Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

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articles of faith. The Evangelicals want a heart religion of personal faith instead of a reliance on the rite of infant baptism to bring them into the Kingdom of God. Catholics offer the comfort of having the one true Church but can only hope that her authority is sound. None of these, to Maurice, are truly spiritual positions; he is against system-building, he will adhere to no party. God has set up the Church to be the one unifier of all humanity. Maurice held several eminent academic positions: 1840, Professor of English Literature and History at King‟s College in London; 1846, Chaplain in Lincoln‟s Inn; and in the same year, Professor of Theology in King‟s College. With others he founded the Christian Socialists in 1848 and a Working Men‟s College in 1854. In one of his theological essays he doubted the endlessness of after-life punishment. It is hard to know whether or not to class Maurice as a Broad Church man, but in stressing the value of the Incarnation for man rather than making the Fall the starting point of his theology as the Evangelicals tended to do, he was regarded as a „Liberal‟. Yet for him historic confessions of faith were important. In the Kingdom of Christ he wrote: „The Creed is the document which has served as protection to the meaning of the scriptures against the tendency which the Church doctors in different ages have exhibited to disturb and mangle them.‟ 114 He saw the Creeds as acting like compasses to keep all three main streams of the faith, Roman, Orthodox and Protestant, on course. But Maurice‟s passion for unity was not for the Church alone, but for all humanity. 115 Salvation for Maurice was realising our inclusion in Christ, the Centre of all Humanity. Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) was headmaster of Rugby school. 116 He had the Broad Churchman‟s dislike of parties in religion and put forward ideas for making the Church of England a truly national Church by including all Protestant denominations within its communion. In his pamphlet Principles of Church Reform (1833) 117 he uttered a cry of despair over the future of the Church of England unless there was a radical change to make her a really national institution. His proposals for making a Church which would be acceptable to Churchmen and Dissenters by an Act of Parliament were idealistic and unworkable. Nonconformists felt patronised by the proposals and his ideas for an overhaul of the 114 Maurice, Frederick Denison, The Kingdom of Christ, Second Edition, Vol 2, J G F and J Rivington Ltd, 1842, p 24. 115 See Jackson, M J, and Rogan, J, Introductory Essay to Principle of Church Reform, SPCK, 1962. 116 From 1828 to 1841. He advocated a high standard of Christian conduct for his pupils. 117 Principles of Church Reform (1833) came out in the very year that John Keble, a Tractarian (Oxford Movement) leader, made a quite different protest about the state of the Church of England. Keble wanted a Church committed to Catholic principles which would exclude Dissenting ideas from the national body. Arnold was radical in his playing down of ritual in worship and in his willingness to embrace Dissenters in his concept of a national Church. Page 105
episcopate were too radical for most Churchmen. Arnold does not seem to have understood the spirit of Dissent. He was a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1815 to 1819, and so was a contemporary of some of the Oxford Movement scholars. He opposed the Oxford Movement as being too restrictive; he wished for an open Church to include Protestant Dissenters in a national body. He was radical in wanting a far greater part for the laity in the Church of England, even to their being allowed to give Communion and sit on clerical synods. He became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1841 and he is regarded as one of the leaders of the Broad Church, but this term is not to be equated with theologically „liberal‟ today: the terms „Broad‟ and „Liberal‟ had not yet come to take on extreme theological radicalism. This was to come. Broad Church men wanted a Church which was wider than the established Church, open to modern scholarship and, usually, politically liberal ideals, but they were firmly committed to the basics of the Christian faith and adherence to the classical creeds. Dean A P Stanley (1815-1881) 118 was a formidable Broad Church scholar who tried to develop contacts with Nonconformists and had a wide sympathy for all brands of believers. He spoke of a „movement immeasurable, irresistible‟ that he felt was abroad in his day, drawing Christians closer together. Educated at Rugby under Thomas Arnold, he became Fellow of University College, Oxford, in 1838; later Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, from 1856 to 1864; and then Dean of Westminster from DATE till his death. As a Broad Church man he wanted toleration for all Christians (including Unitarians), and opposed disciplinary action against Bishop Colenso, who had written a critical work on the Pentateuch. He was a notable scholar of the Eastern Church and of the history of the Jews. His „liberalism‟ can be seen in his wanting to remove the anathemas from the Athanasian Creed. He invited the Tractarian leaders, Keble, Liddon and Pusey to preach in Westminster Abbey, but they refused. Among the Nonconformists there is no more heroic name in the story of Christian Unity in the 19 th Century than that of the little-known and little- remembered Scot, David Nasmith (1799-1839), the founder of the City Mission Movement. Brought up in a Christian home in Glasgow, at the age of 16 he founded a Society for the distribution of Bibles among the poor in the city. Later he formulated a plan for missions to 118 Dean Arthur Penryhn Stanley. Ruth Rouse writes: „In estimating Stanley‟s contribution to Christian unity, it should be realized that his irenic approaches went far beyond England. He travelled widely and made contacts with the leaders of the Churches: in Russia, Greece, Mount Athos, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Constantinople with the ancient Eastern Churches; in Sweden and Denmark with Lutherans; in Herrnhut with Moravians; in Hungary and France with Reformed; in the United States with many Churches. He was the friend of Dollinger, of Pere Hyacinthe, and of Baron Bunsen. He attended the Old Catholic Congresses in 1871 and 1872. He was in Rome just before the Vatican Council and deeply regretted that he could not remain, as Archbishop Tait had recalled him for the Ritual Commission.‟ Rouse, Ruth and Neill, Stephen C, A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948, SPCK, London, 1954, p 336. Page 106
Page 1 and 2:
Digging Out the Embedded Church Dis
