SPREADing Indaba to India

These thoughts are my thoughts alone and do not represent my diocesan team or the Indaba project. 

(Continuing Indaba Encounter Social network and Blog Policy)

Charles Raven, moving on to Kenya to work at one of its theological colleges, will no longer continue contributing to SPREAD - The Society for the Propagation of Reformed Evangelical Anglican Doctrine.

He references his work over the last three years and the drift against which he has been campaigning, describing the Anglican communion's 'co-opting [of] non-Western terms like ‘indaba’ to promote the illusion of a middle way.' He claims that 'Such stratagems which elevate ‘conversation’ as a defining feature of being Anglican are a favourite device to numb the spiritual ‘nervous system.’ I do not agree with him, as you might have by now anticipated. His reference to 'non-Western terms' seems like a criticism but we are the worldwide Anglican communion. The conversation of which he is critical has gone on in councils and synods since the beginning of the faith. Raven believes that his book ‘Shadow Gospel: Rowan Williams and the Anglican Communion Crisis’, sought to 'break through ‘indaba’ induced drowsiness.' I do not think this book achieved its aims because it was built on a polarised version of the theology of Rowan Williams, it set out SPREAD's causes and found evidence to back them up - it never approached the debate from a neutral place.

The thing is, there are evangelicals within the indaba process, those of us who hold to a reformed, evangelical, charismatic expression of the faith, who subscribe to the tenants of the ordinal, the thirty-nine articles and the Book of Common Prayer. So be careful before you believe all the hype and hysteria from those adamant about defending something that seems to them to be under threat.

What are they understanding by Anglicanism, anyway? 'The Anglican Way' is about an openness characteristic of a 'Communion which, practically from its inception, has always stood opposed to the notion that its hierarchy might have a magisterial authority to declare what its "current teaching" is.' (Bartel, 2007, 418). Organisations like SPREAD do not define orthodoxy adequately either.

Rowan Williams is prepared for whatever comes out of the Indaba process so long as it is guided by the 'most painstaking biblical exegesis.' Being open to changes supported by 'a strong level of consensus and solid theological grounding' (Williams, 2009, 2502) is surely positive and in keeping with the tradition of the Bereans.

As I prepare for Indaba Mumbai next week, I prepare also to listen but speak, to contribute rather than rubbish and to see a church that is continuing to faithfully witness to the glory of the crucified and the risen one and to what the Spirit might be saying to the churches.

I am praying that in all things we will be guided by these wise words:
Augustine of Hippo, ‘Whoever thinks he understands divine scripture or any part of it, but whose interpretation does not build up the twofold love of God and neighbour, has not really understood it.’

That we might reflect too on the wisdom contained  in The Virginia Report:
'The Church needs to be tolerant and open enough to conduct its arguments with charity and attentiveness to the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Care needs to be taken to ensure that complex matters are fairly and appropriately considered...The various levels of the Church are accountable to each other. This will be expressed by openness to dialogue, by attentiveness to the particularity of people, times and places, by acceptance of interdependence on both the personal and corporate levels and by honouring plurality and diversity as gifts of God...Christian attentiveness means deciding to place the understanding of others ahead of being understood. It means listening and responding to the needs and the hopes of others, especially when these differ from one's own needs, agendas and hopes.'



I will be blogging my way through the process if I can get the technology to work. For those of you who follow this blog, I would appreciate prayers as I also journey from the cold (although mild really for the time of the year) to the hot and from the bland (such a wimp when it comes to food) to the hot and spicy. I expect to be rocked to the very core by some of the projects that we will be visiting, particularly to the slum children, whilst my own two wake up, each of the days that I am away, in warm beds and new Christmas pyjamas, to porridge and a brief walk to school.