The marginalisation of Scripture

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/news/communion/the_marginalisation_of_scripture/

[sydneyanglicans.net] 14 Oct 2009--At an Induction Service the other night, the acting rector made a comment that struck me “For us Anglicans, the reading of the Bible aloud in church is a very special moment”.

It got me thinking of a lecture given by Oliver O’Donovan in April this year, “The Reading Church: Scriptural Authority in Practice” which was a reflection on the clause in the Jerusalem Declaration that said--

We believe that the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the word of God written and to contain all thinking necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense with respect for the church’s historical and consensual reading.

O’Donovan rightly noted that very few people have commented on these words. And, introducing his book of theological reflections on the homosexual crisis in our Church, (A Conversation Waiting to Begin: the Churches and the Gay Controversy’ SCM Press, 2009) he does just that in his usual, profound, if somewhat difficult to follow, way.

But it was the concept of the place of the reading of Scripture in church that got me. It can be easily be overwhelmed by the other elements: the music, the singing or, even more likely in our culture, the preaching. In fact, preaching the word of God, explaining the Bible, or giving a sermon (what ever it is called) is important but it is not quite the same as hearing God’s word read in the middle of a congregation gathered.