TALKS
Michael Nazir-Ali 24 November
2009 CD
We hope to soon have Bishop Michael’s CD
available very soon. Email to request. There may also be a transcript on here.
Jane Holloway 24 September
2009 CD
Copies of Jane's talk on Prayer are
available upon request for a small donation to cover costs. Email to request.
Patrick Sookhdeo 7 May 2009
CD
Copies of Patrick's talk are available upon
request for a small donation to cover costs. Email to request.
Jo Pimlott 20 November 2008
MP3 audio file
Click to listen now (may take a minute to
download), or right click to save to your computer then MP3 player eg ('save
target as')
Jo Pimlott on Youth (13MB MP3 file)
Ian Parkinson 25 September
2008 MP3 audio file
Click to listen now (may take a minute to
download), or right click to save to your computer then MP3 player eg ('save
target as')
Ian Parkinson - Faith for the Future: The Relevance of the
Church of England in the 21st Century (17MB MP3 file)
Jayne Ozanne 6 November 2007
Jayne Ozanne - The Future of Faith in Britain (53kb Word
Document)
George Lings 13 September
2007
George Lings - Is Mission the Starting Place for Mission?
(52kb Word Document)
Bishop of Sherwood - Tony
Porter 27 February 2007
CIS 1 CORINTHIANS 9:16 “Woe to me if I do
not preach the Gospel”
TP – My God was sport
Shankly – not a matter of life and death
10th February 1972
Having been converted as an athlete, I
wanted to witness to Christ through sport.
Evangelical:
BELIEVE (of Ephesians 1-3)
Live it out (4:1 live a life worthy)
How do I live out my evangelical convictions
as a Bishop?
1. Take every opportunity to preach the word – private, hospitality, public,
church, minster, prince of thieves, letter from prison
2. Create opportunities for others
- Nottingham Forest
- Nottingham Rugby
- Mansfield
- Negotiating CCC
3. Sport Ambassador
- Olympics and Paralympics: sport will be massive
- Encourage churches to use sport for evangelism
4. Encourage prayer
- CIS (Christians In Sport) prayer group monthly
5. Seed scattering
Bishop of Southwell and
Private Beliefs and Public Truth - how to
avoid becoming a sect
We are continually being reminded by the media
of the waywardness of figures in public life
- the usual scandal
- a cabinet minister scandalised over issues of money, sex or abuse of power
and office
- and we hear of the frequent defence given that their private life is their
private life and has no implications or impact on their public office or
performance
The big question I think for all of us as
Christians is
- do we necessarily see that separation?
I believe we would argue in common that the
Christian position and indeed the position of the Biblical revelation is that
- life is holistic
- is essentially of one piece
- not only that but is profoundly relational
Just as relationship is of the very essence
of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in relationships
- so too are we as individual human beings while singular and accountable
before God as moral beings
- nevertheless we are human beings in relationship
- both within marriage and family bonds
- within community and social bonds as members of “society”
I have been studying the Acts of the
Apostles this autumn and it is very interesting the personal, private, public
interaction we see, for example, in the Apostle Paul.
