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Questions about Christianity and the Anglican Church
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Do you have more questions? Then email them in for an answer in straightforward language.
What is the Holy Spirit? Is it way out experience?
Everyone who is baptised, is brought into the life of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, when he talks about being 'born again', that you must be born of water and of the Spirit.
That is recognising that life is more than just material it is also spiritual. The way we are spiritual is by allowing the Holy Spirit of God to dwell within. It is in this way that we fully experience life, both physical and spiritual.
The Holy Spirit equips us to live this spiritual life so that we my pray better, hear God more clearly and deeply. In fact we cannot do this without God...it is not a learning, but a gift that we recieve.
We might pray....Lord give me the gift of your spirit to open me to the fullness of life in you. Why not try it?
Infant Baptism-Why do some churches baptise infants and others insist that only adult can be baptised?
In order to be baptised a person has to make a commitment to follow Jesus. Obviously an infant or young child has little or no understanding of what this might mean. So, in families where faith is well understood if a child is to be baptised then the parents make the decision on behalf of the child.
This happens on lot of occasions for a young child when you think about it. Parents decide what a child should wear, what they eat, where they go to school and so on...because the child is too young to make such important decisions.
Ideally in a church that practises infant baptism, like the Anglican church, when a child can make a decision for themselves they are brought to the Bishop or some other senior minister to 'confirm' this decision. The Bishop prays for them to receive the Holy Spirit to continue in the way that parents and godparents promised on their behalf.
my sister in law baptized her friend's baby, after a falling out her friend want's now toremove my sister in law as godmother.is this possible and can it happenwhat are the grounds for removalthey are both catholicwhat happens to the child now
And I reply
This is rather a technical question about the nature of marriage. Most often if, sadly, a marriage is concluded it is done through the process of divorce. In the church this requires that the legal processes be completed and also,should a person seek to marry again, the Bishop must give his assent that all matters pertaining to the former marriage have been satisfactorily concluded.
Annulment goes a slightly different route. It seeks to establish that the marriage was never valid in the first place. Thus if a couple were not legally able to marry, or were compelled against their will to marry, then the marriage may be able to be annulled at law.The Church might then consider declaring the marriage void.
It is a cumbersome procedure and will not always prove helpful. In the Roman Catholic Church it is a legalistic way that is used to get round that church's very rigid prohibitions against remarriage
Christians have now existed for nearly 2000 years. There are now millions of Christians in every continent and probably every country, during that time there have been many changes and growths and modifications.
A lot of these reflect national & ethnic differences, so for example there is a Roman Catholic Church which is essentially a product of western Europe, but which has spread throughout the world. There is, too, a Greek Orthodox Church, a Russian Orthodox Church, The Church of England, The Anglican Church of Australia, and in China a national church known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement!!
Many denominations reflect people's personal style and choice of worship, approach to the Bible, or spirituality. So the Anglican Church, the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church are strongly focussed on the dignity of worship and you will see in those churches ministers dressed in elaborate robes and highly decorated churches. On another extreme there is the Society of Friends whose meetings are quiet and refelective and who lack a lot of organised structure, eyet who are very effective.
Some denominations are formed by breakaways from traditional churches on matters of doctrine or governance and these have happened for well over a thousand years. In the 11th Centrury there was a formal split between the Western (Roman) Church and the Eastern (Orthodox) Churches, in the 15th and 16th centuries there was major movement in the Western Church called the the Reformation...this formed many new groupings including: the Lutheran Church in Germany and Scandinavia, the Anglican Church, the Presbyterian and Calvinist Churches...there have been other moves since...the Methodists and Pentecostals, the Baptists and the Brethren...and so it goes on.
In the last decade Churches have tried to work together through the Ecumenical movement, the World Council fo Churches is a sort of UN for Churches, or in Australia...The Australian National Council of Churches. And of interesting note is the Uniting Church of Australia which combined the former Methodist, Congregational and (most of the ) Presbyterian Churches to form a new denomination.
