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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.
Q. Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
Answer: There has been a great deal of thought and discussion about what it means to say that Jesus rose from the dead. The gospel stories do not give one clear answer to this question, yet as you examine the accounts and the experiences of the early followers of Jesus, it is clear that Jesus who died on the Cross and who was buried in a tomb, was experienced by these people as alive in a real and meaningful sense of that word.
Many people have difficulty with the story of Jesus' resurrection, even many Christians. It is easy to become obsessed with the historical event and miss the point that the Resurrection calls us to a new style of life. We are called to this life irrespective of whether or not Jesus actually was physically resurrected.
This new life is a life which sees the many death experiences that we face not as the END but as the beginning. Far from God deserting us they are the sign that God is closer and more real. It is not an experience of fear but of trust and hope.
Q. Do you believe everything in the Bible to be true?
Answer: I believe the Bible to be the written revelation of God's truth. Having said that we must be careful to understand that it is not magical, the words do not have special powers nor is the book itself capable of working wonders. We do not worship the Bible we worship God and God alone.
We need then to take the Bible seriously without trying to make it into something it is not. It is not, for example a recipe or instruction book which if you follow will give you the perfect life. It is deeper and profounder than that.
Perhaps the best way to look at it is to see it is as God's story. It is told in many different ways and we are invited to weave our own story into God's.
Q. But is it true?
Answer: I believe the Bible to be a true story of how God and humanity interrelate. Like any story it is not the details that so much, but rather the relationship between the characters. At the heart is the relationship between God and Jesus, and we are drawn into that mystery. Whether there were 4,000 or 5,000 people who sat down to listen to Jesus and to share in the miracle of the feeding seems irrelevant alongside the story of Jesus's death and resurrection. Truth lies not so much in the detail as in the depth.
What we do witness is a truth that both remains the same and which changes. This changes as our lives change. The Bible, for example, takes slavery for granted but today we find that intolerable. St Paul, too, spoke about women and their role in ways that we do not readily accept. There are also places where the Bible expresses different viewpoints, representing different hands, editors and writers.
The truth lies deeper than the individual text or verse. It lies in how Christians interact with the written revelation of God's truth. We must be careful to understand that it is not simply a question of developing our own individual understanding, but rather as a community of faith working through meaning together. We sometimes find that difficult, we often disagree.
The Bible IS true, but it is not trite. When we are being challenged to be deep. We should not be satisfied with being shallow!
Q. Why did God allow the planes to crash into the twin towers? Why does He allow terrorism and evil?
Answer: God is indeed "all powerful" and so it is possible for God to achieve anything. God is also "all loving". So why, we might ask, does he allow the evil of terrorism and violence to wreak havoc, pain and death. This is a pivotal question for Christians. We answer this by pointing out that God is also a God of freedom. Indeed if we are to have a really true and loving relationship with God, then we have to have freedom, because true love is love given freely.
Unfortunately this freedom is often misused and abused. We use our freedom to further our selfish aims and sometimes this bring about tragic circumstances.
Let us not suggest for a moment that God caused the great act of terrorism we have recently experience. Or that God caused Auschwitz or Hiroshima, the blame for all these things lies at the door of certain individuals and in a way at the door of the whole of humanity for its blindness and selfishness..
It has been suggested for example that the bombing of the twin towers also provides an opportunity for the western world to reevaluate how we may have created an environment where sections of the Arab world hate us so much. The very wealth of the opulent West, let us not forget, is built on the poverty of many who are desperate. If I think I am powerless how much more is the average Afghani or Sudanese.
Q. Does God really answer prayer?
Answer: Prayer to the Christian, is like air to the human. It keeps us alive. Prayer is one of the main ways we communicate with God, and that God communicates with us.
I am bold to say that God never ignores our prayers, and that he will answer them in the best way possible. We don't always want that. We may want a new job, but God may want us to deal with the difficulties we are having that partly make us want to run away!
God does not play games with us. But we quite often play games with God. This is a hard saying, because often we want God to wipe the slate clean, make problems disappear, drop goodies into our lap...but God wants us to know things like TRUE FORGIVENESS, PERSISTENCE and MATURITY, SELF-CONTROL and UNSELFISHNESS. Our petty materialism and shallowness often betrays this.
If we want God to really answer our prayer, we need to be prepared to be dealt with at depth.