In Acts 9 we read of Paul’s conversion
- something profoundly personal and private in one way
- his amazing encounter with Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road
- what could even be described as a traumatic event
- and yet an event that had to be ecclesially confirmed by “the church”
- in laying on of hands
- public profession
Acts 9:17 Amanas entered the house and laid
hands on Saul… “Brother Saul…”
Acts 9:20 “Saul immediately began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues”
Paul himself writing years later in
Galatians speaks of the very personal and private development that took place
- Gal 118 “only after 3 years did he go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and
stayed with him 15 days”
- Gal 21 “then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas”
Paul’s progress is very typical of the
mystery of God
- the hidden seed in Mary
- hidden in the child of
- Messianic secret of the Gospel revelation
And then again
- the public execution of Jesus on the cross
- the resurrection appearances… 2, 12, 70, 500+
- the dramatic coming of the Holy Spirit
- mystery… that which was once hidden now revealed in Christ
In Acts 17 we see Paul in full flow in his
public missionary ministry in Athens
- engaging with an alien culture
- though a deeply religious environment
- in the Areopagus engaging in marvellous cross cultural engagement with stoic
and epicurean philosophers in the public debating place of the public square
Os Guinness in an address to the Centre of
Contemporary Christianity in Ireland a couple of years ago said there were
three options for a vision of the public square
Sacred
Naked
Civic
- Sacred with probably echoes of the
theocracy that has been known in Old Testament manifestations and also in
Christian history in sporadic bursts
- whether the Church of the East and the West or the Papacy or the Holy Roman
Empire or the commonwealth period of
- never something that speaks of reality or credibility
- Naked – the attempts at a naked public
square in most recent generations
- the attempts of the communist block to create a totally secular society which
inevitably has crumbled and collapsed
- and indeed which, following ABC’s visit to China recently, we have heard new
Chinese echoes of the need for spiritual belief to be the cohesive force in
society and national life
- Civic space – where plurality of beliefs
is recognised and where Christian truth and revelation finds its purchase
- where the Christian witness through the living out of the Gospel in its
articulation and its practical love and service is used by the Holy Spirit as a
persuasive force for the extension of the
In the lecture that Os Guinness gave he said
there were three requirements for building a civil public square
Legal rights
Public philosophy
Personal attitudes
Legal Rights
- Notice again the interplay of the personal and the public
- the Judea Christian tradition has legitimate claim for acknowledgement in all
that it has contributed to the establishment of legal rights for all
- and equality before the law for all
- and for building that civilised relationship between justice and mercy
Public Philosophy
- again, the Biblical revelation has played an important part in the
establishment of the public square and an understanding of
- the public good / the common good
- personal attitudes here again the encouragement of the Biblical revelation
for personal, moral responsibility and accountability before the Living God
- for personal obedience to the law of God
- for public demonstration of this obedience in the service of others
- Romans 131-7 quote “let every person be subject to the governing
authorities…”
Personal Attitudes
Attitudes, views and opinions held with deep and profound conviction – but
persuasively and courteously proclaimed to others in the Civic Space where
ideas are shared and where truth is pursued.
Credo - Stephen Plan -The Times 28.10.06.
“Grace Davie, the sociologist of religion reporting on a conversation that took
place in a survey in Islington in 1968.
The interviewer asked a resident: “Do you believe in God?”
“Yes”, the individual replied.
“Do you believe in a God who can change the course of events on Earth?
continued the interviewer
“No” replied the interviewee, “just the ordinary one”.
That exchange could still happen today in
Britain
- Most Britons still believe in God but the God they believe in is the
“ordinary one”
- Who makes little practical difference either to their own lives or to those
of the society to which they belong.
Stephen Plant goes on to say:
“It is therefore a striking feature of Christianity in contemporary
Stephen Plant then goes on to describe the
report recently published by the Evangelical Alliance Commission.
- He describes how “early evangelicals proposed both a renewal of faith and a
renewal of the nation, urging conversion not only on “harlots, and publicans,
and thieves” but on politicians and profiteers who turned a blind eye to the
slave trade and a deaf ear to the child labourers who bore the industrial revolution
on their backs.”
An independent Evangelical Minister said to
me a few years ago:
“we would give anything to have the opportunity the Church of England has in
being part of the fabric of Public Life – to have the opportunities we have of
being a “civic church” and not merely an “independent church” or “sect”.
Quote
A body of people, subscribing to religious doctrines, usually different from
those of an established Church from which they have separated. Usually derogatory.
A non-conformist or other church. A party or faction in a religious body. A
religious philosopher or philosophy or school of thought in politics etc.
My simple thesis and challenge is to fulfil
our duty as the Church of England – our mission and ministry is in the
Not huddling together with the like minded,
continually redefining ourselves more and more exactly and precisely – setting
“the bar” so high that fewer and fewer can qualify.