Let’s Not Party Too Hard, Says New Archbishop of Canterbury
December 23, 2012 9 Comments
In the Telegraph:
The Rt Rev Justin Welby said “the best parties” celebrate “something solid” rather than simply providing a way of escaping reality.
As well as being a time of celebration Christmas should be an opportunity help people in need, Bishop Welby said.
He specifically praised volunteers staffing food banks and urged people to offer time to neighbours and to help those who have “had a rough year”.
His plea was reinforced by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who used a separate message to encourage “love and care” over Christmas, particularly for “those whose needs are greater than our own.”
Meanwhile, the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day against the danger of being “complacent” about gun and knife crime in British cities.
Speaking in the wake of the massacre of 26 schoolchildren and teachers in the US earlier this month, Dr Williams said stricter controls over the sales of weapons would be only “a start”.
“But what will really make the difference is dealing with fear and the pressure to release our anxiety and tension at the expense of others,” he added.
In his final Christmas message as the Bishop of Durham, Bishop Welby, who will formally take over from Dr Williams in March, said next year would be a personally “momentous” period.
Addressing the challenges he faces as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury he said he “did not seek” his new role but pledged to do everything in his power to “make a difference” to the Church of England and the country at large.
“The Church gets lots of things wrong, it always has, always will, because it is full of human beings,” he said. “But at its heart is the good news that when Jesus came God came to be with us, offer us hope and joy and purpose and love beyond all we can measure. That keeps me going.”
Emphasising the importance of combining festivities with a sense of “responsibility” to others, the former oil executive said: “In tough times like these, it can sometimes be difficult to focus on the positive; talk of recession, news of redundancies and reports of worldwide conflict grinds us down. However, Christmas is a time for celebration, it always has been.
“The shepherds, poor as you could be even in those days, went to celebrate what had happened in a manger, where they found God Himself.
“Christmas also brings with it the risk of so clubbing ourselves round the head with spending and parties that we forget who we are and why we live.
“At the heart of the greatest story ever told, the Christian story, the story that has shaped our civilisation, is the theme of self-giving and responsibility.”
He added: “The best parties have something solid to celebrate, not just a desire to get out of one’s mind.
“The shepherds went to see Jesus and went away celebrating because God had come to be with them. They were optimistic. Hope lived. And hope and joy are better when shared, in fact sharing them makes them grow and gives them life.
“So, my own sense this Christmas is one of optimism. I see people staffing food banks, sharing good things, sacrificing to give.
“Perhaps just going to see a neighbour, hurrying a bit less when someone wants to chat, we can all do that. Perhaps we can give something to someone who has had a rough year, make space for them to have hope and joy.”
In a Christmas message to Sunday Telegraph readers Dr Sentamu said: “When so many are struggling in our society during this economic downturn, what we must ask is: do we want to live in a country where inequality and suffering is ingrained, or would we rather send out a message of the Christian virtue of hope – that everyone is valued and has an important part to play.
“This Christmas as we remember the great joy and hope brought by the birth of God’s son, Jesus Christ, let us remember our responsibility to love and care for our neighbour, especially those whose needs are greater than our own.”
Dr Sentamu’s message came after he issued a warning against the Government’s “severe” defence cuts, saying they needed to be carried out with “far, far greater sensitivity”.
Meanwhile Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said: “St Leo calls Christ’s birth ‘life’s birthday’ because if God is with us, then in a mysterious but real way, we are all brothers and sisters to God made man. It is in gazing on him that we see our own true worth.”
He added: “The light which came into the world at Bethlehem, the love which that tiny infant embodies is a light and a power for all of us to live by as we strive to create a better world, each in our own way.”
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Once again the liberal message of ‘do good be good’ comes forth, but sadly many so-called pagans do much better at this than todays Christians! But again the great question comes… What is true Christianity? Surely true Christianity is spiritually ethical, but it comes from the core of Christ Himself, but this centre is always redemptive first! I can love, because HE first loved me!
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (St. Paul, Gal. 2: 20)… But surely we need to hear verse 21 also, in context: “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” So indeed the proper Law & Gospel brings “Me” to an end of “self”! My death & life are ‘In Christ’!
“Do good, be good” = Good works without faith = namby-pamby pandering to atheists and pagans.
Protestantism is a sham, and this man has no justification or authority in his statements.
Christianity in England/Wales/Scotland, both RC and Anglican, is in serious jeopardy. Neither jurisdiction appears to have much influence on the culture or people. England is truly a post-Christian nation, one that has forgotten and foresaken its roots. Modernism and materialism end up being so corrosive to Christians in the developed West. What is happending here is equally appalling in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and things not so good in America. Where is the great awakening? Revival? …Persecution?
We have to do WHATEVER IT TAKES! People will not wake, unless there’s some great upheaval- it is what happened during the 60′s, it ought to happen NOW. I don’t care if someone gets offended, people are already offended! JESUS IS ALREADY OFFENDED!
This is why I am so vehemently anti-Protestant- NOTHING WILL HAPPEN if I were to say “Oh, yeah, Protestants… they’re great.” And even more so for the ATHEISTS! We cannot be complacent in such important matters, I say. And we need to forge ourselves through hardships, not with self-congratulations!
Something must happen, it’s not through debates that will reinvigorate any faith- it’s through times of hardship- I am willing to be a catalyst for it, if God wills it.
Indeed the Body Life of Christ is the only real catalyst, but this is only in the Holy Spirit Himself! And in ourselves, we must be passive here at and in the Lordship of Christ! Indeed persecution is in the Hand of the Lord, not us. God will authenticate Himself, and His own!
Btw, Ioannes, we must also be anti-Catholic, if Catholicism has become antichrist! And surely portions have!
Over at Rorate Caeli, a recent post lists why it’s hard to combat Modernism in the Church:
-it is difficult to discern inasmuch as it is ubiquitous or omnipresent – Jacques Maritain speaks of ‘immanent apostasy’. This signifies that it has become part of the very fabric of the Church Herself, or, using another image, it has become too vast even to see;
-it is difficult to understand because it is obscurantist);
-it is difficult to evaluate since in order to evaluate it, theological knowledge is required which is no longer taught in seminaries or in parishes, or at least not exclusively so taught;
-it is difficult to accept because it requires intellectual honesty and courage, which are necessary to face the doctrinal devastation in the Church today;
-it is difficult to criticize, above all for a priest, because he will be regarded not only as ‘hard’, but also as ‘lacking in piety’ or even ‘schismatic’ (or ‘crypto-schismatic’) towards the Church, the Pope, and the Magisterium (understood in the first sense of the term); and will have to steel himself for some mauvais quarts d’heure with his Superior or Bishop, and perhaps even the loss of his apostolate.
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But I’m not giving up on Roman Catholicism. I’m born into it, a part of a long line of Catholics, and I’m determined to die fighting for its sake, even if I have to make hard decisions that will impact my own personal relationships. (It’s already happened anyway.)
How silly would it be that I rejected the faith in my youth, then rediscover and be confirmed in it, only to change denominations in my adult life merely because of someone’s opinions… Even the Devil had better successes in making me sin. Although that’s probably a compliment somehow.
You don’t need to “give-up” Catholicism, just seek to make it more biblical! Note, we call it “Reform”, or Reformation!