Church needs massive cultural change

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 23 Feb 2014.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, this week told the Church of England General Synod in London that there was a need for “massive cultural change” within the Church so that people could flourish despite deeply held differences.

Noting that a report had been received with divided views on sexuality, Archbishop Welby said:

There is great fear among some, here and round the world,  that that will lead to the betrayal of our traditions, to the denial of the authority of scripture, to apostasy … And there is also a great fear that our decisions will lead us to the rejection of LGBT people, to irrelevance in a changing society, to behaviour that many see akin to racism.

As G.K. Chesterton put it, “The Church always seems to be behind the times, when it is really beyond the times; it is waiting till the last fad shall have seen its last summer.”

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.