Notes on Mere Anglicanism Conference-2024

 "Speaking the Truth in Love: The Church and the Challenge of the New Morality"  Jan 18-20

This is from my notes- my apologies to the speakers for my faulty hearing and understanding, but nonetheless, this is what I heard and jotted down:

Session 1    Dr. D. A. Carson    Scripture as Prescription for Human Flourishing

• Isa 3- Their sin; they do not hide it.
• Col 3, Col 6:12
• [Sorry- could not quite follow]

Session 2    Dr. Carl R. Trueman     Age of Faulty Anthropology (I will be buying his book in that I think there is greater depth to his talk that I would like to explore.)

• We as a culture are indulging in the following:
• Rejection of Limits
• Rejection of Teleology
• Rejection of societal obligations 
• Nietzsche
• God stands in the way of Human Freedom
• The enlightenment has failed.
• The 'self' gets in the way of Human Freedom
• The ober-man are those who break with the past.
• Those committed to overthrowing the values of the past.
• the politically anti-establishment 
• Critical Theory is about negating.
• Limits/boundaries are things to overcome.
• the body is material/and instrument for releasing the real self.
• Darwin obsoleted teleology.
• Sex is for the moment and has not a causality, such as glorifying God or pro-creating.
• How should the Church respond to the rejection of limits, destiny, and obligations?
• Don't look at the symptoms but at the root causes.
• Know that Christian ethics is no longer carried by society, but only by Christians.
• Need to teach first principles- Human nature, Creation, etc.
• instruct not just on what the Bible teaches but why it teaches it. 
• Liturgy
• Naturally limits by binding us to each other in worship.
• Causes us to use our imagination.
• It is teleological and points us to our destination.
• It is where our covenant God communes with His covenant people.
• Reminds us that we are a teleological people- for instance, the Song of Semion in Evening Prayer.
• Make it relevant- emphasize the Gospel drama in liturgy.
• Structure and content of the liturgy, such Confession, remind us that we are a hospital for sinners, a place that loves sojourners, and a place to make friendships.

Session 3    The Rev Calvin Robinson    Critical Theory: Antithetical to the Gospel

• Critical Theory is designed to undermine the Church [not to mention all other western cultural institutions]
• Based on race, which is a human construct, and is not a Gospel construct.
• Feminism has broken down the [God given and Biblical] distinctions between the sexes. 
• The tenant of inclusivism in the Christian sense is that we are all welcome to be changed by Christ.
• It smashes of the Patriarchy and looking to our elders for wisdom.
• Liberalism and Marxism have infected the Church.
• Marxism seeks to replace God with self and liberate humans from God and the Church.
• Marxism presses us toward secularism.
• Luther and the Reformation replaced faith in the church with faith in the individual conscience. 
• Liberalism is idolatry of self, which is sin.

Session 4    The Rev. Sam Allberry    What We Do with Our Bodies Matter

• Mark 6:34- having compassion and seeing people through Jesus' eyes.
• 1 Cor 6:13- The body is meant for the Lord- temples of the HS.
• Ps 139- Fearfully and wonderfully made.
• We are spiritual and physically crafted by God.
• But nonetheless we all struggle with some aspect of our bodies.
• Gen 1:27- Our sexuality is grounded in creation and us as creatures of God.
• Our discipleship is grounded in the physical in that we must be physically present with one another, and spiritual gifts must show up for the building up of the Body. 
• Rom 6:12-13  -  We are given the privilege and opportunity to offer our bodies as instruments of righteousness.
• We should cherish God's voice speaking into our lives above all other voices, including our own.
• We need to know we have the power to use our voice and actions as instruments of righteousness.

Session 5    Dr.  Rebecca McLaughlin

• Following Jesus is not safe and means denying to self. 
• What is at the heart of Christian sexual ethics?
• Eph 5- [walk in Love Chapter]
• Someone coming out of the LTGBQ community should find more love, not less.

Session 6      Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing    Right Thinking: Gospel Truth in a Culture with a Secular Creed.

• Also speak in truth and love in our personal relationships
• Conversational Evangelism
• Public proclamation is important, but the faith is most effectively spread by lay Christians in their everyday lives, both by words and in the Gospel quality of their lives.
• And by infectious enthusiasm for the Faith.
• Rom 5:5 The message is that sexuality has a transcendent source.
• Empathy
• Know why others feel and think the way they do.
• What are the wrongs they are trying to right?
• Materialism alone cannot account for the rage people are feeling. What else?
• Do they sense that life is sacred?
• [Do they feel life is oppressive]
• Know their Traumas and pain.
• From a secular perspective, promiscuity is supposed to make one happy. 
• How is that working?
• Transcending boundaries is supposed to help. Does it?
• Does it lead to life in the full.
• Today, there is rage coming out of transferred hurt.
• Intersectionality- People exhibit victimhood from a number of perceived experiences of oppression.
• To disagree with a person is to cancel them.

Session 7    The Rev Dr. John Dickson    Gospel Hospitality in a Fractured World

• The word Hospitality comes from
• Philo- welcome
• xenia - the stranger
• Hospitality and Gospel go together.
• Welcoming and loving the stranger- Eph 2:1, Lk 7:34
• Jesus preached judgment for the sinner but nonetheless hung out with sinners.
• Jesus did not place boundaries between Himself and sinners.
• Matt 9:10-11
• Luke 19:1-7 [Jesus and Zacchaeus]. 
• Loved even the extravagant sinner.
• Luke 19:8-10
• Jesus ate eating with sinners- Commune first; conversion second.
• John5:30-31

Nuggets from the panel discussion:

• Hospitality is grace to the outsider
• 1 Cor 8
• Even taking meals with them
• Our culture now equates disagreement with bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
• Our empathy should not lead to agreement when it does not align with Gospel living.
• Anglican liturgy highlights the transcendence of our Christian worldview.
• Tim Keller was good at empathy and articulating the other person's position.
• Always
• Know to whom you belong.
• That the Christian worldview is true and healthy.
• Affirm the sacredness of life.