During the heyday of the Charismatic renewal in the Anglican Church, staunch liberals turned their collective noses up at the idea of the Holy Spirit being alive, well and active in the church. Now, scarcely a paragraph emerges from a liberal mainline denomination without some reference to being guided by the “Spirit”. This is a convenient means of sanctifying any hare-brained scheme that pops into the homoerotically overheated minds of the clergy, and has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the third person of the Trinity.
In the same way, most Christian terminology has been drained of useful content: “Gospel”, “mission”, “disciple” are all bandied about indiscriminately – to the frustration of those who still think they have objective meaning.
The liberals have stolen our words.
That is not enough, it seems. There was a time when no self-respecting liberal would be caught dead with his arms in the air during worship. Now they have stolen our gestures, too.
Here are Rev. Gary Paterson the new moderator of the United Church of Canada – who happens to be gay, a poet and a clergyman, in that order – and former moderator, Mardi Tindal, putting on a display that appears to be a carefully posed invitation for us to admire their uninhibited enthusiasm for – uninhibited enthusiasm.
I find the image eerily disturbing:
I’m at a loss for words.
I was trying to grasp the significance of the substances on the table.
“Spirit” can be anything they think up or hitch their wagon too. Scripture, tradition and reason are too difficult to manipulate. Wrt the meaning of words a wise man once told me that “we are living in an Orwellian world where people change the meaning of words to suit their own passions.” Yuck!
Or, possibly, to throw a completely crazy notion out there, they’re just, you know, regular people trying to muddle through as best they can. Christians. With their arms in the air. Who didn’t know they needed to be vetted before they could raise their hands over their head.
He is laughing, with a touch of anger in his laughter, but no triumph, no malignity. It is the face of a man who is always fighting against something, but who fights in the open and is not frightened, the face of a man who is generously angry — in other words, of a nineteenth-century liberal, a free intelligence, a type hated with equal hatred by all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls. — Orwell
Somehow I get the impression that this new moderator has not yet read Romans 1. Seeing that he is a homosexual, if he had read it than I doubt that he would be waiving his hands in the air.
Next thing you know they’ll be waving their Bics.
Actually, they may have just been on a fishing trip and are describing their catches to their audience.
Gary has a more loosened up style was that way at St Andrew’s-Wesley
The congregation increased while he was there
The atmosphere was more loosened up
When our family attended the nearby Canadian Memorial United in the 1960s was very still and formal.
The atmpsphere was more restrained
With concerns about the amount of persons attending the United Church will call some to try things to attract newcomers.
They have an Emerging Spirit websight that allows conversations.
They might feel that being more loosened up with hands in the air will be more the way Churches are now.
Churches now are more casual than when I was young.
The photo up there is more casual.
The United Church was not that way before.
But not just the United Church
Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Free Methodist, etc were all more formal than now.
More casual than were.