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Australian author takes on "suicidal church"
Episcopal News Service
Issue:
Section:
2003-002-6
Posted: Wednesday, January 08, 2003
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Is the Anglican church in Melbourne committing suicide? Art historian Dr. Caroline Miley thinks so--and the Archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Watson, is inclined to agree.
Miley is the author of a new book, The Suicidal Church: Can the Anglican Church be Saved?, that Watson is recommending to the church's leaders. It says the church is timid, institutionalized, racist, sexist, homophobic, and impedes the message of the Gospel. The book argues that the church has to take risks, be willing to offend, offer unconditional love and acceptance and, above all, strip away the institutional trappings that allow timid Christians to shelter inside and avoid their biblical responsibilities.
'In business you'd talk about your core business, but church people don't like that kind of talk. She calls it religion. I'd say our core business is God, or the message about God, about Jesus Christ. When the institutional forms stop us doing what we are here to do, we have to change,' said Watson.
Watson's approval was a pleasant surprise for Miley, who had a sharp divergence of views with Sydney's conservative Anglican archbishop, Peter Jensen, in a radio interview.
'The discrepancy between what the church is like and what the gospels are like is really the cause of the book. The gospels are about empowerment, and the church is frightfully disempowering; the gospels are about love and acceptance, and the church is not accepting. It's mediocre and drab. I realized it was the culture of the church--it was basically English 19th century middle-class culture. You know, don't talk about sex, it's not nice.'
Another barrier, she says, is the lack of diversity. 'There's terrible snobbism. Someone said to me once at an upmarket church when I complained they had no women serving, 'If you want that sort of thing, you should go somewhere else.' And I felt like saying, 'It's not your church, actually; it's God's. You're a guest here as well.'' Miley is also scathing about Anglican attitudes to women. She says the wider church shamefully discriminates against women, and has done for 2000 years.
She believes the church need not continue its steady decline. The way ahead is backwards: back to biblical basics, modeling Christ, evangelism. And this means taking risks, offending people, accepting setbacks, which a crippling culture of timidity doesn't allow, she said.
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