FWIW The musings of a webmaster Sunday 26 November 2006 What's this?

Calling problems blessings

"There are no such things as problems, only opportunities."

Yeah, right.  What a heap of corporate b...  well, you get my drift.

It's a platitude usually used to try to justify some poor customer facing functionary having to sort out the horrendous mess created by some inept senior executive. The "customer care associate" takes the flack from the customer for the lack of forethought by the same highly paid corporate geek who is currently hiding in his office on the top floor, drinking real coffee and not answering the phone.

"There are no such things as problems, only opportunities", and as Katharine said this morning, some opportunities can be insurmountable.

Witness, if you will, the problems experienced by the customers of a certain major energy supplier after they launched a new billing system.  Trust me. I know what I'm talking about here - I was one of those customers, and ended up writing to energywatch to get things sorted out.  The energy company's telephone staff took the heat from customers venting their frustration, and did it very professionally.  It wasn't their fault - they were just clearing up someone else's mess. But try convincing them that problems = opportunities.

OK, rant over. What has prompted me to this outburst you may ask?  Well, as my father-in-law used to say, it's a circuitous train of thought.

On a glorious, sparkling Tuesday morning last week, I sat in my car on the promenade at Brighton and listened to The Right Reverend Tom Butler on Thought for the Day. He was reflecting upon relationships between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic church on the day that the Archbishop of Canterbury began his visit to the Vatican. The potential unity between the two churches, it is commonly reported, has been set back by the ordination of women as priests and bishops, and the fracas concerning gay priests in the Anglican Communion.

Yet women, as Bishop Tom points out, now form half the candidates at every ordination.  There are over 2000 women priests in the Church of England.  It is nonsensical to believe that there will be any going back - nor should there be.  Women aren't a problem, they're a blessing.

And what, he asks, of gay priests? Of course there are divisions and splits in the Anglican Communion about this, and because we are a transparent church these arguments are conducted in public.  This could be seen as a problem for the church.  But the Archbishop and the Pope both know that their respective churches are served by innumerable dedicated and devoted gay priests, often ministering in the most difficult and dangerous places on earth.

They're not a problem.  They're a blessing.

So says Bishop Tom.

But not everyone sees it that way. A while ago I received an e-mail from a photographer who asked me to remove one of his pictures from this site.  It had been legitimately purchased for use, through a respected photography website.  But his reasons were nothing to do with copyright:

"I am very sad to see that your church has signed... the statement of belief drafted by the "Inclusive Church". The Gospel is exclusive, Christ made that very clear. Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. Any "church" that claims the gospel to be inclusive is not a true church. Homosexuality is clearly condemned in scripture. Any "church" that allows practising homosexuals to be leaders is not a true church.

I would like to ask you to please not use any of my photography on this website or anything else related to this "church"... I strongly suggest for your sake that you begin looking for a church that is biblical."

I honoured his request to remove the picture, and the website that supplied it kindly refunded the small cost of the photo. As yet, I have not taken up his suggestion to find a "church that is biblical" as I believe I already belong to one. Afterwards, I found myself left with a feeling of hopelessness, almost of despair about the exchange, that I could not clearly define.

As Christians we are called to love each other, not act out a role as universal moral police officers. We, who have been forgiven so much, could reasonably be expected to bring some humility to our consideration of the challenges which face our fellow Christians in the 21st century. Rather than a rush to judgement, perhaps we could applaud the courage of those who feel called to serve Christ even when faced with prejudice from some of their fellow Christians.

Undoubtedly it is rarely true in the corporate world to say that "there are no problems, only opportunities".  But that's the corporate world. In our church we are blessed with God's grace. That's what makes us different to most corporations where the only god is the bottom line. When we allow God's grace to work through us, those things seen initially as problems can indeed be revealed as opportunities.  Opportunities for us to lead more of our fellow humans into the warmth of God's loving embrace.  All of us - men, women, gay and straight, white and coloured - are called to respond to that opportunity.

And that's not a problem. It's not even just an opportunity. It's a glorious, God given, bona fide blessing.

As Bishop Tom said, we may be in the winter of church unity negotiations, but calling blessings problems isn't the way to move towards the spring.

With love from all of us at St. Andrew's.

Adrian

Webmaster

Read Bishop Tom's Thought for the Day here.

NOTE: I am the webmaster of St. Andrew's Church, not clergy or a reader.  I write as 'a man in a pew' and so you should not assume that I necessarily know what I'm talking about, or that what I say reflects the views of other people in our church. To read previous weeks' FWIWs please click here.

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