In the beginning, twelve apostles followed Christ and changed the world. There was neither Jew nor Greek, there was neither slave nor free, there was no male and female, for they were all one in Christ Jesus. They followed the ten commandments, bearing in mind ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’
That is Christianity in a nutshell. The early Christians did not need a Covenant with each other to tell them what Christianity was – they had it from the source. Inevitably, over the centuries that followed, human institutions sprang up, each with a slightly different understanding of the small print, and some so fixated on the minutiae of ecclesial procedure that there was a danger of losing sight of the wood for the sake of the trees.
A tiny illustration – Gaudete (and Laetare) Sundays. I spent the first 62 years of my Christian life in complete ignorance of these, in company with most of my fellow mid-candle members of the Church of England, including all of my local congregation. Then, out of the blue, a pink candle appeared in our Advent wreath, with no explanation. The flower ladies were outraged and regarded this as an unforgiveable innovation by the vicar- ‘everyone’ knows church candles are white (well, cream). He then took great delight in explaining his liturgical justification, making the congregation feel both ignorant and rebellious. It was hard to escape the feeling that the delight was in the symbol, rather than in what it symbolised, and this reinforcement of clerical one-upmanship.
The simple church of the top illustration has been transmogrified into the ornate, coral-encrusted structure of the lower picture. Like Ariel’s song:
Full fathom five our Saviour lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Die-hards hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them—Ding-dong, bell.
But ( to get to my point!) we have an opportunity to begin the process of de-scaling, cleaning and polishing this edifice that is the Church of England. Before the end of this month, General Synod will have voted on whether to appoint women as bishops. This is a momentous decision and I pray that the vote will be in favour.
I am of course by no means the only one calling for us to follow the teachings of Galatians – on this occasion I am in the company of Bishop Stephen Cottrell on the specific point:
And the Archbishop of Canterbury has wisely seemed to ask, if he cannot have the Covenant, for raising women to the espiscopate to be the great achievement of his tenure. Bishop John Inge and Bishop Pete Broadbent have also recorded youtube videos, as have Mark Russell and Rebecca Swinson of the Archbishops’ Council.
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The photographs are by Stephan Kerkhofs, via Shutterstock
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