Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Primatial address opens 38th General Synod

http://www.anglican.ca/news/news.php?newsItem=2007-06-19_pa.news


[The Anglican Church of Canada] 20 June 2007--We are here as well to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church for the next steps in our journey towards the realization of God's kingdom of justice and peace.

We are here to celebrate the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is within us and among us -- leading us into all truth and showing us things that are to come.

None of this will be accomplished if we do not enter into the hard work of discernment. Our prayers and Bible study, our reflection on reports brought before us, our consideration of the challenges of the world, and the needs of the Church, at home and abroad, will all be a part of that. Listening to one another carefully in the information dialogues, and engaging respectfully in the discussion of motions will all be involved in our discernment of what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Some of the discussion will be difficult, and opposing views I realize are strongly held. Nonetheless I urge you to remember your baptismal commitment to "seek and serve Christ in all persons" and to "respect the dignity of every human being" in those discussions. It is part of the hard work of discernment.

Just a reminder - from The Thirty-Nine Articles: A Restatement in Today's English by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes

Article 20: The Authority of the Church
The Church has power to prescribe rites and ceremonies and has authority in theological controversies; but it is not lawful for the Church to prescribe anything that is contrary to God's written Word, or to expound one passage of Scripture in such a way that it disagrees with another. Therefore, although the Church is a witness and a guardian of Holy Scripture, yet it is not open to it to prescribe anything contrary to Scripture, or to enforce anything not found in Scripture to be believed as necessary to salvation.

Article 21: The Authority of General Councils
Even general councils may err when they meet, and sometimes have erred, even in issues of theological importance - for such councils are composed of men, not all of whom may be governed by the Spirit and the Word of God. Therefore, nothing declared by such councils as necessary for salvation has binding power or authority unless it is plainly taught in Holy Scripture.

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