Adjudicating discipline and orthodoxy in the divided churches is profoundly complicated, especially for the “inferior” and “weaker” member-communities of the body.
There are impulses at work in the Church, on both the right and the left, a desire to sweep away the tired old past and to start over again. This desire is founded on an illusory hope.
Ministerial training has increasingly moved towards the “practical” and the ethical, and away from the doctrinal and the abstract. What is implicitly said is that what matters is that ministers can offer pastoral care and lead communities in improving society
For Justin Welby, if there is a way forward for the Communion, it will be liturgical. The liturgy shows us what togetherness really looks like, how structure may prove fruitful, and why we must be patient.
