AT THE CENTRE of the debates going on in the Anglican Communion is the question of ‘what is the place of Scripture?’ Few in the church will say Scripture has no place in God’s revealing of himself, his work and his will to his people, but the question is what is the Bible’s role in the Church today?

The pattern is fairly common in church debates.  Issues are usually argued on the basis that it is God’s will that we proceed along these lines. Conservative groups will say that this must be the way because the Bible tells us so and the Church has always interpreted the scriptures in a consistent way. On the other hand liberal groups will argue that it is inappropriate to apply God’s revealed will for a pre-modern culture to our modern world when the Spirit seems to be revealing something new to the collective consciousness of the people of God. What sense can we make of it all?

Paul Jennings in his article “Towards a Biblical Tradition” described the classical liberal approach to Scripture like this: “the underlying, usually unconscious assumption that the language of faith is merely the symbolic representation of our own religious and moral sensibilities, that scripture, doctrine, and liturgy can only express our innate spirituality, instead of informing it and nourishing it with something new.”

But let’s be honest. This is not just a sin of those whom we would typically classify as liberals. Conservatives are just as often guilty of trying to mould God in their own image. The fact is, we all argue for doctrines and liturgies which support our own natural inclinations and prejudices, and we shy away from those aspects of biblical teaching that cause discomfort to our religious and personal sensibilities.

We are in our comfort zones as long as we avoid the controversy and head to the safe common ground of humanistic concerns. We saw this in Katharine Jefferts Schori’s investiture sermon, where when casting a vision for the church she said “…our larger vision will be framed and shaped in the coming years by the vision of shalom embedded in the Millennium Development Goals.” Of course there is little wrong with the Millennium Development Goals, but to look to these goals as the source of the church’s vision reveals how the church is now taking her lead from safe worldly goals and reasoning, and not from God’s self-revelation.

Whereas this humanistic approach may maintain the peace for a while, it is a fast track for deadening the Church. The Church--all of

the Church--needs Holy Scripture, not just as a rule book to determine controversial issues, but as the very source of life in the Church.

William Tyndale, who gave his very life to translate Scriptures so as to make it available to all, put it this way: “The Scripture is that wherewith God draweth us unto him. The Scriptures sprang out of God and flow unto Christ, and were given to lead us to Christ. Thou must therefore go along by the Scriptures as by a line, until thou come out at Christ, which is the way’s end and resting place.” How different is this from where we find ourselves today?

The challenge for us in the days ahead is not so much to fight over what the Scriptures say about this and that issue, but rather to humble ourselves before them and “hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life” (Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent, BCP p. 97).