Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Rowan Williams on Church

Here are some quotes Doctor Williams I stumbled across by on Church,...enjoy.

"The Church claims to be the most comprehensive human society there is - the new human race in embryo. And it claims this because of its belief that it is established not by any human process grounded in and limited by events, cultures and so on, but by God's activity."- Rowan Williams

"Where Jesus is, there is the Church; the Church is the event of Jesus’ presence with its effect of gathering people around him and making them see one another differently as they see him." - Rowan Williams



5 points if you can name the website that launched the bear.

7 comments:

byron smith said...

I love the bear! I have no idea about the website.

byron smith said...

Ship of Fools

byron smith said...

Oh, that last link was actually to the BBC article that scored me the points. Here is Ship of Fools, and here is the Rowan Bear.

Matthew Moffitt said...

Out of control! Any thoughts on the quotes?

byron smith said...

Do you have references for them? I've heard them both before. I find the second particularly surprising because it is so evangelical (although without mention of meeting Christ in/as the Word, of course). It is in response to Irenaeus saying that 'where the Spirit is, there is the Church' and vice versa. It is the vice versa that is so problematic, bc it seem as though as long as you have a 'proper' church (i.e. tied to the bishop of Rome), then you can guarantee a monopoly on the Spirit's presence and action. (To put the RC position in a somewhat abbreviated form).

As for the first quote - I wish I knew what he meant, which is why I'd love to see it in context.

Matthew Moffitt said...

I can't find where the first quote is from, sorry...I'll keep looking.

The first quote was from the June 2004 Mission Shaped Church Conference Keynote Address. Katay used it at AnCon last year, and then Rob Forsyth stuck it in a Southern Cross article.

byron smith said...

Yes, I suspect that one or other of those locations (AnCon/SC) was where I heard it as well - and I remember thinking at the time that it was a great quote but I wanted to know the context.