Philip Eveson

There is an interview with Philip Eveson here. He was one of my lecturers during my time at the London Theological Seminary.

I have one question, though. Which villages near Wrexham?

Anglican rift is about more than sex

From the BBC here:

Word has got about that traditionalist Anglicans have something against gay people - and that is what is driving the Communion towards disintegration.

Of course some of them might not like homosexual people, but, as they never tire of pointing out, that is not what this historic rift is about.

Three religions have struck a delicate balance in Jerusalem's Old City

In reality, the dispute centres on how strictly Anglicans should interpret the Bible, and whether, for example, it should be read as ruling out active homosexuality as a sin.

Homosexuality is simply the presenting issue - the human behaviour that exposes radically different approaches to the Bible, and helps to make this such a fundamental dispute.

However, the traditionalist bishops meeting in Jerusalem to plan their next move in this crisis claim that embracing active homosexuality is only a part of the "liberal agenda".

They still want the American Church expelled for ordaining an openly gay bishop in 2003.

But now there are other issues, among them their suspicion that liberal Anglicans are quietly backing away from their "calling" to evangelise other faiths.

Left or right?

I met the chairman of the traditionalist Reform group in the Church of England, Rev Rod Thomas, inside the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Just inside the gate you are faced with a choice: the Christian Quarter to the right and the Muslim Quarter on the left.

We headed left, down into a warren of narrow streets, their walls hung with the goods on sale in the shops here. We found mosques and churches crowded cheek by jowl into this most crowded quarter of Jerusalem.

Over the centuries three religions have achieved a delicate balance here.

Rev Thomas heads the traditionalist Reform group of the Church of England

But Rod Thomas said the need to maintain the sometimes fragile relationship between religions was being used by some Anglicans as an excuse not to spread the faith to others.

"We are very concerned indeed about developments in the Episcopal Church in America over the approach to mission," he said.

"Simply because the Presiding Bishop [Katherine Jefferts-Schori] has seemed to suggest that Jesus Christ isn't the only way of salvation, but it is just one of several viable ways. And there is nothing in the Bible that supports that view," he said.

"I know it sounds good to the pluralistic West, but if it remains untrue, and if it's not what the Bible teaches, then I don't really see what it's got to do with Anglicanism."

Competition for converts

It was the dispute over who is truly Anglican, and a wish to claim ownership of the original values of the Bible, that brought the Anglican traditionalists to Jerusalem.

But the local Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, pleaded - unsuccessfully - with them not to come.

God is beautiful, God is love, God is compassion, so why use bad language to talk about God or explain about the message? Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari

He was anxiously aware that most of the visitors were from churches in the centre of Africa, where relations with Muslims are uneasy, or even hostile.

"We are struggling to work for peace and reconciliation in this troubled land, especially in Jerusalem," says Bishop Suheil.

"And we are keen to keep the balance among other faiths, because we are working very close with Judaism and Islam. This is part of our mission and witness in Islam."

But many of the traditionalist African Anglicans meeting in Jerusalem are already in open competition with Muslims to win converts.

They say Muslims in Africa respect their duty to evangelise.

Common values

But Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari, the descendant of a long line of Muslim scholars who lives in a rambling roof-top house in the heart of the Old City, says evangelism is a duty best carried out with great humility.

"I prefer the modest one, the one who's more gentle with (how they) speak. God is beautiful, God is love, God is compassion, so why use bad language to talk about God or explain about the message? If you marry Muslims, you are in the wrong, you are in doom... that's not the way to tell people about other religions."

There are also liberal Anglicans who share Sheikh Bukhari's focus on the fundamental religious values - love, equality and forgiveness for example - common to other religions.

But traditionalists claim that this masks a more serious failure to uphold the essence of Christianity.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is seen as the site of Jesus's crucifixion

Rod Thomas told me liberal Anglicans risked denying Muslims the opportunity to hear what is to him a fundamental truth.

"Jesus Christ said 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father, but by me,'" he says.

"Yes, we want to proclaim the uniqueness and lordship of Christ over all the world, but we need to do that, yes, with confidence, but also with great sensitivity. So that people hear the message and don't immediately discount it as something alien to their cultures."

