Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A senior Anglican cleric and theologian who advocates for disestablishment and ecumenical reunion.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08From your experience, are there any major reforms that you think are necessary in the Church of England?
Oh yes. I think there have been many. … But on the whole I think there's been a a great good deal of progress. … on the whole, I've always been theoretically in favour of disestablishing the church.
Presenter asks
1:03How do you think [disestablishment] is going to help the church?
Uh well, I'm not quite sure that it will h help anybody, but it doesn't seem to me to be realistic. … to call that the National Church seems to me um rather unrealistic. … It might help the church, I think. … it would facilitate the development of the ecumenical movement. Towards Christian Reunion.
Presenter asks
2:01You mentioned the small percentage of the population who go to church. These congregations are still falling and confirmations are falling. Yet there is an enormous interest, popular interest, in religion and theology. Doesn't this mean that the church is failing to interpret the Christian message in terms of life today?
I'm afraid it does mean that. … But uh it's it's very easy to say that, but not so easy to know what the answer is. Uh how is the church … to reform its presentation of the Gospel … to make it appealing. And real having real value indeed in the minds of the contemporary citizens.
Presenter asks
2:55Do you think that the Church clings to rituals and myths and inessentials that obscure the basic facts and theories of Christianity?
Well, no doubt it does. But I wouldn't uh like to speak uh slightly either of rituals or of myths. I think uh both are very important elements in any religion. … how are we going to find a substitute for the Good Shepherd? … I don't think it can be done.
Presenter asks
5:11You have advocated that the Church should conduct its own psychical researches. Have you yourself had any experience of the supernatural?
Nothing that I would really be quite certain was uh supernatural. I have had uh experiences which seem to me to point uh that way. … and I think it's very important that the church should not condemn uh research and uh study on the psychical side, but equally important that it should not … be uh led away by uncriticised allegations of supernatural events.
Presenter asks
6:31Going off a bit at a tangent, do you think it right that the clergy should give a lead in politics? For example, you've condemned unilateralism, one of your canons advocates it; this could be confusing for the church goer.
Well, confusing if the church is going to take his ministers as a kind of political authority. Not confusing if he just recognizes that they're citizens just like himself. … I think it is a part of the pastoral duty of the Church to point out that Christian principles have a direct bearing upon the manner in which they are living together in society.
“I think there's been a a great good deal of progress. … on the whole, I've always been theoretically in favour of disestablishing the church.”
“I think both are very important elements in any religion. … how are we going to find a substitute for the Good Shepherd? … I don't think it can be done.”
“I think it is a part of the pastoral duty of the Church to point out that Christian principles have a direct bearing upon the manner in which they are living together in society.”