Easter and Change 2

Hey here we go with the abusive assumptions comments and emails - fascinating that it is the topic of 'change' which causes this response.

I'm not sure how RSS etc works and whether other people have seen the comments from James, Phil or Stacey or two anonymous before I removed them - and I wouldn't want to publish the emails from "Salvation's Soldier" or Joan who claims to be "a real Christian". But as it involves accusations about hypocrisy, breaking my own rules about blogging by commenting on my own Church, I do want to post a response - and I have left the comments open but will remove any further abusive ones.

I hasten to add that none of the offender bloggers are members of my local Church, and only one of them knows me and that is through a fairly vaguely based upon a perception of me at Deanery Synod (where I do have the tendency to say somewhat provocative things if only to stop me and others falling to sleep).

So here goes . . .

1. The previous post was not written about my local Church, it was written for my local Church and its magazine, and if there is any doubt about this the exact text of the post will be available in the magazine this Sunday and will be widely circulated around the Parish.

2. So I am not blogging behind my parishioners back with dangerous liberal nonsense which I wouldn't dare say to people directly! The magazine is simply quoted as an example of how even progressive and flexible congregations find some change difficult in the journey to be God's people in a particular place.

3. As the post acknowledges only God is unchanging - but as we are subject to change I don't believe and did not suggest that a relationship with God is an invitation not to change. Unless we believe that we are without sin cos we are Christians then I suggest that repentance must involve continual change as we grow in the image of God. I believe that is why it is a risk to pray, a risk to share in worship and meet with God, a risk to live out our faith in everyday life - God will change us if we take that risk. I don't believe that such an understanding of faith is Gnostic - if you can manage to offer an argument without the personal abuse then I would be interested to know Stacey how you think that this is "Gnosticism".

4. Nor do I believe that it is clergy wishful thinking or delusion to suggest that people will be change this Easter through the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Vigil and Easter Day. That's not's not to suggest that I keep a score card and rate the worship according to the points for change. Experience shows that some of the call for change from God will not emerge for days, or weeks afterwards. But if I did not believe that by offering worship people are change by God then I think I would cease to be a priest.

5. To be a Anglo-Catholic priest does not for me include any sense of being an intermediary between an individual and God (not even as some evangelicals seem to implicitly believe about preaching sermons). At best I trust that what I offer whether preaching, or planning worship is to be a catalyst - I may be a conduit for God's grace to others - but I am not an intermediary. John's understanding of confession is wholly misplaced- I would now call it a Sacrament of Reconciliation - when I hear a confession I hear someone confessing directly to God (not to me) - when I offer forgiveness - then it is God's forgiveness not mine - the relationship that is restored is between the penitent and God not between the penitent and me - not least cos I never mention again what has been confessed to anyone (including the penitent unless they raise the subject)

6. To "Salvation's Soldier" I would simply say that you are deluded in your understanding computers if you think that your anonymous title will protect your indentity. The police and others could trace you quite easily if you continue to email such material, and civil or crimminal action could follow. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ let this be the last such email before you bring yourself and our faith in disrepute.

So to those who have responded I hope you enter Easter and Easter-tide expecting to be changed by God ( not by what I have posted) so that you are more the person that God wants you to be.

Blessings for Easter folks

Comments

[John]

First off - don't worry about RSS. It doesn't carry the comments unless you tell it to. And you'd know if you had :-)

Second, thanks for your honesty and courage. Don't let the nasties get you down!

pax et bonum

[Claire]

I'm still quite shocked by what I have read - remember always Tom that people of vision (particularly big people!!)will always be challenging and therefore be threatened - and while some of us find your words and wisdom challenging there has never been any doubt that they reveal the God that you worship. Talk of Gnosticism etc about you is complete crap. Please please don't stop. Have a blessed and not too exhausting Easter - and a good break next week.
Claire and David

[Joni]

Tom
It was your evening reflection at Scargill about approaching worship expecting to be 'changed' by God which rescued my faith in being part of a worshipping Community. Any form of worship had become dull and routine - what you made me aware of was that the problem was with me and my view of God - it was a tough message forcefully put - but vital to me and mine.