Why doesn't the Church compensate victims of abuse instead of forcing them to go to court
It is shameful that the Church had within its midst people who have abused others for their own ends. It is the stated view of the Diocese of Adelaide that the Church will do what ever it can to bring about healing and wholeness for those who have been hurt by unscrupulous people and by poor church processes. Our new Archbishop has stated that he will not force anyone to go to court, and the Diocese has stated a commitment to do what it can.
Part of this is financial compensation. Such compensation will never remedy the fault, but it is part of the way that our society responds to such wrongs. The Church will need to apply what ever resources it can to offer adequate financial compensation.
Strangely the resources of South Australian Dioceses are not great. There is no great big pool of money that can be drawn upon. But our new Bishop (see here) has stated publicly that we will do what we can to respond, and as quickly as possible.
What is the Anglican Church's view of Divorce
Here at this link is an answer to the question "Is Divorce a sin?" http://users.chariot.net.au/~coromandel/questions1.htm#Divorce
The Anglican Church of Australia, like the Roman Catholic Church, regards marriage as the lifelong union between a man and a woman. The vow lasts until one of the parties dies. We do not consider same-sex relationships to be "marriages".
In some circumstances people get divorced and may then wish to remarry. Divorce is essentially a civil matter that happens under the law of the Commonwealth.
Since the late 1970s we have permitted some divorced members of the Church to marry again in church. Special permission has to be sought from the Bishop, and usually the Church is concerned to ensure that everything from the former marriage is resolved...that is that the civil divorce has been completed, that the custody of children is resolved and all other matters have been satisfactorily completed.
It is felt that this is only something that we can judge on for members of the church so it is not generally available.
Not all people in the church believe that people who have been married should be able to be married again while their former husband or wife is still alive so no priest is required to marry anyone who has been divorced if they do not wish to.
The Church makes no judgment on people who are not church members who may have been married more than once.
Divorce is a very messy area of human life and it is never "black and white", there is always a sense in which any decision is unsatisfactory but this is the state of play at the moment.
Q. I am going to be a godmother at a friends christening can you tell me the exact speech or vows or reading i have to say as i am a bit nervous and i would like to now before hand what i have to say thank you for your help.?
You probably need to check with the family and the priest (or minister) who is conducting the service.
In our parish a godparent might say a few words of introduction about the baby...where do they fit in the scheme of things. You need to check with the family about whether they want you to do this.
Apart from that the important things that Godparents (along with the parents) do is to make the promises that a person would make if they were old enough to answer for themselves.
In Anglican/Episcopalian churches the questions are something like.
Do you turn to Christ I turn to Christ
then there are three other questions which flow from this
Do you repent of your sins I repent of my sins
Do you reject selfish living I reject all that is selfish
Do you reject evil I reject all that is evil
Godparents may also be invited to support the parents in bringing up their children.
It is usual for a statement of Christian Faith to be made by saying the Apostle's Creed (see here) which has been said by those coming to be baptised since the earliest days of Christianity. You need to check with the family and the minister to get a full sense of what you weill be asked to do. Hope all goes well.
Answer: Buddhism began in India hundreds of years ago. It has since spread through much of Asia and is popular in the West too. In Australia many Buddhists have come to live here from SE Asian countries such as Cambodia Vietnam and Laos.
It is not easy to "sum up" Buddhism in a few sentences though a couple of key ideas are:
Buddhists do not believe in God as Christians, Jews and Moslems do.Buddhists believe that life is about coming to grips with suffering, and key to understanding suffering is the practice of Compassion.
All living creatures, humanity included, are linked and what we do affects our lives and our world. We strive to attain perfection by living the compassionate life. Some do achieve this and become bodhhisatvas (living Buddhas) in this world.
In the next life we continue on our quest for perfection until such time as we are released from the circle of suffering.
A key religious practice is meditation, often in the tradition of mindfulness.
Q. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Is the Easter story true?
