I have no idea what that means but the clergy of St. Bridget’s in the Diocese of New Westminster must because they are doing it.
The church claims to be “an emerging, LGBTQ-affirming Christian community rooted in the Anglican tradition”. I don’t really know what that means either, but perhaps the “resident community developer” – although I don’t know what that means – can help. Here he is at the Vancouver Pride Parade sporting a placard designed to entice alcoholics off the wagon:
No, that didn’t help.
Had I seen all this before becoming a Christian it might have put me off forever. God, in his mercy, spared me all this emerging, postmodern Pacific coastal culture, alphabet-sexuality affirming hideousness until I’d built up an immunity.
I am going to my safe space to recuperate now.
“In the context of postmodern Pacific culture” ( their words in their website, as a framing of “rethinking Christianity” ) is just one more species in the genus of smug self-satisfaction. Regarding the “free wine on Sundays”, at best a bad-taste joke, but it could also be considered another point along the consubstantiation-transubstantionation axis, so to speak, i.e. nonsubstantiation.
It was under the leadership of the apostate, Michael Ingham, that is largely responsible for the desecration of the ACoC and Satan is gladly working with his associates in trying to make apostasy look genuine. Yes, it is indeed genuine apostasy but NOT Christianity. When you throw out either the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ there is nothing left. It should be remembered that under the direction of the diocese orthodox Christians were not only evicted but their properties were legally stolen.
Went to their sermon archive and read through the most recent, “Embracing the Foolish Cross.” What struck me was the use of every progressive cliché in The Book of Progressive Clichés. However, one thing did leap out at me; the sentence, ” God invites us through Holy Spirit to faithfully improvise our way through the Christian story.” I don’t know if it was a typo to omit either, “the” or, “His” before, ” Holy Spirit,” but if not, it is pure Jehovah’s Witnesses to refer to the Holy Spirit merely as, “Holy Spirit.”
The “emerging church” is one of the Evangelical “fresh expressions” that has been much admired by older traditional parishes that wish they were a bit more hip. But the theological slide you’re describing is typical of what is happening in those “expressions of church” where the dullness of doctrine takes a backseat to the more inviting priorities of community and cultural relevance.
A few years ago I chatted with Wycliffe’s John Bowen about his championing of Fresh Expressions in places like the Diocese of Niagara which, I pointed out, had abandoned Christianity for trendier pastures. He said something to the effect that, as long as he was permitted to continue, it didn’t matter because he himself was committed to the Gospel.
I countered with the thought that that might very well be so, but once he passed the reigns on to whoever was running Fresh Expressions in the DoN, it would become a Fresh Expression of something other than the Gospel.
He wasn’t convinced but I think time has proved my point.
None of it means anything.