The I-Con

Since the SPCK has been bought up by the Eastern Orthodox Charity, the St. Stephen the Great Trust, the stance of this Orthodox Christian Ministry has begun to interest me. Like all good Christians, they have their own idiosyncratic ideas about just where we are going wrong and why we aren’t getting revival. This is what the charity’s web site says:

St Arsenius of Farasa (commemorated on October 28), who baptized Elder Paisios the Athonite, said that Europe will return to Orthodoxy when its people pray to the saints of their land. We in Britain have many Orthodox saints to intercede for us. Let us fervently ask these saints to intercede to the Holy Trinity for this land and the salvation of her people! (see www.ststephentrust.org.uk)

The Church Times web site comments on the sale of the SPCK and makes this claim about the St. Stephen web site:

Text on the website has been amended since the Church Times published the report announcing the partnership. References to the “misguided beliefs” of those who turned to the Roman Catholic Church, and other references to the Orthodox Church as “the only Church true to the Word of God, and therefore the only one that offers true salvation and eternal life”, have been removed. (see http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=29834)

Come on, givesa break, how many times have I heard that sort of thing? Of course, removal of text from a web site doesn’t mean to say that its intention has been removed from minds! However, this exclusiveness is not an exclusively Eastern Orthodox malaise. When I wrote the following under the heading of The Open Gospel, I actually had the Western Church in mind.

Whether we are talking of the decorative trappings of ritual and vestment, or obsessions with mystical gnosis, or strict adherence to fancied biblical ordinances, or interpretations which use the Bible to contrive rigid blueprints for arranging life and church, we have here behavioural forms which, whilst they may not be absolutely wrong, are often championed by those who protect them with a jealous religious zeal. Thus, Christians who live beyond the religious subcultures defined by these behavioural forms may find themselves being bullied by sectarian Christian zealots who will accuse them of being disobedient to the Divine order

Looking at the absolutist management instructions SPCK staff are now receiving from those of a religious tradition that never knew the separation of church and state and who only seem to feel secure when asolutely everything is under central control, "bullying" is the name of game. In the same article I also write:

Thus, it is exceedingly difficult to enforce monopoly claims upon the Gospel, even under conditions favouring such claims. Clearly the Good News is out, and groups who maintain they have exclusive rights to it can simply be ignored by other groups who have taken it to heart and made it their own, in all its fullness. Some Christian sub communities will undoubtedly retain their mutual prejudices toward one another and express a partiality as to who can or cannot claim to possess the fullness of Gospel truth, anointing and gifting. But The Word is like a seed borne on the Wind of the Spirit; who can control either? What God gives no man can take away. (I John 2: 20 & 27).

That said, I have one word for the St Stephen the Great Trust and all you Protestant exclusivists and Christian cults out there who can't get enough spiritual hegemony:

.....................Tough!

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Fragrant Flatulence Blessing

I once heard of a minister who handed out helium balloons at the beginning of a service in order that members of the congregation might indicate when they had been blessed during the service by releasing their balloon. But juvenile shows of devotion of this kind are not radical enough for some: The inner circle fellowship in the village of Twerpington, England, have also taken to releasing quantities of gas during their worship. The Rev. John Bilgewater has encouraged members of his congregation to break wind loudly during his services as a sign of humility. So-called “Times of Release” have become an established and regular part of worship. "The idea", says Rev. Bilgewater, "is to break down inhibition, British reserve and pride. Children regularly break wind without embarrassment and the Bible says we must be like children. The Bible contains lots of references to wind. It also provides a means of releasing spirits of bondage, and as these are released the unpleasant odors are replaced with fragrance”.

The inner circle fellowship at Twerpington used to be part of the Baptist Union, but the Union became concerned about the Minister’s authoritarian style of leadership and finally broke their links with the fellowship over disagreements with Bilgewater’s views on sanctified flatulence.

After the Toronto blessing, with its outbreaks of hysterical laughter, grunting, roaring, barking, quacking and other noises (collectively referred to as “Old MacDonaldisms”) it might be thought that the gamut of strange and degrading sounds in worship had been exhausted, but as events at Twerpington have shown there is always new ground, if not wind, to be broken in this respect.

The above article was published in the first copy of VNP dated April 2000. At the time of writing one of the Christian groups I had at the back my mind were the snake handling and poison drinking fellowships found in America. They base their bizarre practice on Mark 16:18. There is a very general lesson and warning here about the perversity of belief and practice that some people are driven to in the name religion. History tells us that religious ritual can be even more perverse than I can imagine or the snake handlers have invented. Some of those rituals are too unpleasant to even mention.