In a lot of the services that we attend, at some stage, we will be asked to stand up and ‘declare our faith’ by joining together in saying one of the Creeds. They are designed, I suppose, to keep us on message, an attempt by the early church to hold believers to a line and stop all those heretical beliefs gaining ascendency over the true faith. In writing his Second Letter to Timothy, St Paul recognises that this situation will come about
For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. (2 Timothy 4.3-5)
That lovely phrase ‘itching ears’ is exactly right. So to avoid the scratching at doctrine in the way that was happening, we agreed the Creeds and as part of that the wonderful description of the nature of the church ‘one holy catholic and apostolic’.
Meetings of the General Synod cover a great many topics and when we are at our best some of those are outward facing, such as yesterday’s debate on Food Wastage. It was a timely discussion as many churches are concerned with issues relating to justice, peace and the integrity of creation – and how we use food resources fits each of these imperatives. The Borough Market, next to Southwark Cathedral, has developed very effective work with the local traders and food ‘recycling’, ‘recovery’ charities who take what remains and distribute it amongst those community and charitable groups that need it. When the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the market just before Christmas I had the privilege of presenting representatives of one such charity, ‘Plan Zheroes’, with whom, last year, the market distributed over 9,000 kilos of food that would have otherwise have been wasted. It is this kind of work that needs promoting and developing.
But the rest of the day in Synod was more about looking at the nature of the church that we describe in the Creed. We began by being addressed by three Archbishops from very different parts of the Anglican Communion – Southern Africa, Pakistan and Polynesia. Each had different stories to tell and it was moving to hear them speak. Then we debated our partnership links, the wonderful link that for instance the Diocese of Southwark and our cathedral has with four of the five dioceses in Zimbabwe. Last year, in February, I was there visiting each of the dioceses and seeing the amazing life, work, witness and mission in which the church is engaged. I came back exhilarated. The Anglican Communion is an exciting place to be – not the thorn in the side that can be so often portrayed when things are not going as we would like them to.
We spent a lot of time on legislation – we are a legislative body after all and that work is vital, the nuts and bolts of church life.
John Wesley preaching
But two things stood out – the Presidential Address by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the debate on Mission and Ministry in Covenant with the Methodist Church. The Archbishop spoke of the tension between tradition and creativity. The three-legged stool of Anglicanism is scripture, reason and tradition and they serve us well. But that important ‘leg’ of tradition can at times seem to hold back innovation. The Archbishop quoting someone quoting someone said
‘Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.’
A helpful Tweet in response to one of mine added a quote from Gustav Mahler
‘Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire.’
I love that. All of it played in to seeing a way forward for deepening the relationship we already have with the Methodist Church in this country. We belong together but there are differences and these focus on church order, on how episcope is exercised (in a monarchical system as in the western catholic tradition or through Conference, synodically, as with Methodism) and therefore how the grace of orders is conferred and with what sacramental guarantees.
One thing I do know is that John Wesley set hearts on fire with his preaching, his teaching, his leadership. In an era when the church looked more like ashes he fanned those flames and created a revival of faith amongst people the Church of England just wasn’t speaking to which challenged us then and still does. I had the privilege of chairing this debate and there were great speeches to be heard and a moving set of presentations by a former President of the Conference and the present Secretary of the Conference. In the end a vote, taken in all three Houses, passed an amended motion. There is a lot of work to do but it is exciting to see how the church can be the church, in the past, in the present and in the future, truly one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
And today? It will be challenging – safeguarding and Down’s Syndrome as well as other matters. But more of that later.
Lord of the Church,
may we be your church
one
holy
catholic
apostolic
that the world might believe.
Amen.
Andrew Nunn's reflections from General Synod 
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