occurred!

In comparison with what was the religion in the late Medieval Church, the Protestant Reformers can be seen both as iconoclasts and innovators for they brushed away much of what had been and they introduced what seemed to be novelties. Yet, what characterized their mindset and their approach was a diligent study of the Bible and especially of the New Testament to ascertain what was taught therein, what was commended and allowed therein and what was forbidden therein. They had no desire at all to add anything to Christianity or to the Church. They simply wanted to restore the Church to its pristine condition and they sought blueprints in the Bible. Whether they got it right is another matter; but the point is that they did not see themselves as innovating but rather as reforming the Church, according to what it had been in earlier times and what it is called to be by God in sacred Scripture.

So there are different forms of innovation - there is the accepting and making real in the present that which is truly part of the real Faith & there is the attempt to recover a state or condition which has been lost.

Yet there is more to tell - there is another form of innovation and this has become increasingly part of contemporary Christianity in the modern world. Here something which has never been before, and which may have been excluded previously, is introduced into the Church as a way of making the Faith relevant. It is introduced as something that general culture has deemed to be good and right and something which can be justified by appealing to certain principles lifted out of the Bible. It differs from the other forms of innovation in that those who propagate it do not do so because of what they have discovered through intense biblical study. Rather, it is received as a good thing from outside the Bible and then the Bible is studied to find support for it there.

1.In the churches of the West in the last fifty or so years all the major and obvious innovations have had the character of coming into the church from the world and then being sanctified as it were by the church by attaching the name of God to them and of finding justification for them in the Bible and/or tradition.

2.The acceptance of remarriage after divorce, and then the granting of a church ceremony for the same, was a major innovation beginning in the 1950s and gaining much ground in the next two decades, especially in the USA.

3.The ordaining of women to the Three Orders was the result of the pressure of the feminist movement in society being felt in the church and given practical embodiment there.

4.The publication of an ever increasing number of Bible translations and paraphrases designed for different types of people, giving the impression that the Bible can be made to say whatever any group needs to hear and that anyone's opinion about its meaning is as good as anyone else's. Instead of "the Bible" we now have "my Bible" and "our Bible."

5.The changing of the language of the Bible and of divine worship/liturgy to create the "You-God" was the result of pressures generated in the 1960s to be relevant, up-to-date, and to make God-talk like humanity-talk, so that worship was not removed from social reality.

6.The adoption of inclusive language as demanded by the feminists and by female clergy was an attempt to make religious language follow the rules of the new secular language of educational and government establishments and politically-correct culture.

7.The acceptance of the view that some persons are born homosexually inclined led to the doctrine that God makes some persons heterosexual and others homosexual and thus the ordaining of such persons and of the blessing of same sex couples is wholly reasonable and fair, approved by God.

Modern innovations (and we could add more from Liturgy, Polity, role of Bishops etc.) have the effect of bringing the ethos & morality of the Church nearer to that of the "enlightened educated liberal middle classes" of western society - except that God-language is used in the church. And the knock- on- effect of the adoption of these innovations is great - major adjustments in the doctrine of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, of the Bible, of the Commandments, of sin & wickedness, of holiness, of sanctification and so on. In fact the innovations since the 1960s have had the effect of creating slowly and surely a form of Christianity which is unlike anything that has existed before. ALL who have lived through it have been affected by it in one way or another!

Having said this, it must be added that the LORD God often turns that which is evil in his sight into means of helping and blessing to his faithful people. Thus within the implementation of these innovations, God has been gracious and kind to his baptized people and so he has withheld from the churches the full effects of their follies and he has used imperfect means to heal the broken-hearted and to propagate his message.

The Revd Dr Peter Toon Nov 18 2004