Losing my religion in this reformation split

A Rift Turns into a Schism

On Thursday, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) announced a plan to reform the Anglican Communion into the Global Anglican Communion. This development appeared to be intensified by the nomination of a woman for the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury. [GAFCON: Communique: The Future Has Arrived]

However, GAFCON's rejection of the Instruments of Communion; namely the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates Meeting, has led to a schism. Some deny that this split aims to reconstitute the Global Anglican Communion as a majority representation of about 75% of its previous reach. It is a major development when what is left in the Anglican Communion is a rump of the original whole.

The core issues that have brought matters to a head revolve mainly around sexuality, as some GAFCON provinces ordain women into the diaconate, priesthood, and bishopric. Yet, we must be careful not to assume that only ‘conservatives’ or those ‘stuck in patriarchy’ are concerned or impacted by the appointment of a female Archbishop of Canterbury.

Refocusing on the Word

As an Anglican communicant, I am encouraged by the warmth and humanity of the congregations I attend in Manchester and Cape Town. There are wider community issues that many grapple with; conservatives, progressives, and all believers alike earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. [Bible Gateway: Jude 3 (KJV)]

The focus must remain on the resurrected Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and adherence to the inerrant Word of God. My beliefs are shaped by a Pentecostal inclination; I am equally comfortable anywhere God is glorified and the Word is preached with purpose, according to the level of revelation given to the preacher. My spirit and understanding allow me to agree, disagree, or seek further study after hearing.

While I am saddened by developments within the Anglican Communion, no one should be surprised that a new reformation is underway, as the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) and GAFCON affirm only one foundation of communion, namely, the Holy Bible, “translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.”

Breaking religion, affirming faith

In response, the letter from The Rt Reverend and Rt Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally DBE, the Archbishop of Canterbury designate, appears to be written from a position of weakness; the people she hopes to engage with are unlikely to attend the Anglican Consultative Council in Belfast next year. [Anglican Ink: Letter from Bishop Sarah Mullally on LLF, GAFCON and abuse]

This news coincides with King Charles III, the head of the Anglican Church, meeting with Pope Leo, marking the first occasion in about 500 years that a British monarch has prayed with the Pope. [BBC News: King to be first British monarch to pray with Pope in at least 500 years]

How this affects the King’s role in the Anglican Communion or the new Global Anglican Communion remains uncertain. Many moving parts are at play as we all try to understand the issues involved, some of which I have not directly addressed here. I find myself asking whether I am losing my religion, or if my religion is losing me?

My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary. [Hymnal.net: My faith looks up to Thee]

Blog - England: We have a new Archbishop of Canterbury, she's a woman

GSFA Statement on the Appointment of the Rt Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, as the Archbishop of Canterbury

GAFCON: Communique: Canterbury Appointment Abandons Anglicans

Lutherstadt Wittenberg: Guided and minded

Setting out

My visit to Lutherstadt Wittenberg was planned for a Wednesday. Two days before I had booked my train ticket from Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Hauptbahnhof is main or central station and it is usually written as Hbf. I decided on using the high-speed Intercity-Express (ICE) train. The journey would have lasted 40 minutes and it was the second stop from Berlin.

That morning, I had to ply an alternative route to my boarding station from my hotel because the suburban train link from Berlin-Zoologischer Garten Station to Berlin Hbf was not running, I had plenty of time.

When I finally made it to the station, I first cooled my heels in the DB lounge before boarding my train as I reminisced about the affordability and comfort of high-speed trains on mainland Europe.

Walking through

On arrival at Lutherstadt Wittenberg, the station was being refurbished and the information point at the exit was really for buses, however, the lady at the counter kindly informed me that I only had to walk into town for the tourist information office. What she did not say was that it was at the far end of the main street.

The borders of the footpath to the town centre had beautiful aromatic flowers that released a fragrant scent of sweet smelling savour, like some scriptural sacrifice preparing one for devotion, yet the flowers looked wild rather than tended.

I followed the directions into town and then began to notice the signs in front of historic buildings and plaques to famous indigenes, citizens, residents and visitors to many of the buildings. When I got to the tourist information office, I had literally walked passed everything of significance, I was just not adequately informed about the places.

Guiding oneself

The guided tour was only in German, though you could obtain an audio guide in a number of world languages including English to walk through town and key in the numbered locations as indicated on the map that accompanies the guide. The numbers differ from the numbers on the signs in front of the historic buildings. I think whatever organisations are involved should align themselves and synchronise their efforts.

To be given the audio guide requires you offer some identification or pay a refundable deposit of €50.

I started with the gate/door on which Martin Luther is purported to have nailed the 95 theses at the Castle Church, the episode that apparently kicked off the Protestant Reformation. In the church itself were memorials for Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon who carried on the message after Martin Luther’s death.

Not much in the church was original, having been besieged, plundered and razed through the centuries. It was, however, beautiful, colourful and quite serene apart from the fact that you can walk up to the altar, enter the precept and take pictures too.

Other interesting stuff

Even with a full day’s visit, it was not possible to see all the notable places, like the old Wittenberg University where Martin Luther earned his doctorate; dissolved in the 19^th Century, but presently known as Leucorea University and a campus of Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Leucorea is the Greek translation of the German Wittenberg, which means white mountain.

