Tom Wright: mission-shaped church, the proposed Anglican covenant, Lambeth, conflict, and the Bible

Paul writes – As you’d expect, Anglican Bishop Tom Wright, has some interesting things to say about the mission-shaped church, the proposed Anglican covenant, Lambeth, conflict, and the Bible. His uplifting overview (can’t tell if it’s him or something he’s quoting from a report) of the Biblical narrative from creation to re~creation is a gem, as is his reflection on 2 Corinthians and “super apostles”. For more on this, see the little Lenten book by Wright referred to in this post.

Here’s a couple of excerpts from his paper:

“… the church, in its very life as well as in what it says to communities and individuals, [is] … indeed the missionary body of Christ, the community at which the principalities and powers look and realise, perhaps with an angry shock, that Jesus is Lord and they are not; the community at which ordinary people look and realise, perhaps with an eager start, that there is after all a different way to be human and that they want to find out what makes it tick.

Let the Bible shape your eschatology; let that biblical eschatology shape your mission; and then let that eschatologically-shaped mission shape your view of the church; and you'll find that, instead of the shrill functional pragmatism of today's muddled left, insisting on breaking old rules because they're outdated, and the equally shrill and functional pragmatism of today's muddled right, insisting on keeping old rules because they're the old rules even at the cost of unity, you will have a robust, biblical, Christ-centred, Spirit-led, costly ecclesiology that will be in good shape to take forward God's mission into the next generation…

…The late, great Lesslie Newbigin was once asked whether, when he looked at the church, he was an optimist or a pessimist. I make his reply my own. I am neither an optimist, nor a pessimist: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!”

The typically thoughtful Peter Carrell, an Anglican priest from the Diocese of Nelson, has a few thoughts here on Lambeth.

You can read the whole paper by Wright here (and I’d recommend it, particularly if you are an Anglican who wants to be both inspired and who wants to keep up with good thinking around the proposed “covenant” etc. I don’t like the use of the term “covenant”, but that’s what we have at the moment).

Comments

[Matt]

Paul -

Thank you for stopping by. Wright's essay does speak for more than just the Anglican Communion. I think it speaks to the proclamation of the Gospel in our day. Coming from a free church tradition, our conflict plays out differently, but the root issue is the same - how our ecclesiology is shaped by our mission, which is shaped by our eschatology. I intend to continue reflecting on these issues in future posts - your feedback is welcome!

[Matt Stone]

Ta Paul