My walk through the Old City of Jerusalem ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus's crucifixion.

It is also famously a building over which various churches have squabbled so much that a Muslim has to hold the key.

It seems that even if Christianity and Islam are to remain rivals, the rivalry within Christianity will prove as difficult to resolve.

New Website

See my new website here. It consists of a collection of useful links I have built up over the last few years - most on a Christian theme.

Repentance

DA Carson: What is meant is not a merely intellectual change of mind or mere grief, still less doing penance, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones of grief, which results in “fruit in keeping with repentance.”

W Grudem: Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.

Laurence Chaderton

Chaderton was a Puritan who was also involved in the translation of the 1611 KJV Bible. An account of his life and work appears in the latest Banner of Truth Magazine (issue 537; June 2008). The following paragraph caught my eye:

One one occasion, when he had already spoken for two hours, he apologized for trying his congregation's patience; but they called out. 'For God's sake, Sir, go on!' Much to their satisfaction he went on for another hour!

What God Requires, Christ Provides

An article by John Piper and Justin Taylor here.

Town moves against Islamic school #2

Should Christians oppose an Islamic school?

There may be practical reasons as in this case in Camden, Austalia. For a town with little or no Muslim inhabitants, it seems extreme to build a school for 1200 pupils. There may be traffic issues to consider. All these need to be addressed in the same way as they would if it was the Methodists trying to build a school.

There may also be concerns these days about radicalising young people. But banning a school in one place only moves the problem elsewhere - unless, of course, you ban all Muslim schools - or all religious schools?

Christians have crucial differences with Muslims in theology. We hold to the eternal Trinity; the deity of Jesus Christ; his death and resurrection as the sole solution for sin ... and so on. These differences alone may make Christians fear a Muslim school.

But it must be wrong to oppose such a school on religious grounds. It is wrong to oppose them on practical grounds used as a cover for the real reason: opposition to their religion. The reason is that freedom of religion is a precious thing, and as such it has to apply across the board. We can be certain that rules used to ban a Muslim school can, and will, be used to ban a Christian school.

In the UK, laws against religious hatred, for example, were drafted primarily with Muslim radicals in view. However, they have also been used against Christians preaching in public. The effect is to silence all religions. We need to oppose this trend. Christians need not fear a level playing field in which all religions are free to speak. What we should fear is a system that clamps down on all religion, merely allowing the secularism of the age to have prominence.

Or so it seems to me.

Town moves against Islamic school

From the BBC here.

Fifteen acres have been purchased for an Islamic school at Camden

With its lace curtain bungalows and steepled Anglican church, the once tranquil town of Camden in New South Wales seems the most improbable of settings for a row that combines race and religion.

Proud of its rich history, the town promotes itself as "the birthplace of the nation's wealth", for it was here, in the early 19th Century, that the sheep and dairy industries first began to flourish.

Now the town, which lies on south-west fringes of Sydney, is confronting a very 21st Century issue: the proposal to construct an Islamic school for some 1,200 Muslim pupils.

Behind the proposal is the Sydney-based Quranic Society, which has purchased 15 acres of land on the fringes of town, and produced detailed plans and designs.

None of them reference any obvious Islamic influences. Functional and non-descript, the two-story school could easily be a light industrial development.

Camden council is currently deciding whether to grant planning permission and allow the controversial development to go ahead.

'Wrecking Australia'

At the council's headquarters, 12 bulging ring-binders hold more than 3,200 submissions from the public. Only 100 are in favour of the development.

The council will deliver its verdict either later this month or early next.

This is not a nationalistic issue, it's not a religious issue, it's a planning issue, and it will be addressed on those merits Chris Patterson, Camden mayor

Twice the town has managed to rebuff the fast food giant McDonald's. Now it has mobilised to block the construction of the Islamic school.

Back in November, more than 1,000 local people took part in a public meeting. Many participants expressed themselves with little regard for political correctness.

"This has to be one of the nicest places in New South Wales," said one woman, who has lived in Camden for the past nine years.

"Everywhere is being destroyed. Why don't we tell the truth. They're wrecking Australia. They're taking us over," she said.

