I attend an Anglican Church that experienced what, in the 1980s, we called \u201crenewal\u201d. We acknowledged the presence and activity of the third person of the Trinity in worship, practised the gifts of the Holy Spirit and were viewed by the sober apparatchiks of the Diocese of Niagara as loony fundamentalists. We didn\u2019t particularly care, since we ignored the diocese and they ignored us – unless they were running short of cash. All that was to change in 2008 when we joined ANiC \u2013 except for the diocese\u2019s voracious appetite for Mammon to pay its lawyers.<\/p>\n
But I digress. In the 1980s no respectable Anglican wanted anything to do with the Holy Spirit: his presence brought change, chaos, mayhem and, well, people who knew what they believed and took Christianity seriously \u2013 and that will never do in a church that is preoccupied with embracing<\/a> \u201cuncertainties, our fears, our doubts and the many challenges raised by scientific insights.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In those halcyon days, any self-respecting bishop was constitutionally incapable of saying \u201cHoly Spirit\u201d \u2013 outside of the sterilising setting of liturgy – without having an attack of the vapours. Sadly, those times are gone and now the Canadian bishop does not exist who is not prosecuting some ploddingly dull or extravagantly heretical plan or other at the behest of the \u201cspirit\u201d, using the word as a justifying incantation at every opportunity. That this is a bogus \u201cspirit\u201d goes without saying. After all, the third Person of the Trinity is eternal and of one substance with the Father (come to think of it, Anglican bishops don\u2019t even believe in the Father); the irritatingly ubiquitous phantasma, apparitions, bishops\u2019 familiars are spirits of another kind.<\/p>\n In the worthy missive<\/a> of the Diocese of New Westminster, we are told that there is only a \u201cHoly Spirit\u201d in order to foster \u201cdiversity\u201d. If we could be just a little more diverse of our own accord, this particular spirit \u2013 the diversity-coach spirit \u2013 would not have been needed and presumably not created (page 2):<\/p>\n Commenting on our life together in the unity of the Spirit, Charleston asked \u201cWhy is there a Holy Spirit?\u201d \u201cBecause God knew we would never agree and gives us comfort, guidance and wisdom to supply what the human family of God needs in conflict \u2014 the ability to live together in our very real diversity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The same article tells us that the church has moved from the \u201cAge of Faith\u201d to the \u201cAge of Belief\u201d into the \u201cAge of the Spirit\u201d; indeed it has, but it would be more accurate to say the \u201cAge of the Zeitgeist\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I attend an Anglican Church that experienced what, in the 1980s, we called \u201crenewal\u201d. We acknowledged the presence and activity of the third person of the Trinity in worship, practised the gifts of the Holy Spirit and were viewed by … Continue reading