St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - September 2017

e-united. There was a time when I thought I might see this in my lifetime,
but sadly I think this will not happen. One of my ‘memorable moments’ of
the past few years was a very happy meeting with the Roman Catholic Bishops
in Birmingham.
But what did the Reformation achieve? I think I can do no more than quote
directly from an essay by Bishop J. C Ryle (1816–1900) on the subject of
what we owe the Reformation:
The Reformation found Englishmen steeped in ignorance and left them
in possession of knowledge; found them without Bibles, and left them
with a Bible in every parish; found them in darkness, and left them in
comparative light; found them priest-ridden and left them enjoying
the liberty which Christ bestows; found them strangers to the blood of
atonement, to faith and grace and holiness and left them with the key
to those things in their hands; found them blind, and left them seeing;
found them slaves and set them free.
.
Some of the Reformers lost their lives to fight for these freedoms. So, in
this 500th Anniversary year let us give thanks for the Reformation, but let us
pray also that the Church Catholic might be re-united and that the principle
of reform and renewal might be a continued process in the Church of God.
By grace alone….
Read Bishop Mike’s full article at www.bristol.anglican.org
1517 REFORMATION SPECIAL 2017
Next month’s issue of the parish magazine
is dedicated to the Reformation, and the
publication of Martin Luther’s 95 articles
in October 1517, which we celebrate with
a feature interview with the Very Revd Dr
David Hoyle, Dean of Bristol, historian of the
Reformation, together with further articles
church matters from the pcc
REPORT ON PCC MEETINGS 3rd & 31st JULY 2017 AT THE MERCURE HOLLAND
HOUSE HOTEL — CHAIR: REVD DAN TYNDALL
PCC MEETING 3rd JULY: THE HOGARTH ALTARPIECE
The PCC met to vote on the motion: “The PCC resolves
that the Hogarth altarpiece is of such significance to our
history and heritage and to the stories we wish to tell
through our facilities development project that we continue
to investigate the possibility of it being part of that project.”
The meeting was convened to decide whether to continue including the
Altarpiece in the church’s Development Project since the decision affects
all future plans. Present were the Development Project Board (DPB) Chair,
and three-quarters of the PCC membership. An appraisal was given of the
advisory (brainstorming) sessions that had been arranged to inform the
PCC about the potential relevance of the Altarpiece to SMR’s mission, and
the feasibility of adopting it in its plans. These were: i) the Hogarth Options
Appraisal Workshop (HOAW) in May convened for those with a professional
interest in the Altarpiece and/or the Development Project, and; ii) the June
DPB meeting convened to formulate a motion for the PCC to vote on, at
which the formal HOAW findings were taken into account. Discussion ended
in a last-minute amendment to the above motion, proposed and adopted in
its stead in a 2–1 majority vote [figures here and below to be confirmed].
The substitute motion “The PCC resolves to continue to explore the possibility
of the Hogarth altarpiece being part of our facilities development project” was
voted on, and carried with a 2–1 majority. The PCC did not rule out including
the Altarpiece in its future Development plans, but the amendment and
majority vote meant that as a body the Council feels that it does not at
present have sufficient data, knowledge or understanding and, therefore,
confidence to be able to judge the value of the work to the church’s mission.
Discussion had ranged between considering the elements and histories
of the work itself — art, aesthetic, social, theological, ecclesiastical, Bristol
and parochial — and the practicalities of ‘adopting’ it. Though members
had been asked to concentrate on the work’s attributes (as mentioned) in
from Hogarth’s
self-portrait ca. 1735