"Why hasn't anyone got any guts? They've got terrorists amongst 'em... They want to be here so they can go and hide in all the farm houses... This town has every nationality... but Muslims do not fit in this town. We are Aussies, OK."

Some of the loudest cheers of the night greeted a speech from a local man in his late 70s.

"Can I just say this without being racist or political?" he said. "In 1983, in the streets of London a parade by Muslims chanted incessantly 'If we can take London, we can take the world'. Don't let them take Camden."

Some speakers focused solely on the environmental impact of locating an urban-scale school in such a bucolic setting; and, in particular, on the traffic congestion it would bring.

Camden does not harbour a large Muslim community

One speaker implored the crowd to stick to planning issues, and not let the campaign be contaminated by racism or xenophobia.

When the chair of the meeting invited anyone in favour of the development to speak up, no one stepped forward.

Camden does not harbour a large Muslim community - census figures suggest about 150 families.

Most of the pupils at the proposed school would therefore be bussed in from Sydney, a journey that takes about an hour each way.

'Planning issue'

Andrew Wynnet of the Camden/Macarthur Residents' Group showed me the site of the proposed school, and focused on its unsuitability and undesirability.

"When you have no Muslims living in Camden, why have a Muslim school here?" he asked.

He was also concerned about its long-term, demographic impact.

"The character of the town will change. When you have a large facility like this, the parents will follow. That amount of parents will change the character of the town."

Some of the protesters wore anti-Islamic immigration slogans

"If you introduce 1,500 Muslim people to the town they'd be a majority. And that's not what this town is about."

Bravely, given that local council elections are due later in the year, Mayor Chris Patterson has adopted a neutral stance.

Presumably, it would have been more politically expedient to veer towards populism.

"This is not a nationalistic issue, it's not a religious issue, it's a planning issue, and it will be addressed on those merits," he says.

Determined that the planning process should be allowed to play out, Mr Patterson does not want to prejudge it.

Acrimonious

Many locals fear that the campaign is being hijacked by right-wing, nationalist groups with their own agendas.

The Australia First organisation has been advertising for members in Camden, and says it plans to field a candidate in September's local elections.

Pauline Hanson, the former leader of the One Nation Party, has also paid a visit to the town, though the local paper, the Camden Advertiser, reported that she mistakenly thought the proposal was for a mosque rather than a school.

Camden residents vow they will not give up easily

The increasingly acrimonious and race-charged debate has also crossed into mainstream politics.

Camden is part of a Liberal-held parliamentary constituency which was high on Labor's target list at last November's federal election.

Campaigning in nearby Campbeltown, the then opposition leader Kevin Rudd said that the local infrastructure could not support such a large school, and that he therefore opposed it on "planning grounds".

The Quranic Society has kept a low public profile and was not available for comment.

But its position has been that Australian parents have the right to educate Australian children wherever they wish, regardless of race or religion. If the council rejects its planning application, it could appeal to the Land and Environment Court.

Camden residents will not give up easily.

"This town has fought all sorts of developments," Andrew Wynnet. "It will take on all-comers regardless of religion."

Church to debate convert motion

A traditionalist Anglican has said he will continue with a campaign for the Church of England to work explicitly to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Paul Eddy, a lay member of the General Synod, has come under intense pressure from bishops to withdraw his plan.

But he has secured enough support for his motion to be debated at the next meeting of the Church's ruling body.

The motion calls on the Church to proclaim Christianity as the only route to ultimate salvation.

Mr Eddy, who is training to become a priest, has been denounced by some Muslims but says the Church can no longer avoid hard questions about its beliefs.

No-go areas

He said he had received angry e-mails and telephone calls from senior figures in the Church denouncing his motion.

Mr Eddy, who claims the support of three bishops, said the Church was itself creating no-go areas for the Bible.

BBC News religious affairs correspondent Robert Piggott says Mr Eddy's stance is likely to alienate many Muslims at a highly-sensitive time in the relationship between Islam and Christianity in the UK.

Our correspondent added that the motion is a sign of the conservative evangelical wing of the Church flexing its muscles to oppose what it warns is a watering down of Christian values in deference especially to Muslims.

The summer meeting of the synod is from 4 July to 8 July in York.

From the BBC here.

I used to be an astrophysisist...