Answer: I have no hesitation in saying that the Jesus story is true! But I think we need to avoid getting caught up in the details. If you read the stories in the Gospels they vary. This is not surprising. If you talk to the police about corroborating evidence the first thing they suspect is when eyewitness accounts agree in absolutely every detail. Individuals see things differently. And it is no different in the Gospels, so each writer chooses the part of the story, and writes it in such a way that their particular purposes are served.
John, for example, wants to show how Jesus is the fulfilment of all God's promises; how he is the restoration of humanity. When we read for example, "Mary thought he was the gardener" when she saw the shadowy figure of Jesus in the garden, the biblically literate amongst us, will immediately flashback to the Garden of Eden and remember that the gardener there was driven out because of his sin. Jesus is the new gardener! He brings us back into the garden by his death and resurrection. This is not immediately apparent to the casual reader, but it is there. Mary thought he was the gardener, because he was!
I have been distracted!
Whatever else we may make of it people, many people, saw Jesus alive after his death. And Christian experience today is that we experience the risen Jesus. This is so well attested in spiritual experience that it is hard to doubt it.
But it is faith that is the chief ingredient that enables this to happen.
All I can suggest is that you pray to God to have this experience. And I believe that God, who is faithful, will do that.
Q. Can a child be baptised in two different churches?
Answer: An enquirer from the UK asks about whether or not her child can be baptised or introduced in two different churches. Her e-mail and my reply are below.
- I want to introduce my baby to church - I am C of E and want my baby
- christened in a c of e chrch and my husband is catholic and wants the baby
- baptised in a catholic church
- Is there any compromise - Can the baby be introduced into both churches??
- Regards
- S
- Stephen Replies
- S
- ............ I don't see any reason why
- your baby can't be baptised in one Church (the baby can only be baptised
- once) and "introduced" in the other Church. Both the Anglican Church (C of
- E) and the Roman Catholic Church accept that a baby baptised in the other
- Church is validly baptised.
- It is always difficult to talk about these things theoretically, the best
- thing to do would be to talk to your local Parish Priest.
- Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
- Stephen Clark
- Parish Priest
- Anglican Parish of Coromandel Valley
- South Australia
Q. Why did God let Jesus die?
Answer:It is not easy in a few lines to give a straightforward answer to what Christians have been talking about the 2000 years. I can say that we believe that death is something which affects every human person. And one thing we see therefore, is that in the death of Jesus God is touching human experience of every person .
Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is God's Messiah, and that by dying he is able to effect in his body a reconciliation between humanity and God. In this sense we can say that God let Jesus die because God wanted to be reconciled to humanity. In fact, many of us have the experience that death brings about a reconciliation in relationships. We will never fully understand just how Jesus's death does this, it is a question of faith. For many, myself included, this reality becomes more true each day as life goes on.
Q. Is God therefore a cruel god?
Answer: It would be possible to think this if the only view we had of God was that of some sort of vengeful dictator, or a wrathful ruler who needed to be appeased for every little wrong that has been done. This is a very crude view of God, and does not fit easily with the Christian view that God is love, that God is compassionate.
What does seem to fit is a God who so deeply desires that humanity should be reconciled to him, that he is prepared to do anything to bring that reconciliation about. In that sense giving his son, for the whole of humanity, is not an act of cruelty but the supreme act of love! Indeed the most famous verse of the New Testament, John 3:16 says this-- -- God loves the world so much that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in would not perish, but have eternal life!
God is certainly not a cruel god
Q. Why, if he is all powerful, did God not make the world without evil?
Answer: This is a key question. The presence of evil in the world is a real conundrum for us, it does not seem to fit with any idea we have of a loving God. It does, however, fit with our human experience. A classical answer says that a loving God must allow the possibility that when he invites us into a loving relationship, we must have the possibility of saying "No!". If we can't refuse, then our love is pretty shaky and not very deep. In allowing us to have free will, this must also permit the possibility, and indeed the reality of evil
Q. Why is Church Music so boring?
Answer: Of course that's a matter of opinion! In our particular church music is very varied. At some services we have three trombones. That does not make it good or bad, but many people base their ideas of church music on what it was like in the 1950s.
