Synod voting

Was so hopeful yesterday and so sad at the vote. I believe the scriptures are with those longing for women bishops. I hear this in Paul himself - in the sense of relief he has in turning from 'in culture' to 'in Christ' as it were in 1 Corinthians 11: 11.
We are now experiencing the cruciformity I wrote of in the last blog. Good Friday is very bleak, verty painful, very dark.  But it is not to lessen the awfulness by saying that resurrection comes in Easter Sunday. That is the point of resurrection - it surprises, comes from nowhere, and doesn't look like we anticipate.
I'm not over-bothered by how this is viewed in the wider world (though there are consequences.) I give thanks that I am part of God's church where we can struggle with these issues. And I believe that God is bigger than us all - the God who leads us all into cruciformly.

Quote of the Day - Cruciformity

I so enjoy Michael J Gorman's, Cruciformity. He presents an exegesis and spirituality that makes sense of Paul's writings. It brings together but steps beyond the normal approaches both in theological terms and in day to day spirituality. With regard to those passages that I have always we missed something (eg Phil 2:5), I go 'ahahhh!' ("Have this mindset in your community, which is indeed a community in Christ … ")

Today I have enjoyed p 48f:
'Cruciformity... is a term more appropriate for what has often been referred to as the "imitation" of Christ. Cruciformity is an ongoing pattern of living in Christ as of dying with him that produces a Christ like (cruciform) person...
'[C]ruciformity cannot be attributed to human effort. There is a power at work within him and within his communities that somehow... produces Christ-like qualities. This power enables the exalted crucified Christ to take shape in and among those who belong to him and live in him. It enables the narrative of the cross to be retold and relived. This power is, for Paul, the Spirit of God.'

P.57: '[F]or Paul the Spirit is the Spirit of cruciformity.'

At p 56, quoting Robert Tannehill: 'the Spirit has an active killing function.' (Italics in original)
P 55 '[T]he Spirit powerfully brings life out of sin and death.'

This helpfully links in my heart to Robert Farrer Capon's approach to the parables in his writings, and hence helps me draw together various strands of the New Testament.

Note that this is not just the experience of one person, such as Paul. It 'is the defining characteristic of the Spirit-filled community as a whole...' '[T]he Spirit dwells in our midst, not just in our hearts. The Spirit of cruciformity is the Spirit of Christian community, and it is by means of cruciformity that the Spirit produces unity. That is the explicit or implicit foundation of every call to unity found in the Pauline epistles.' (p.61) Gorman then gives the example of Philippians 2:1-11, 'in which the cruciform Lord Christ is set forth in narrative as the paradigm of the Spirit's activity in the Philippian church.' (p61f)