Due to its continuing financial embarrassment, the Anglican Church of Canada is cutting back: the Five Marks of Mission have been reduced to two.
Of the first three:
“To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom” was the first to go because no-one in the ageing ecclesial hierarchy could actually remember what the Good News is, so there seemed little point in continuing to pretend to proclaim it.
“To teach, baptise and nurture new believers” was the next to fall since all extant Anglican seminaries are dedicated to squeezing any vestige of belief out of new seminarians, rendering them, by the time they emerge, incapable of nurturing anything but doubt.
“To respond to human need by loving service” was finally removed too, since Anglican clergy are simply too busy nurturing the doubt in new doubters.
The two survivors are:
“To seek to transform unjust structures of society”
“To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”
The Anglican Church can throw its full weight behind these because both are the responsibility of government.
Again good stuff David. I shall again plagiarize your words and use them for my own criticism of what is happening (and not happening) in the Lutheran Church, especially with your second and third points about seminaries and priests.
I cannot use the first one, because all but one of the six Lutheran bishops are rather young. In fact, if you add the total years of parish experience of three out the six that we must now endure (but not for much longer I am delighted to say thanks to diminishing funds), you could count them on all of your fingers and not have to take your shoes off and use your toes.
The last two are most certainly the responsibility of governments.
I think concerning social concerns, the Church should stick to feeding the hungry and giving comfort to the dying. Why? Because we were once very good at these, we have been doing these well for centuries, we cannot afford to do anything else and thanks to sin and evil, there will never be a shortage of hungry and dying people.
I hope you agree with that old saying “plagiarism is the ultimate complement.”
I think you mean “compliment”