We even have a person in our congregation who belongs to a Christian heavy-metal band....not to my taste...but the point is that music is an expression of culture and as cultures vary so will music.
More traditional churches pride themselves on the classical style of music which is beautiful in its own way, but many....even most .....modern churches tend to have a mixture of music. Maybe Church music is not as boring as it was.
Answer: We are told that probably all males masturbate at some time, and many women do to. This is to recognise that people have physical sexual feelings and sometimes release them.
It is easy to be very judgmental about this, but perhaps it is as well to remind ourself that sexuality is a gift to us from God. It is a gift that is a celebration of human relationships, and under certain cirtcumstances will result in the conception of a child. It is a powerful and important expression of human love, and therefore we need to be sure that anytime we enage in sexual activity it is duly respecting the great gift God has given to us.
Q. Why is there so much sexual abuse in churches ?
Answer: Sexual abuse, whether in churches, or clubs school or families is always wrong. No one, whether a child or an adult should be subject to sexual abuse. But let's get this right....sexual abuse is not about sex it is about power. A powerful person abuses another less-powerful person. This has happened in churches because the church has often bee stupid and careless about its care of people. It has often trusted people and not supervised people who have turned out to be quite unscrupulous...even one might say, evil.
The church doesn't want to believe this of itself. And in so doing has closed its eyes to this abuse, preferring to think that it is above it. Clearly it is not. Whether there is more sexual abuse in churches than in society at large remains to be seen.
I think it is probably truer to say that this is a fault of male-dominated institutions, and such the church has been for hundreds of years. Roll on the day when we will have strong female leaders who will challenge this awful culture of abuse.
Q. What is theology?
Answer: Theology is really the formal name for the study of our beliefs. So it covers the very wide range of topics that we might think about in relation to our belief.
Like:
- What is the nature of God?
- What is sin?
- Who is Jesus and what do we believe about him?
- What is the relationship between God and humanity?
- and so on......many many questions
Answer: Meditation is a simple method of praying that brings us close to God through disciplined focus.
Q. What is "disciplined focus" (it sounds hard)?
Answer: It is not hard to do, and there are a variety of ways you can do it. But it is important to keep going and practising it...this is the "discipline". A little every day is better, and more disciplined, than a burst every now and then.
The "focus" can be as simple as a word, or a flower, or a passage of writing...often a Gospel story for Christians...there is a little more information on this site (click here)
Another simple meditation exercise is given below.
- Sit in a good chair, that keeps you well supported.
- When you are comfortable take one or two deep breaths. With eyes closed begin to say in your mind the word "Joy" (another word can be substituted if you like). Just say this word over and over again.
- When your mind wanders just come back to saying the same word over again. And when your mind wanders again, just gently come back to saying the word.
- Do this for about 5-10 mins each day for a week. You may wish to continue with the same word or change to another (Love, Peace, Faith, Family, Jesus, God,Change, desire.....etc). The discipline is doing it each day. The focus is the word, and coming back to it when distracted.
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Q. My
friend says that he is an "atheist" what does that
mean?
Answer: An atheist is a person who does not believe there is a God. This is different from an "agnostic" who would say that they do not know whether there is a God or not.
There seem to be less atheists than there are agnostics, this is partly because to be an atheist is a strong position, and to a certain extent requires a faith in one's own ability to be able to make absolute assessments. The agnostic would say, perhaps there is a God but the evidence is inconclusive. The atheist really has to say, 'No! it is quite clear there is not a God"
Most people believe in
God, and there are "proofs" for the existence of God. But in
the end the proofs require a "leap of faith" because belief
in God is a matter fo faith rather than logic. While logic
can support the faith, it seems to me, it is indeed a
support rather than a proof. To me this is more
exciting,demanding and challenging than if everything is
'black and white'. Much more could be said.
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