As Claire says in her comments keep doing it. I am sure that negative comments won't put you off from posting what you believe is right and of God - I hope not. Blessings for Easter - just heard that your Maundy Mass tonight was brilliant.
Joni

[rhys]

Thomas Merton

Christian tradition ... is a living and perpetual revolution"
(Seeds of Contemplation, p. 111)

hat tip to Simontsays

[Caroline]

Tom,

I have 'met' you several times through your comments on other blogs and I've always found your comments encouraging and supportive. So I'm sorry that others should comment at you in a hurtful way.

I confess that I was left a little non-plussed as to what change you were referring to in your original post, change is such a huge term and can cover such a multitude of 'sins' :-)

I have a suspicion that were you and I to chat, we would find we disagreed on certain areas. It's funny how firmly we can hold a belief we consider incidental to our relationship with Jesus!

What grieves me, more than words can say, is that the people who abused you were quite likely backing their abusiveness with beliefs I share. I can not put into words the anger I feel that my evangelical faith has been stolen away from me by 'spirit of the age' that pushes party spirit and is keener to stipulate who's outside rather than welcome inside .. actually lets knock sides on the head and journey on together.

Sorry for a long comment, but the increasing viciousness of some of the current divisions between churchmanships is appalling me, and somehow we need to permit differences that add to each other.

[Kathryn]

Nor do I believe that it is clergy wishful thinking or delusion to suggest that people will be change this Easter through the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Vigil and Easter Day. That's not's not to suggest that I keep a score card and rate the worship according to the points for change. Experience shows that some of the call for change from God will not emerge for days, or weeks afterwards. But if I did not believe that by offering worship people are change by God then I think I would cease to be a priest.

Yes, yes, YES.
I will always treasure my first full Holy Week at St John the Divine Kennington...I can remember waking up on the Monday morning and knowing that the whole world was different for me, and that God was finding me a different place in it. Though I'm sure things had been moving beneath the surface long before that, for me that was the start of the journey that brought me to ordination, and I am so very grateful.

[Tom]

Thanks for the messages of support for which I am grateful. One of the problems with responding to comments is that it tends then to detract from the main topic - which is pray and expect that God can bring change in you this Easter. What the change is for God to call and us to listen and discern. What I cannot expect given the state of the Church is that we should simply stay as we are or have been. Faithfulness consists of being willing to change when called - not sticking with what has been. (If that worries you enough to abuse me, rather than challenge or argue with me then I kind of think that proves my point). Thanks again - with blessings to all for Easter.
Tom

[hopefulamphibian]

I might be being a bit thick, Tom, but I can't see anything in your last post which seems to be at all theologically controversial. I can understand why you chose to remove the abusive stuff, but would be interested in knowing their grounds for criticism. Indeed, when it comes to change, some evangelicals (and others) might even question your assertion that 'only God is unchanging'... at least, it seems to me from reading scripture, that the Lord frequently 'condescends' to change in his relationship with humanity.

[Tom]

I don't think that there was anything controversial theologically - but I think that within the Church of England we live incontroversial times ecclesiologically and socially - and some (including three of the erased critics) seem to think that I fail as a priest cos I don't resist these changes which are being "forced upon us" to quote one of them. I think the tone of my article upset others - here was a minister/priest telling people what to expect from God this Easter- hence I think the intermediary charge.

It is central to Christian theology that God is eternal and therefore unchanging - and I agree that some evangelical/protestant theology has been week on this. I would suggest that our relationship with God changes as we meet different aspects/dimensions of an unchanging God. Not sure I have the language on Holy Saturday at 10.35pm - may try a later post to express what I understand about the changelessness of God.
Tom

[Diana]

Change is frightening because people percieve it as painful but we cannot grow or have a deepening relationship with God if we don't allow ourselves to be changed by him. However surely 'relationship' implies that things can change on both sides?!