andygoodliff

Baptist-Catholic Talks December 2009

The next round of Baptist-Catholic talks begin Sunday 13 until Saturday 19 December in Rome Italy. See here and follow possibly during, but definitely after, with Steven Harmon, one of the BWA's respresentatives. The talks are running from 2006-2010.

Some of the Baptist papers have been published from previous rounds of the talks:

Steven Harmon, 'Scripture in the Life of the Baptist Churches: Openings for a Differentiated Catholic-Baptist Consensus on Scripture', Pro Ecclesia 18.2 (Spring 2009), 187-215

Steve Harmon, 'Dei Verbum § 9 in Baptist Perspective', Eccleisology 5.3 (September 2009), 299-321

download Regent's Reviews

It's finally available ... a little later than planned ... but you can download Regent's Reviews here. Regent's Reviews is a book review journal based from Regent's Park College (which I'm helping to edit), only available now as a .pdf.  This first edition has a special focus on recent books written by baptists in light of the 400th celebration of Baptist beginnings. Reviews include:

Baptist Sacramentalism 2 edited by Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson

On Being the Church by Brian Haymes, Ruth Gouldbourne and Anthony R. Cross

Reinventing English Evangelicalism, 1966-2001 by Rob Warner

Under the Rule of Christ: Dimensions of Baptist Spirituality edited by Paul Fiddes

Can These Bones Live?: A Catholic Baptist Engagement with Ecclesiology by Barry Harvey

The Book of Revelation by Simon Woodman

Approaching God by Chris Ellis

Church, Community and Power by Roy Kearsley

Challenging to Change. Festschrift for Nigel Wright edited by Pieter Lalleman

Some Thoughts on Baptist Assembly

Times have changed. The Assembly has degenerated into a Baptist jamboree. It has become more a time for back-scratching and flag-waving, and a less for brainstorming and policy making ... In practice today's assemblies are not deliberative assemblies.

wrote Paul Beasley-Murray in July 1977 (in an article in the Baptist Minister's Fraternal journal).

He goes on to include a reply from David Russell (then General Secretary) on the relationship between Council and Assembly. Russell wrote:

My own judgment is that the Council, through it's representative and elected members, can act in the name of the Union in determining policy and future action, except in so far as it is laid down in the constitution or some other rubric that the Assembly itself shall be the responsible body. I would imagine that the decisions of the Council could be called in question by the Assembly through the presentation of the Council's Report and matters referred back to the Council for further consideration. The Assembly has not been regarded as a judiciary body, but more of an inspirational gathering. However, there are matters which must receive the approval of the Assembly before they can become law, as it were. But for the most part it is within the province of the Council rather than the Assembly to act and to make decisions which will facilitate the working of the Union throughout the year.

Beasley-Murray goes on to outline a move towards a more deliberative assembly. He writes:

Inevitably such a deliberative Assembly would have to be radically different in structure from our present Assembly. Deliberation could not be confined to one or two meetings; it would have to determine all the sessions - both plenary and sectional ...

Such restructuring would be a painful process for some, but it would be a liberating experience for many ... Such an Assembly would, of course, attract a different clientele. Those who are attracted by the present pattern would perhaps not attend a new style Assembly. But would this not be an advantage? Instead of churches sending the retired as delegates, young folk would eagerly take time off work to participate [I like B-M's optimism here!]. Our present Assemblies are not known for their vision and vitality, their intellectual depths or their spiritual heights. I believe that a deliberative Assembly could be a step forward in releasing the Spirit in our midst ...

A deliberative large scale Assembly is a possibility - I hope it will become a reality.

In 2009 (22 years later) some of us are hoping it still might become a reality. It might be interesting to compare with the BU's Doctrine and Worship Committee discussion document on The Nature of Assembly and Council (1994) which has also largely been ignored.

what is is our baptist missional strategy?

This question emerged in an afternoon session at college which was led by an anglican involved in Fresh Expressions.  While the Church of England (and the Methodists) seems to be committed to Fresh Expressions - which I read as a setting aside of ecclesiology and putting missiology in the driving seat, and also a desire amongst anglicans to become more baptistic (local and lay led) - the Baptist Union decided not to join (I can't remember the exact reason why).  It seems we don't really have a missional strategy apart from the recent crossing places initiative of the mission department. I wonder whether our strategy (unconsiciously) is to build more inclusive and welcoming churches. What do other baptist bloggers or readers think we're doing or should be doing?

McClendon on Authority Amongst Baptists

Following on from the previous post, I found this in an article by James McClendon on 'The Concept of Authority: a Baptist View' (Perspectives in Religious Studies 16.2, 1989)

Discernment is no mere ballot-box democracy, far less is it a mere opinion poll of the church membership. Discernment is rather a communal practice, deliberately undertaken, in which issues of moment for the ongoing life of God's people are addressed in meeting, brought under mutual study in the light of all the Scripture and all experience, committed to ultimate authority in earnest prayer, and at last brought to the judgment of those rightly concerned. The strength of baptist polity lies not in the mechanical democracy of yes or no votes taken upon some leadership ukase or majority report; the strength lies in the whole congregation that can and will assemble; it lies in a diversity of gifts, of which leadership is one while discernment of spirits is another; it lies in listening to the whole church, it lies in obedience to the Spirit. What justifies this polity is not its effectiveness, for on occasion it may not work, nor its convenience, for it may cause trouble: it is justified by the Spirit that indwells these communities of concern.

Dynamic Authority Amongst Baptists (?)

This post emerges from a comment I made in the Council discussion of the Faith & Unity report 'Knowing What We Believe'.

