Gene Robinson, in the Guardian, captures something important about the interpretation of Scripture... there was a time when it was deemed right for only Clergy to interpret the Bible, most would agree that that time is over and that the freedom to read God's word and hear God's Word for ourselves... as an Anglican I have always believed that we need to hold the three tools in tension - Scripture, Tradition, Reason - and never rely solely one... to rely purely on the current translation of "Scripture" too often leads to legalism and fundamentalism... to rely purely on "tradition" leads to a human (even cultic) religion based on human power/charisma etc... to rely purely on "reason" leads down a Spong-ian path killing faith and denying the supernatural... for me, you need all three in tension - God is revealed in Scripture, in the wisdom/communion of the saints and in Creation (inc. us!)
God, of course, was not and is not changing - but our ability to apprehend and comprehend God's will for us is. Through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the church was led to permit eating things proscribed by Leviticus, to oppose slavery (after centuries of using scripture to defend it), and to permit and bless remarriage after divorce (despite Jesus' calling it adultery). And now, by the leading of that same Spirit, we are beginning to welcome those who have heretofore been marginalised or excluded altogether: people of colour, women, the physically challenged, and God's children who happen to be gay.This is the God I know in my life - who loves me, interacts with me, teaches and summons me closer and closer to God's truth. This God is alive and well and active in the church - not locked up in scripture 2,000 years ago, having said everything that needed to be said, but rather still interacting with us, calling us to love one another as he loves us. It is the brilliance of Anglicanism that we first and foremost read scripture, and then interpret it in light of church tradition and human reason. No one of us alone can be trusted to such a process because, left to our own devices, we recast God's will in our own image. But in the community of the church, together we are able to discern God's will for us - and sometimes that may mean reinterpreting and even changing old understandings of things thought settled long ago.
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