Q. Why do some prayers not seem to be answered or take a long time?
Answer: There are many good jokes about unanswered prayer. One is about the man who fell off a cliff and clutching at a branch he said to God "Lord Save Me". A few minutes later a boat came along and offered help but the man said "No, it's all right. God will save me!"
Then another boat, and the same thing happened. Finally another boat and then a helicopter. The same thing. Finally the branch broke and he plunged to his death.
"Why did you not save me ," the man asked , when he encountered God in heaven, "I truly believed you would hear my prayer."
"Well," said God, "I did send you three boats and a helicopter but you ignored them."
Answer number one: look for the answer where it is not wher it is not.
Many prayers, too, particularly for healing of psychiatric illness and complicated problems need to take a longer time rather than a shorter time. An image might be like needing to unleash a compressed spring. There is so much tension that if we just let go all hell breaks loose, and indeed more damage may be done by rapid healing than if it were a slow process. God will always do the right thing.
It is slow. It is probably slow for a reason.
Q.A couple of my relatives have committed suicide, have they gone to hell?
When a person commits suicide it is always incredibly sad. It is sometimes said that they are saying not "I want to die" but rather "I don't want to go on living the way I am now doing."
This tells us volumes about their personal sadness and inability to cope with life. Rather than focussing on judging them, it would seem that our loving God really weeps for them. It is not our place to condemn them to hell. God is the judge and our God is compassionate, and cares for the desolate and the weak.
All this does not sound like a God who would send the sad victim of suicide to hell
Q.My wife and I were married @ city hall in NYC, .......My question, we just had our first child, and are interested in having the baby Christened in my church of worship which I belong to since I went there as a child and grammar school. Will we have problems since we did not get married by church?
When a baby is baptised the parents and godparents have to answer the questions of commitment on their behalf. So, as long as you can say: You believe in God, you are committed to Jesus Christ, you are sorry for your sin and you reject evil...you can answer those questions O.K.
Can you do that?
If you approach a priest or minister they will probably not be worried if you were married in a civil marriage (in Europe this is the normal way that people get married)...you are still married in the eyes of the church.
However you may like to get the church to formally bless your marriage...this could probably done at the same time as your baby is baptised
A WORD OF WARNING
Some individual priests or ministers have tender consciences about these matters and may not wish to baptise your baby, you can ask them to send you to someone who would, or try the parish next door...or what ever.
Q. Why is Christmas so commercialised?
Answer: Christmas is both Christian, religious, and secular in modern day society. Christian in that its primary purpose is to draw us closer to Christ. Religious in that there is much about Christmas which is formal and ritualistic, which is often beautiful in itself but it may or may not draw us closer to the risen Christ.
Secular, is what we mainly experience. This often seem pagan. For many Western Christians there will be little or no awareness of the Christ at the centre of Christmas. Fr Christmas, Santa Claus or what ever has ofetn been seen to be at the centre of this sort of Christless Christmas, even though he himself is a remnant of a remembrance of a Christian bishop abotu whom legends abound.
Some Christians are disgusted by these images of Christmas.Yet they serve to remind us that Christ himself came to die for this secular world not just or not even the pious world which is a rather small representation of what Christ is about
Answer: Divorce is not so much a sin as a fact of life! This is not to treat it lightly, nor to suggest that there is nothing about divorce that is not sinful. Indeed one might suspect that in the troubled times leading up to separation and divorce a husband and wife may well deal with each other in a way that is unhelpful and sinful.
But, at a time in history when up to 50% of first marriages end in divorce in western countries, and more for second and subsequent marriages; divorce is indeed a fact of life.
Some Christians regard marriage vows are irreversible and binding until death. This has often meant that many have continued in marriages that have been hurtful and destructive . Even where parties have been physically at risk. Is this what God would want? Is it realistic to assume that God wants some people to wake up every day fearing for their lives either physically or emotionally?
In the face of this, it is possible to know forgiveness and new hope in the face of such tragedy. Indeed this is the core of the gospel. Life is not just a series of ideal opportunities which can work if only we try hard enough. It is rather for living. and living comprises a series of encounters which differ markedly in their character, good and bad!
Divorce can be liberating, it must not be treated lightly. But if handled sensitively and well it can and should restore to people some of the freedom which has been taken away.
Q. Why are some people cremated and others buried after they die? Is one preferable to the other?
Answer: It is the custom of the Church for the remains of dead people to be buried in the earth or in the sea. Cremation is a form of preparation for this, so human remains which have been cremated should probably be fully disposed of by either burial or casting into the sea or a lake or river.