Where does authority lie within the Baptist Union? Is it with the Union's Trustees? Is it the Senior Management Team (the general secretary and general manager, the heads of the departments of ministry, mission, faith and unity, communications, finance)? It is with the Council Executives (Ministry, Mission, Faith & Unity) Is it with Council? Does it lie with Regional Ministers who are Team Leaders of their associations? Is it with Assembly or it is with the local church? Does it lie in part with our College Principals and Tutors as they shape and form generation after generation of Ministers? My answer to this question is to agree with a suggestion of Paul Fiddes that Baptists have 'a dynamic view of authority in the community, in which oversight flows to and fro between the personal and the communal' (Tracks and Traces, 2003, 87).

At its best authority and oversight for Baptists flows between the different groups ... never residing in one alone.  Discernment of the mind of Christ comes from listening to these broad range of voices.  At moments some voices will have more weight than others.  At moments some groups will take a lead, but they will not seek to act independently, but listen to the responses of others.  In the document On the Way of Trust (written by the Principals of the four English colleges in membership with the Baptist Union of Great Britain in 1997) they write that 'at their best, committees and councils, like church meetings, are bodies which corporately listen to the voice of Christ ... Strength of leadership rests not on the office persons hold, nor on the gift of personality they have, but on the quality of their service and the levels of trust nurtured and articulated within the community which recognises and respects them'.

Authority is dynamic, sometimes resting with the Trustees, sometimes with Council and sometimes with the other groups referred to above. No one group can claim sole authority. This is all dependent on a theology of trust between the different groups and constant requirement to corporately listen to each other.

Baptists, Receptive Ecumenism and other stuff

Steven Harmon has noted that Paul Fiddes' paper on baptists and receptive ecumenism is now available as a free download. It is published in 2008 in the journal Louvain Studies.

Steven also notes that his own paper 'Dei Verbum § 9 in Baptist Perspective' published in Ecclesiology (2009) can be downloaded.

Neil has an interesting post on challenges facing Baptists

While over at the Scottish Baptist College blog there is the beginnings of series of posts on what is a Baptist shaped community.

You can view the contents of the Journal of European Baptist Studies (2000-) here

It was good see the question of children and church reappear on the Council Agenda with the report on Encouraging Young Missionary Disciples. I hope the opportunity to do some theological reflection and perhaps even make some theological statements about the child from a Baptist perspective is not lost. The relation of children to the church does not have a great history in Council - the 1966 The Child and the Church report was only received (and then there is what Morris West called a 'remarkable silence') and the 1996 Believing and Being Baptized (which had a section on children in the church) discussion document, also only being received. 

BU Council also debated the question of civil partnerships and guidance for ministers, which saw a wide spectrum of views expressed, but done in an atmosphere of generosity. The issue of sexuality, as Neil suggests, will continue to challenge Baptists and hopefully we can continue in the same spirit of Tuesday morning. Baptists have avoided making statements about homosexuality, deciding instead to choose an educative process for local churches to work through thoughtfully the questions and issues for themselves. There is then an opportunity for Baptist churches to engage with the material prepared. So far very few churches have taken this up.

There was also a Faith and Unity report which began to tease out how might Baptists speak with authority (although not in an authoritarian way) and find some confidence in Council to make theological statements and judgments. This report had too focuses, first as response to applications from churches to join the BU (what is it constitutionally that makes a church Baptist?) and secondly as a desire that we don't shy away from speaking theologically.

Graham Watts new Spurgeon's Tutor in Doctrine

Spurgeon's College have apppointed Rev Dr Graham Watts as their new Tutor in Doctrine to replace John Colwell. Graham Watts completed a PhD on Jungel and Pannenberg under Alan Torrance at King's College London published as Revelation and the Spirit: A Comparative Study of the Relationship between the Doctrine of Revelation and Pneumatology in the Theology of Eberhard Jungel and Wolfhart Pannenberg (Paternoster, 2005 - a brief desciption and endorsements can be found here) and has also written papers on baptism and the sacredness of space. He is currently minister of Albany Road Baptist Church, Cardiff. He has blog but has only ever posted once here.

new Baptist blogger: Steven R. Harmon

Steven R. Harmon is one of a new generation of North American Baptist Theologians, following the likes of James McClendon and Curtis Freeman, in theology that takes tradition and catholicity seriously. He has just started blogging here and should be worth reading. He's got an article in the Spring 2009 edition Pro Ecclesia and his book Towards Baptist Catholicity will be the subject of four reviews in the Fall edition.

a portrait of Paul Fiddes

Last night the portrait of Paul Fiddes, Principal of Regent's Park College (1989-2007) was unveiled by Rex Mason (a previous senior tutor in Old Testament at the college). Guests we gathered from the Oxford theology faculty (Chris Rowland, John Barton, Robert Morgan), the Faith and Unity department of the Baptist Union (Graham Sparkes, Wale Hudson-Roberts) and others to be present for this special formal hall. Paul's is the only portrait in Regent's where you can see a window onto the college quad. 

Earlier in the week I was at the Faith & Unity Executive in Manchester and had the great joy of giving Paul a lift up there and back.  Amongst our conversation he told me about his current projects. Over the next few years we can look forward to - an expanded version of his 2005 Bampton Lectures on wisdom; a commentary on Romans (in the Blackwell Bible Commentaries series); a book on theology and Shakespeare; and finally a systematic theology that interacts with literature, building on previous work (The Promised End) and a statement of which can be found in an article in IJST 11. 1 (January 2009).