Rod Bower, the rector of the Australian parish has erected this interesting sign outside the church:
The sign is in much the same spirit as the Richard Dawkins’ bus advertisement:
As of this writing, the Anglican Parish of Gosford does still believe in God, though – sort of; perhaps I should have said “god”.
In its belief statement, the church doesn’t quote the historic creeds because, I suspect, the historic creeds make definitive statements on things like Jesus’ divinity, his bodily resurrection, the virgin birth and so on. They are not inclusive in that those who don’t subscribe to what they say can’t call themselves Christian. That is the point of the creeds: they nail down the beliefs that are necessary to Christianity.
The Anglican Parish of Gosford prefers a more mushy approach, asserting the existence of a god of two persons – Jesus isn’t included:
We believe in God, a divine presence, gentle and loving, the ground of our being.
We believe in Jesus, who demonstrated to us the love of God, and who urged his followers to express that love in their daily lives.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, as God’s continuing presence in our world, surrounding us in compassionate love.
We believe in the church where people gather to learn about and praise God, to share our concern for one another, and to bring justice and healing to all of God’s Creation. Amen.
Even though the parish is reluctant to include Jesus in the godhead, his purpose – perhaps to compensate – was one of radical inclusion:
Jesus’s central message is about radical inclusion, thus we welcome anyone to participate in our fellowship without judgment or forcing them to conform to our “likeness” or affirm our creeds in order to be accepted. We invite and offer all a place at the table – no exceptions.
Jesus didn’t die for our sins, so we are all still in them; never mind, get over it. Love, god:
Jesus came to show us the “Kingdom” not to die for our sins!
Did you hear the one about the queer Australian bishop?
Left his wife and two kids, then went back to Sydney…
It is pretty presumptuous to speak on behalf of God without a reference to Scripure. I know the Bible is pretty explicit on what God has said through the years, depending on how clear or corrupt the translation is.
The Sodomites felt God’s wrath and being that He is timeless, the Thou Shalt Not’s did not have a best before date.
As for Dawkins, he said probably not absolutely and not a percentage of probability. (Please adjust Heisenberg compensator to your own comfort settings) God is his Schrödinger’s cat. Is He in there or not?
Always curious when the Herodians bow down before their god … Herod! It’s impossible to respect belligerent servility to the powerful.
The difficulty in obeying scripture is never how corrupt the translation is, but always how corrupt the person reading it is.
Christianity in Australia is in a parlous condition. Australia is one of the most godless countries in the world, with a collapse in Christianity that is accelerating to light speed. The ‘Christianity’ that remains is debauched and diminutive. In Australia, for instance, there have been relatively recent cases of Catholic priests defecting from the Roman Catholic Church with their entire parish – something seldom seen anywhere else.
Liberalism in Christianity has gone deeper here than in practically any other place. Consequently, this sign does not surprise me at all. And note the manner of address: Whoever put the sign together speaks to orthodox Christians as if they were a species apart from the author. The only way this sign can be taken, therefore, is the modern equivalent of an address of a prophet of Baal to the faithful worshippers of Yahweh.
Bishops and priests have become altogether corrupt here. Even Australia’s one cardinal has been hauled before Parliament to answer for the disgraceful crimes of the Roman Catholic Church which run long and deep – and the parliamentary inquiry did not seemingly find it credible that the highest ranking clergyman here in Australia had no knowledge of some of the things occurring within arm’s-reach.
If you want to see a debauched pagan people; a nation with one of the highest rates of under-age drunkenness, disorderly conduct on a massive scale (we have entire police battalions trained to deal with what is euphemistically called ‘alcohol-fuelled violence’ now), and unbelievably obtuse judges who allow twelve-year old children (and younger) to undergo sex changes, then visit Australia.
I know. I live here.
My grandparents are long dead and my memories of Perth are dim and hazy; however, I can remember enough to believe what you are saying.
BTW, Canada is not too far behind!
I have personally sat through sermons in which the priest has said:
The bible was not written by God, but was written by men trying to understand the relationship between God and people;
The Creeds were originally a restrictive definition of what a Christian was supposed to be, and this was wrong; and
A person does not have to believe in Jesus Christ in order to get into heaven. Simply living according to His teachings, even without believing in Him, is good enough.
So I suppose that we can though away the Holy Bible because if it really is only the writings for men than we today know so much more, we can through away our fundamental concepts of Christian beliefs (including the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Doctrine of Christology), and we can through our Faith in Jesus as our Redeemer and only Advocate.
Now what are we left with?
“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”