It does not matter which of these processes is followed, though some will prefer one to the other. I , for example wish my body to return to the sea. This will probably mean that my cremated ashes are thrown into the Southern Ocean.
When we are resurrected, we are told (see I Corinthians 15) that what will be resurrected is a 'glorious body', this does not require our physical remains. In the end God will resurrect us in a way he sees fit. We shall look forward to understanding what this means!
Q. What is the church's view about contraception?
Answer: In the Anglican Church, individual church members make up their own mind about the issue of contraception. It is true to say that there is probably not much opposition to the use of the contraceptive pill, condoms, IUDs and so on. Some people would feel that the "morning after pill" is not appropriate as it may abort a fertilised egg which some people would regard as a human life. Similarly many people have strong views that abortion should not become a means of contraception.
Q. How much should I give to the church?
Answer: I remember a limerick from my childhood prayer book:
There once was a man who said "Odd,That the heavenly path can be trod
By spending your cash
On all kinds of trash
and not spending any on God!"
In another vein it is true that how we apportion our money probably says something about what we think is important. Our giving to God should reflect how important we think God is. This will ultimately be a personal decision. Here are some guidelines:
1. Everything we have comes from God, we are not only 'giving to God' we are also returning to God what God has given to us.
2. Many people find it useful to make a decision to give a regular amount each week, rather than to just flick open your wallet or purse when the plate comes round....most of us haven't got the stomach to put in $100 if that's all we have in our purse...we are even sometimes a little embarrassed if all we have is a $1 coin.
3. If we give a proportion of what we receive then our giving can reflect our changed circumstances...5% would mean that we give as much each week in dollars as we earn each year in thousands.
10% means $1 out of every hundred.
4. Give till it hurts. The notion of sacrificial giving helps us to appreciate that often we can give with no meaning, we should at least be able to measure some impact.
In all things be cheerful and do it well. St Paul reminds us,
God loves a cheerful giver 2 Corinthians 9
Q. What is the ethical position about gene research and cloning?
Answer: Cloning is a wonderful development that has happened in the last forty years of scientific research, and of course all sorts of things continue to amaze us about what it is now possible to do. We should recognise the tremendous positive benefits that are likely to happen as a result of this exciting field of research.
In particular, the possibility that some hereditary diseases may now be more accurately identified, and detected at an earlier stage, means that options for better treatment are a real possibility. Medical scientists seem to be suggesting that the real advances of the next century will occur in this area rather than in improved drug therapy.
In food technology, too, the likelihood that better strains of plants and animals will mean that the possibility of producing disease resistant crops, stronger animals will help us to cope better with our needs.
The ethical dilemma, it seems, comes from the fact that scientific developments are often way ahead of legal and social understanding. Put quite simply we have not always thought of the questions let alone put regulations into place.
This gives some cause for disquiet about some trends which would seem to be taking place. Like the patenting of gene material; enormous amounts of money being directed into research which will mainly benefit the first world economies; will this expensive research and treatment mean that the gap between what is available for the rich and what is available for the poor will continue to increase.
Christians (and others) can and should keep an open mind, whilst also having a watching brief to ensure that the safeguards are in place to protect the powerless and the poor.
Q. What is euthanasia, and is it OK?
Answer: Medical care has improved so dramatically in the last 40 years that people can now expect to live a lot longer than they once did. This does not necessarily mean that they will also have good quality of life, they may live longer but actually be quite unwell.
In all things people should expect as a right : the best medical care and a reasonable quality of life.
It is unreasonable to expect people's lives to be prolonged indefinitely when quality of life has diminished to an intolerable level. Some medical treatment may need to take the form of enabling quality of life, whilst knowingly shortening a life. An example of this is certain types of pain killers...they may bring necessary relief from pain but have other side effects, in particular they may hasten a person's death.
People should be allowed to live well and to die well.
Euthanasia is the definite intervention into the medical treatment of a person to bring about their death, so that they might die well. This is quite different from prescribing pain killers, or withholding treatment .
It would seem that our society is still undecided about this matter, this is one of many questions that have arisen because of fairly recent scientific advances.
Christians, by and large, do not believe that a deliberate step taken to kill someone is acceptable. They also do not believe that people should be allowed to suffer indefinitely simply because they can be kept alive.
