Change

My satisfaction with Anglican churches has been correlated with their height. That is, the 'higher' the parish in its liturgical practice, the more satisfying I've found it, and include here my years as a part of Christ Church St Lawrence in Sydney (moving music, enveloping liturgy, and generous Christian love) but more on this another time. As a generalisation, the lower I've gone, the worse it has been. The exception was some wonderful experiences at St Alban's Lindfield care of the then rector and some warm and brotherly fellow parishioners.

This has extended to theology too. One would have thought that one who has spent time at Capenwray in Allan Catchpoole's time (and by the way, a man I admire immensely, and had met up with in Singapore when he was working there), that my Calvinism was assured. Not so.

I was saddened by the reaction of the Anglican circles I moved in to the work of N T Wright. It was a uniform rejection, and almost embarrassment: not to be discussed with 'lay' people. No, even worse, condescending disdain! It was as though those of use who were not of the priestly caste could not be trusted with his ideas. Happily his ideas are published in books; and, of course, I don't take him as a job lot. As always, a book is a tool for thinking, not a manifesto for following.

So, in a recent sermon (by a bloke from Baptist Aid, as it happens), Wright was mentioned in pleasant terms. I was pleased.