Becoming Like Your Dad

I've realised I'm becoming like my dad more and more. (I'm not sure he will appreciate the picture or not).  He was a secondary school teacher - I'm teacher-in-training. He's studied theology at King's - so have I. He works for the church - so do I. He likes driving (pretty fast) - so do I. Theologically we're not far off from each other, although, at least recently, I spend more time reading. The past year has seen me get very familiar with the work of Tom Wright, Walter Brueggemann and Stanley Hauerwas - having said that, his library is bigger than mine. The place I think where we've ost grown closer is ecclesiologically. Although my dad works for the Baptist Union, he was brought up in an Anglican church in Patcham, Brighton and parts of the anglican tradition are still important to him, perhaps mostly in their approach to the eucharist and their liturgy. Baptists have never been as strong liturgically, which I'm learning is only to our detriment.  The last few years have seen me become more anglican and in some areas gone beyond the usual boundaries of baptist theology and belief - I think there is an argument for infant baptism, or at least I want to be more open to those who take a different journey. I also would love to be in a church that follows the lectionary and celebrates the church calendar, this would only nuture a different rhythm and timing to life.  I'm a baptist with some anglican leanings.  It does seem to me that there needs to be a lot more openness to different church traditions at a more grassroots level. At a national level the different denominations get together and right reports on this and that, but there often seems to be a wariness about losing one's identity.  This is not suggest I'm adovocating an ecumenism that avoids the issues of baptism, eucharist, church government, etc - this would only take us away from what makes us Christian.

Comments

[ash]

well there is the old maxim "in essentials; unity in non-essentials; liberty, and in all things; love."

Or, as the Windsor Report prefers to call it "The Doctrine of Adiaphora."

I suppose, then, it depends what one feels is essential. The post-modernist in me would like to say "some vague notion of otherness" but that's not really viable in any sense. Indeed, even a faith in the triune God is not truely enough for some.

There are parts of the church I don't want to be allied with.. and unfortunately, that is true of everyone. Which leaves us in the position of having to force more things to be essentials.

all that aside, however, Ecumenism is the way forward, and I look forward to a growing realisation of this among Christians of all posses and crews.