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The Maranatha Community comprises t
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Introduction CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chr
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ead, nicely browned on top. He plac
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HOW DO WE DIG OUT THE EMBEDDED CHUR
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That the Church should express this
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For Alfeyev, „Faith is a gift, th
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„heresies„ of the Early Church
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Traditionally, the Church has made
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CHAPTER 1 CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EA
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A certain Docetic teacher, often id
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Novatianism When the persecutions o
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The fortunes of the Arian party in
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An attempt was made in 482 AD (29 y
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was development in the interpretati
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CYPRIAN AND AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO The
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position would see baptism as not t
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The Eastern Church‟s relationship
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insisted from the second Lateran Co
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There is so much that Orthodoxy sha
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we do not talk to each other. Our t
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The question of heresy does not com
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They were missionary-minded and the
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Lollard ideas lingered in English r
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CHAPTER 4 THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: W
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unity‟s sake in subsequent centur
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Erasmus wrote he asserts, through o
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attle-cry, is perhaps the most famo
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Regulations for the good ordering o
Page 59 and 60: Eucharist was not just a commemorat
Page 61 and 62: CHAPTER 5 QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME O
Page 63 and 64: How rare then it is to meet a man w
Page 65 and 66: are often much bigger divisions bet
Page 67 and 68: St Germanus of Constantinople - 8 t
Page 69 and 70: manner. He declared that men could
Page 71 and 72: S L Greenslade - 20 th Century: „
Page 73 and 74: CHAPTER 6 HOPES FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY
Page 75 and 76: imminent return of Christ (Komensky
Page 77 and 78: a concern that merchant adventurers
Page 79 and 80: also anti-Socinian. Calixtus himsel
Page 81 and 82: The Eastern Churches were not rent
Page 83 and 84: everyone - from outward forms to in
Page 85 and 86: Women were not usually members of t
Page 87 and 88: work in America, shows him, though
Page 89 and 90: The aim of the conference was to br
Page 91 and 92: From 1768 Harris‟s home at Talgar
Page 93 and 94: twice more to congregations of Whit
Page 95 and 96: denominations was not their distinc
Page 97 and 98: It was from the overseas Protestant
Page 99 and 100: THE OXFORD TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT Anot
Page 101 and 102: the Church of England‟s doctrinal
Page 103 and 104: „We pray that… all who desire t
Page 105 and 106: thereof, in prayer, in the remembra
Page 107 and 108: honours the Lord and his Word; the
Page 109: apostolic church enjoyed, and that
Page 113 and 114: Denominations began to form their o
Page 115 and 116: In this Shanghai Conference‟s Rep
Page 117 and 118: With so much talk of unity and coop
Page 119 and 120: „The liturgical movement in weste
Page 121 and 122: • Sharing a corporate life of wit
Page 123 and 124: • Our acknowledgement of the Apos
Page 125 and 126: (h) The Evangelical Church in Germa
Page 127 and 128: It changed nothing in respect of do
Page 129 and 130: Some Evangelical Protestants want t
Page 131 and 132: • It is in continuity with the
Page 133 and 134: But things have changed. Richard Ma
Page 135 and 136: evangelism - (and) state what the r
Page 137 and 138: Repentance and faith are at the hea
Page 139 and 140: outcome of being justified. Agreeme
Page 141 and 142: Virgin‟s salutary influence on me
Page 143 and 144: h) Confession The sacrament of pena
Page 145 and 146: demanding way would be sin. The que
Page 147 and 148: If the opportunity for the Church t
Page 149 and 150: Ministers, priests and laypeople in
Page 151 and 152: West Kirby, near to my home, the Si
Page 153 and 154: n) Shared Study Courses There is a
Page 155 and 156: Even some Protestant churches today
Page 157 and 158: Vincent de Lérins spoke of a „pr
Page 159 and 160: It is not likely, in the foreseeabl
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Christ and are trying their best to
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upon the name of our Lord Jesus Chr
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Perhaps this dying process is now b
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economic factors giving rise to suc
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deeper ecumenism, one that does not
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APPENDIX 1 THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPO
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APPENDIX 2 FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON T
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The „apostles and elders‟ of th
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„The purpose of the Reformation C
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What all three traditions have in c
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Cromwellian period, in a treatise o
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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS
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Cullman, Oscar, The Earliest Christ
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McCarthy, Tim, The Catholic Traditi
Page 189 and 190:
Letter concerning the civil princip
Page 191 and 192:
Coptic Orthodox Church, 10 Council
Page 193 and 194:
Parousia, 24, 68, 93 Paul VI, 10, 1
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