Q. Do Anglicans worship the Blessed Virgin Mary?
Answer: The short (and accurate) answer is no! In fact it is also not true to say that members of the Roman Catholic Church worship Mary the mother of Jesus. Worship is reserved for God who we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Mary, as the Mother of Jesus, is naturally held in high regard and has been throughout the history of the Church. Sometimes this has been distorted, and even the Roman Catholic Church would even admit that , at the time of the Reformation (15th - 17th century) the Reformed Churches curtailed a lot of this devotion because it had become excessive.
Christians can think of all the saints, Mary in particular, as being united with God in eternal life. Images in the Bible show all the faithful gathered around God's throne caught up in prayer and praise...we call this 'the communion of saints'. We join on earth with the heavenly saints of God. Their prayers continue and we can ask the saints to pray for us. Much devotion to Mary is along this line, asking her to pray...particularly for healing and for our families.
Shrines to Mary throughout the world: Lourdes in France, Fatima in Portugal, Walsingham in England and in our own state at Yankalilla, take a particular joy in encouraging people to pray for the sick and to seek God's healing.
Q. Are people allowed to have sex before they are married?
Answer: Sex is fun and meant to be enjoyed. The Anglican Church has always believed that sex is a wonderful thing and not to be taken lightly. The proper context for sex, we believe, is within a strong committed relationship. This is because although sex is fun it is also powerful. It brings people into a very deep relationship, and therefore we get into all sorts of confusion when we try to pretend it is of no importance and it doesn't matter who we have sex with.
Of course lots of people don't meet these idealistic conditions, and it is not the Church's place to make people feel guilty about this, rather we want to encourage people to only have sex with a person they are genuinely committed to. Marriage would seem sensible in that relationship.
Q. Why does the Anglican Church use printed services?
Answer: The Anglican Church has as part of its style the use of a printed order of service. Though not all services are necessarily taken from a book. This is both a strength and a weakness (like most things). While it may become tired and repetitious, it does also allow for people to develop a spirituality which is rich in the scriptures and in which they can grow through regular and sustained use.
Q. Is the Anglican church dying?
Answer: In Australia the Anglican Church represents about 20% of the total population, though many of these are nominal....that is they call themselves Anglican but don't participate much in the life of the Church. There are still a lot of people who go to church, but some churches also have grown small and old and have closed or amalgamated. Some other churches have got bigger.
What this indicates is that the church is changing. Not fast enough for some people. Too fast for others.
Whether this means it is dying remains to be seen. It certainly will not be the same in 20 years time. There are over 75 million Anglicans worldwide, with the churches in Africa growing at phenomenal rates.
Q. Will homosexuals go to hell?
Answer: Christians believe that God loves everyone and that he created people as complex human beings who have a rich pattern of sexuality. There are many homosexual people in the world, some studies suggest that as many as one in ten men are more attracted to members of the same sex.
We could ask quite bluntly why God would choose to destroy such a huge proportion of his creation. This idea does not sit easily with the notion of a God who loves everyone.
Some people would argue that God is also patient with us and that he does not just obliterate us if we go in a different direction from most people.
This begs the question about what it means 'to go to hell' and whether homosexuality is sinful. If you are interested in either of these questions why not email me and ask for an answer
Do you have more questions? Then email them in for an answer in straightforward language.
Q. How much does it cost to have a baby christened?
Answer: Nothing! You don't get much for nothing these days but baptism, or christening, is God's free gift to every human being. We hope that everyone who is baptised or who brings a child to be baptised will take their Christian commitment seriously. So, another answer to this question is Everything!, because we seek to dedicate our whole lives to God.
Q. Is the Anglican Church Catholic or Protestant?
Answer: The Anglican Church is both Catholic and Protestant. When the Protestant churches split from the Roman Catholic church the whole of the Church of England broke away. So, though the English Church is truly protestant it was also the remnant of the traditional Catholic church and traces its roots back to the first churches that Jesus called into being.
Answer: The church believes that in all things individuals should act according to their conscience. St Thomas Aquinas said that "The person who acts against their conscience always sins". So, it is important in all things to be clear what YOUR conscience is saying to YOU. To put it another way: how is God speaking to you through your conscience?
Some factors to consider about abortion are:
- Will the baby in the womb threaten the mother's health, maybe even cause the mother to die?
- Is the baby likely to survive?
- An abortion is not just another operation it involves two lives
- There are always psychological consequences involved in abortion decisions
- Under what circumstances was the child conceived?
These are difficult questions and there are NO EASY ANSWERS. If you can try and talk to God and listen to what Jesus says to you. If not try and talk to someone you trust.
Do you have other questions? Why not email them to us?
