Archbishop of Wales on church’s duty to ‘change society!
As I briefly took time to look at the news this morning I was excited and encouraged to read that the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, was calling the church to get out of its buildings and start CONNECTING with the society! He even called us to be MORE RADICAL and change society!
The archbishop said: “All of us here know about the protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral and the Occupy protesters in many other parts of Britain, including the one until recently in Cardiff outside the Unite offices”.
“They are protesting, among other things, about economic injustice and the effect it has on the poorest members of our society.
“People could have drawn the conclusion … that the worship of God has no connection with the world or its concerns because God is literally and metaphorically above it ”“St Paul’s Cathedral’s initial reaction was to close its doors and threaten legal action.
“Later the authorities there changed their minds, opened their doors and welcomed the protesters in.
“However, by initially reacting the way they did, they gave the unfortunate impression that what was happening inside the cathedral had very little to do with what was happening outside it.
“People could have drawn the conclusion from that, that the worship of God has no connection with the world or its concerns because God is literally and metaphorically above it.”
Dr Morgan criticised an outdated emphasis on “the importance of dignified worship” which kept the world at “a respectable distance so that it doesn’t sully what is going on inside the sacred space”.
He pointed out that Jesus himself “shattered” this view of God’s holiness.
“He spent most of his ministry out of doors, not in synagogues or temples but preaching to ordinary people, attempting to relate ordinary everyday events to God,” said Dr Morgan.
The archbishop added that to do God’s will on earth was not “just a matter of changing our own lives to do God’s will – a personal morality.
“It is more radical than that – it means trying to change the structures of our society and world, overturning poverty, injustice and oppression.
(Source: BBC News)
This is a great thought for Christmas Day! This is a great thought for the coming year! We, the church need to CONNECT TO JESUS more, CONNECT TO ONE ANOTHER more effectively and CONNECT TO OUR COMMUNITY more fully and more radically!
