tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post2024044828303822968..comments2024-02-13T11:11:28.246+00:00Comments on Bishop Alan’s Blog: Pentecost, Spirit and DogmaBishop Alan Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-57647626745889317932010-05-24T21:52:39.837+01:002010-05-24T21:52:39.837+01:00Thank you for this workng definition of "dogm...Thank you for this workng definition of "dogma" - and even more for the image that accompanies it. I find it helpful, as you suggest, to think of dogma as something that may be needed to be able to pass on the faith/spirit but is not in itself the heart of that faith - and the corollorary that dogma must be prepared to be modified if it is no longer in a form that enables faith to be passed on meaningfully. I'm going to be thinking about the image of capsules which are what we see, and even ingest - but are only the means of passing on what we need for health of our body....Rosalindnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-40349462165953882662010-05-24T20:42:28.787+01:002010-05-24T20:42:28.787+01:00Many Thanks, Tim. I am attracted by what +Andrew s...Many Thanks, Tim. I am attracted by what +Andrew seems to be implying but at the same time confess it sounds as though the tail may be wagging the dog! I can easily imagne "correct" liturgy disconnected from life, and that's a nightmare. Remembering the poem by Wilfred Owen about the cross being held for veneration on good fRidya being less holy than the hand that held it, I realise I'm coming from the other end.<br /><br />Still there is such a thing, isn't there, as liturgical formation. Now I've spent a few months of my life, spread out over some years, mind, in benedictine communities, it does shape me greatly, even in a job like mine where I'm always using different liturgies in different places to the order of the locals — an enriching but bitty experience. I'm reaching out for the basic rhythms of the psalms... maybe that is the core of "correct" liturgy?Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-23625495369515805972010-05-24T14:37:38.441+01:002010-05-24T14:37:38.441+01:00getting the doctrine, “the knowledge” right, led t...getting the doctrine, “the knowledge” right, led to everything else...<br /><br />I think this is sometimes true of pastoral liturgy these days too. Reading Andrew Burnham's otherwise excellent "Heaven and earth in little space" I am left with his own wistful feeling that if only we could get Liturgy 'right' as he sees it everything would be OK. Trouble is defining what right liturgy might be. People make sense of signs and understand presence in so many different ways<br /><br />Tim HarperTim Harpernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-59614225396841504292010-05-24T07:05:28.674+01:002010-05-24T07:05:28.674+01:00I wouldn't want a dogma free Church, just one ...I wouldn't want a dogma free Church, just one where dogma is used as the creative design brief rather than absolutized in detail. I'm not sure there's any such thing s dogma-free, anyway. The difference is whether you declare a public standard explicitly, or leave it all implicit. If I joined a dogma free pacifist denomination and then felt led by God to join the army, they would be very unlikely, in fact, not to notice or care.<br /><br />What I'm suggesting is that dogma should be used as a means of articulation and transmission, a holding framework, and not the whole content of faith.<br /><br />Freedom is a freedom to choose and to act, not a simple indifferentism.<br /><br />Put another way, I'm reminded of Rabindranath Tagore’s maxim: "The towing rope binds a boat, but is the bondage its meaning? Does it not at the same time draw the boat forward?"Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-74094474369984448302010-05-24T04:08:07.127+01:002010-05-24T04:08:07.127+01:00I look forward to a dogma free Church of England. ...I look forward to a dogma free Church of England. Meanwhile I'll keep with the actually dogma free Unitarians. When the Church of England service states the creed, I stay sat down and silent.Pluralist (Adrian Worsfold)https://www.blogger.com/profile/01922153724523820866noreply@blogger.com