The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his presidential address to the Church of England’s General Synod:
Training, issues of management, the allocation of resources: however good they are — and they must be very good — are not the final aim of the church. We are finally called to be those who worship and adore God in Christ, overflowing with the good news that we’ve received, making Christ known to all so that the good news is proclaimed effectively throughout the church.
And it is good news. It is the most compelling of announcements. It comes as a gift to us, not of our own creation. It is news because it tells us of what we do not already know. We have not deduced it ourselves or worked it out by our own power of reason: the good news is the power of God.
And what a power! We know through Christ that God Himself is turned towards His world: He has chosen to be for and with us. That is the message which urges us on. We are not rejected, but accepted; we are not condemned but saved; we are not lost, but found; we are not dead, but alive — all because of the work of Jesus Christ.
In our good news we speak of Him who really does not sweep our human needs, concerns, cares, desires and problems under the carpet, but takes them up and makes them His own.