Lucas Cranach the Elder was a contemporary and friend of Marin Luther, a painter and printmaker, and once owned the largest homestead in Wittenberg. He with his son Lucas Cranach the Younger painted portraits of prominent Protestant figures as well as some religious scenes.

Having majored in electrical engineering, it was interesting to realise Wilhelm Eduard Weber who along with Carl Friedrich Gauss, invented the first electromagnetic telegraph was from Wittenberg as well as the electrical engineering pioneer, Werner von Siemens.

The main street has a cosmopolitan feel to it with typical high street shops in mostly old buildings.

A Lutheran Service

At 16:00, I attended a short Lutheran services presided over by an America priest. The language  was Old English and as is traditional for such services, we sung A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, written by Martin Luther. The service was held in the sacristy of the city church where Martin Luther frequently reached.

I am not sure of where the tradition for standing up at the reading of the gospel emanates, but we did stand for the gospel at the Lutheran service, just as I have noted that we stand in the Anglican Communion, such a tradition is not normally observed in Pentecostal churches. However, a biblical reference in the book of Nehemiah appears to suggest the Genesis of this tradition.

5. Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up.
6. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Nehemiah 8:5-6 (NIV)

The day was long, as I walked around other sections of the city, the Martin Luther garden being prepared for the quincentennial of the Protestant Reformation in 2017 has 500 trees planted by global Lutheran organisations, with an additional tree planted in the locality of the organisation. Late in the day as things closed, I returned to the main station to catch my train back to Berlin.

Lutherstadt Wittenberg: My most avowed intent, to be a pilgrim

[]

Some background

I have had a long-held desire to visit Lutherstadt Wittenberg, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the east of Germany. Germany has many historic towns, but in my many visits to Germany since 1995, I did not know that Wittenberg was in this part of Germany.

The discovery was by accident, in June 2010 as my whizzed past that Wittenberg station towards Bitterfeld on my way to a wedding in Raguhn, I caught a short glimpse from my train window and nursed a desire to visit since then. I could not get to Raguhn station because that week happened to be one in which the Deutsche Bahn, the German train company was conducting repairs on that line.

The interest

Whilst not overly religious, I have made pilgrimages to religious places, shrines and cities, interested in the history, the people and how the personalities involved changed the course of events. The Vatican, Fatima in Portugal and now Lutherstadt Wittenberg had made my growing list of pilgrimage journeys.

Wittenberg became the city from which the Protestant Reformation started after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517. There is much to write about this, since of all the histories I could have studied in school, this one featured prominently in our curriculum.

Strangely, the English Reformation, the other schism that occurred soon after that this, when the Church of England renounced papal authority due to Henry VIII’s need to sire an heir, did not make the curriculum. I am a member of the Anglican Church.

The Lutheran Church is planning a quincentennial celebration of the Protestant Reformation in 2017, many activities will be centred around Lutherstadt Wittenberg.

Sitting here in limbo

After death, then what?

I am no expert in paedo-theology, the religiosity of the unborn or the spirituality of the foetus, but a document released by the Vatican International Theological Commission brings this topic into new focus.

Obviously, there are dogmatic differences between Christian denominations on the matter of infant baptism and the issues of salvation before or after death, the posthumous expectations do matter a lot to those still living.

In contemporary terms, we view limbo as a place of undecided and unresolved situations, Catholic Theology has viewed it as a place not in heaven and definitely not in hell, but an almost there place in view of salvation but not entering into the presence of the Almighty.

The doctrine of the dead child

The Catholics have also agonised about the spiritual status of the aborted unborn child or children who die before they are baptised - this has varied from outright damnation to an almost heaven place.

The study now aims to redefine limbo in terms of the more comfortable green room but never getting to meet the host, though there is hope.

Suffer the children

Whilst I would not deign to challenge the authority of the Pope, I would recall that his boss Jesus Christ made such an issue of asking children to His company and blessing them whilst admonishing the learned adults that flocked Him that except they, the adults became like children they would not enter the Kingdom of God.

Other preachers listeners to repent and be baptised - whilst this is no exegesis of religious dogma, a few points are clear from these issues - children exhibit innocence and dependencies of trust that are necessary to establish a strong relationship with God and baptism accompanies repentance, indicating the person who is baptised be accountable, that person cannot be an infant.

Jesus was never ambiguous about children belonging in the presence of God and this is at variance with extant Catholic teaching.

Hope of salvation

However, in what is looking like trying to bolster the social views against abortion and committing a child to a religious association they do not understand; parents in those unfortunate circumstances of worrying about the loss or the possible loss of a child now have serious indulgence-like obligations to distress the child with a baptism service lest they have to regret leaving the child in a state of near damnation but with one eye of God on the child.

What I would hate to happen is a new doctrine that emerges on the conclusions of this one suggesting that the child can be prayed out of limbo into the arms of God through the much reviled indulgences of old, thus, playing on the hopes of the vulnerable parents.

Let me say we have the makings of a new Protestant reformation brewing whilst I am sitting here in limbo.