The Lord Bishop of Bristol, Mike Hill talks about the Church's role in the world today.

Given the rapid social change, he says that it is the role of the Church in the context of the wider society to either move with (and be culturally relevant), or where needed to take a stance against changing social attitudes. He talks about the need for the Church as a whole and individual Christians to stand out and be Christ-like, to be distinctive; not conforming to the ways of the world but unto God.

Using the third chapter of first Corinthians, Bishop Mike Hill talks about why the church needs to grow in maturity, in unity and in humility. Not to become part of the every-increasing fractured world but to be in it as an example.

Bishop Mike writes... 

The current situation in the Anglican Communion raises all kinds of questions. There are questions about the issue of autonomy – a subject which moral philosophy has long had an interest in. What responsibility do individuals or groups in a wider community have to each other in terms of what they believe? This seems to gain greater focus if that community self identifies as a Communion as in the case of the worldwide Anglican Church.

There are questions about the authority of Holy Scripture. How does and should the Bible be a primary resource in forming our belief and practise as Anglicans?

There are questions about the Church’s role in a world of rapid social change. Is it our role in the context of the wider society in which we find ourselves to stamp on the gas or press the brake in relation to changing social attitudes?

Alongside this issue is the question of whether, in our missionary endeavour, do we so identify with the culture around us to the point that our distinctiveness as Christians is obliterated by worldly values and standards. To use St Paul’s language in Romans 12, it is the issue of how ‘conformed’ we are and how ‘transformed’ we are or, to put it another way, if we are so conformed to this world, does this undermine our potential to witness to the transforming love and power of God?

However, the issue I want to focus on in this article is, in its way a more reactive one. Given that it appears both in The Episcopal Church (TEC) and in the Church of England different groups within our respective churches, answer the above questions very differently, the issue of how we disagree with one another comes in to sharp focus.

The context of 1 Corinthians 3 is the first two chapters of the epistle, in which Paul raises the issue (in an allegedly lively church in Corinth) of division and lack of harmony.

He reminds the Christians in Corinth that God uses the foolishness to shame the wise of this world. (1 Corinthians 1:28) Indeed Paul reminds them that when he spoke in Corinth he did not use “big words and great learning”. He addresses the critical issue of unity, or rather disunity in the Church and makes the staggering assertion that where the Body of Christ is divided, Christ himself is divided. 1 Corinthians 1:12-13

At the beginning of Chapter 3, he reminds the congregation that it was his intention to feed them with solid food, but reluctantly had to conclude they were only ready to feed on baby’s milk! He then defines the primary characteristic of spiritual immaturity – ‘you still live as the people of this world live’. (Good News Bible) No doubt he could have thought of different examples of this within the Church in Corinth, but he chose to illustrate this in the context of their fractured relationships.

The challenge then and now, when disunity breaks out in the Church, is how we deal with it. Paul’s advice, and it is sound advice, is not to deal with broken relationships in the same way that the world deals (or doesn’t deal) with such situations

Legal action against fellow Christians is a very serious matter. Vilifying our enemies is not edifying for Christ or His Church. Walking away is sometimes the only recourse, but it rarely sorts out the issue(s) at hand.

Surely the most serious outcome in all the Anglican Communion fall-out is the division of the Church in such a public and, at times, ugly way. Seeking to witness to the God who is love in a Church which can seem more characterised by hate, will simply not achieve much.

I have supported the Covenant process and will continue to do so, but without some careful reflection on all this, we shall end up witnessing not to the power of Jesus to unite, but to the power of humanity to divide – a mere replication of what we see happening so frequently in the wider world. The net result will be that we shall prove those hostile to the Church, of whom there are many, that we are part of the problem rather than part of the solution.