lurchersontheedge

Not flesh of my flesh
Not bone of my bone
But still miraculous,
My own

Never forget
For a single minute
That you not being from my loins
Has made me into a different kind of man
And a changed human being

I mean by Church traditions what I might have meant by churchmanship many years ago.

I am extraordinarily inclusive when it comes to church traditions, except I have never been a liberal or understood liberalism. It does not seem to make sense in the way that evangelicalism ( whether open, conservative or charismatic) does or indeed Orthodoxy (as part of my ordination training, I spent 6 weeks in Greece at the Orthodox Academy in Volos. My England Cricket hat was mistaken for a mitre) or Anglo-Catholicism.

You see I grew up in St James and St Christoper, Shiregreen in Sheffield, whose theological tradition tacked according to the whim of successive incumbents. I thought it was the only expression of Christianity for a while, apart from the Elim Church, I occasionally walked to or youth groups in the same deanery, like T’others in St Peter’s, Ellesmere (another part of Sheffield). When I went to the London City Mission, which is a conservative evangelical mission (doing amazing work) I just thought that was Christian.

I did my ordination training at Queen’s in Birmingham. The Anglican cohort of 7 or 8 that I was in covered the entire spectrum of Anglicanism or so it seemed. No wonder the strapline was for a while: ‘learning at the place where traditions meet’. I wonder whether that it what Anglicanism, certainly the CofE and CiW are about at the past, places where different experiences of truth can exist and mutually flourish.

I think of Messy Church which has blossomed all over the world. It seems to have the knack of embracing differing traditions. I wonder whether they are beginning to disappear.

I may of course be very wrong, but perhaps in a nation like Wales where only 1% go to worship with the Church in Wales, theological tradition has become a bit of a luxury.

It was in 1986, so forgive me if I have forgotten exactly what I said. It was in Bermondsey, in the London City Mission Hall. The missioner, Terry Bedlow, would have been there and my two evangelist colleagues, David Mouncer and Andy Chubb. There probably would have been half a dozen others, two of whom would have been there for tea and cake afterwards.

I preached on Revelation 1: 4-6

⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed^[d] us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and made^[e] us to be a kingdom, priests serving^[f] his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

I remember focusing on Jesus being the ruler of the kings of the earth for about 25-30 minutes.

I did not know how to preach. I had never been on a course. I probably had not really listened to too many sermons before. I remember having just been taught that it was important to make the text come alive and to share what God had said to you during the week. That was a novel concept that God might speak to me. But I had not met many theologians who would seek to dissuade me though. That is a partial joke.

The London City Mission is a brilliant conservative evangelical organisation. I did not know that though. I just thought it was Christian, just as my parish church in Sheffield with its servers, sanctuary bell and occasional incense was Christian too.

I learnt a lot from that Bermondsey group. They allowed to blossom and to fail. They never let on how bad I was…. that came with time though.