Hello. I'm a practicing Anglican from Anglican Church of Southern Queensland diocese. I am concerned about what I perceive to be New Age teachings coming into the church, particularly through the teachings of Richard Rohr. I'm also hoping to find a forum for Lay Synod members to meet and discuss issues prior to next year's Synod. I find that the Clergy and Academics already have networks established and come to Synod well prepared but lay members have no such network to back them up. Consequently Synod, although nominally open to all is actually dominated by the Clergy/Academic elite.
Welcome. I am a fairly new Anglican from Victoria. I don't know much about the synod but wish you well in finding a network for yourself and the laity.
He’s a Franciscan “spiritual teacher”. Apparently, he’s a universalist who teaches a kind of New Age, “God-is-incarnate-in-everything” spirituality. Pretty wishy-washy stuff.
I'm not really sure how I feel about New Age stuff. On the one hand, it might be better than being a dedicated atheist. Perhaps opening up to 'something' 'anything' spiritual might be a first step towards a deeper understanding of God. People change over time and go through many 'spiritual searches' before they are fortunate enough to find a 'home'. I was a Buddhist when I was a teenager because it seemed so compassionate and gentle, but that wasn't personal enough for me so I continued my spiritual search through other religions to become a Christian, and now am an Anglican. I am sure to the RC faith, Rohr must seem very heretical, but I don't really have a problem with him, he has his beliefs, I have mine.
It's a mixed bag on both sides. There are propositions I support and some I don't . Some of the laity have views similar to mine and some think quite differently. The diocese covers an area of more than a half a million square kilometres, and more than 130 parishes so the laity don't have effective communications to know what others are thinking.
Hello Annie, I too went through a Buddhist stage and an atheist stage before returning to Christianity. I ended up Anglican because my wife was one. You have a point that opening up to 'something' 'anything' spiritual might be a first step towards a deeper understanding of God but the Anglican Church should not be teaching false beliefs.
Welcome @CRfromQld good to have another Aussie on board. It is interesting that a RCC Franciscan should be part of our race to the bottom.
in the church of england, I have noticed that the laity are markedly more orthodox than the clergy, and for many years voted down heterodox proposals such as women priests or women bishops (or now gay marriage), although of course not being officers of the church it has been hard for them to resist these changes on a permanent basis
Welcome! I'm also from the Southern Queensland diocese. Richard Rohr is quite popular in parts of the diocese, and despised in other parts, but I think I've come around to thinking that might, in some ways, be on-net a good thing (obviously too much division is a bad thing, but a little bit of debate can be healthy). Have you seen this video from the Archbishop on Via Media? He makes some decent arguments for why it fits the Anglican tradition to allow debate for long periods of time until we all eventually work out the the right, middle-way answer without needing to compromise or bargain away truth for unity: