You can tell some school districts have the whole week off. The sounds of children can be heard in Sun City.
"Over the river and through the woods...."
Trust me, you're gonna watch this more than once.
Carol of the Bells
I had a meeting at lunch time downtown. I think that's maybe the third time I've been down there since we moved to the metro Phoenix area six years ago. Interesting place with at least one cool eatery. But if I hadn't used Google Maps to scout my route ahead of time I'd still be circling a maze one-way streets.
I'm wondering what I did on yesterday's aggressive ride. My calf muscles have been twitching all day and feel like they're on the verge of cramping.
The Church of England just narrowly voted to reject a proposal to have women bishops. They've had women clergy for years but this would have allowed women to occupy the highest leadership position within the church. The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the bishops, is drawn from among their number.
The clergy had already voted to approve this change to canon law but in order for it to take effect it had to pass the General Synod, which includes a large number of the laity. That's where the proposal failed to get the 2/3 approval necessary.
I think it's interesting that the pros approved it while the laity rejected it. That is, the clergy are more liberal (or progressive if you prefer that term) than the people in the pew. One might expect the clergy to be the group more concerned with orthodoxy and maintaining tradition. But it turns out that in the Church of England and in mainline denominations on this side of the pond it's the other way around. Here, for example, the clergy and leaders of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. daughter of the Church of England, voted a few years back to ordain practicing homosexuals, a move which began a continuing exodus of Episcopalians from the denomination and, in many cases, whole congregations from that body. The leadership were willing to make changes the churchgoers would not accept.
A parallel exists in academia. Professors at major universities are famous for being liberal (progressive?) in their views on social standards, values, structures, etc. Wide-eyed freshmen show up at State U. to learn that really smart people have discarded all those simplistic values and mores to embrace a more enlightened view of the world and its systems. More than one parent sees the kid who comes home after their freshman year and wonders what their tuition dollars are buying. And their student son or daughter wonders how their parents can be so simplistic.
The disconnect between the professional and the pew sitter is also found between the academic and the lunch pail set.
Back in the church, worth noting is that this division between the liberal leaders of religious bodies and their more conservative laity does not exist in more conservative church groups. You won't find it among the Southern Baptists, the Evangelical Free Church or similar evangelical/fundamental groups. Why? Why aren't the leaders pushing changes the people won't accept?
I think the critical factor is the presence (or absence) of an objective, written, authoritative standard. The primary difference between the two types of denominations - liberal/progressive and conservative - is their view of the Bible. The mainline denominations here, and the Church of England there, long ago abandoned any notion that the Bible was the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God. The Bible is viewed as a valuable book containing important principles, but a book of human origins that contains errors. In the absence of an objective and authoritative standard the wisdom of man becomes the governing principle, and who better to provide that wisdom than the most educated and enlightened? Those enlightened professionals often don't have a lot of patience with ordinary folk and their outdated views.
In those denominations and churches that view the Bible as the inspired and inerrant Word of God there exists a standard that trumps human "wisdom" and the changing views of society. It transcends the seminary-educated clergy's enlightenment and sometimes challenges the unfounded traditions of the laity. Billy Graham's famous phrase, "the Bible says..." expresses the underlining ethos of the evangelical/fundamental church: the Bible is the timeless, authoritative standard against which all else is measured.
It appears the laity of the Church of England and many of the pew sitters in the Episcopalian Church are slower to give up the authority of the Bible than their leaders. Hence the exodus among Episcopalians and the rejection of the proposal re. bishops in the Church of England. But as the leadership goes, so goes the body - a truism that applies to football teams, companies, and church groups. Our grandparents would have been incredulous had they been told about the changes in mainline denominations. The exodus from the Episcopal church over homosexual ordination makes news but it involves a minority of members. A decade from now no Episcopalian will think anything of the ordination of homosexuals, and you can bet the Church of England will have a woman Archbishop.
Pathway Bible Church will look pretty much the same, at least re. our beliefs. We'll be singing some different songs, and other externals will undoubtedly change. But because we've accepted the overriding authority of Scripture, any doctrine or practice on which it speaks will look just like it does now.
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