What a difference a generation makes. . .

Looking across the pond, one can see how the evolution of change happens in but a generation.  What we are seeing in the Church of England represents a 180 degree turn.  Consider this.  In 1998 at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops from around the globe, July 18-August 9, the assembly passed a resolution declaring homosexual practice is "incompatible with Scripture."  It was even then spurred on by the decisive stance of the African bishops but then Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey said: "I stand wholeheartedly with traditional Anglican orthodoxy. I see no room in Holy Scripture or the entire Christian tradition for any sexual activity outside matrimony of husband and wife."  There is plenty of space between what Carey said then and the position of Justin Welby and the clergy of the Church of England today.  

A majority of priests of the Church of England are now in favor of the church offer ing same-sex weddings and allow premarital and gay sex, according to a major survey conducted by The Times.  It breaks down to 53.4 percent in favor and 36.5 percent opposed to gay marriage in the CoE. The Church of England currently allows blessings for gay couples but only permits church weddings between a man and a woman.  Add to this, 62.6 percent of the 1,200 surveyed said the church should change its teaching on the immorality of premarital sex; 21.6 percent accepting all fornication and 41 percent saying sex outside marriage is fine for people in "committed relationships."  Only a bit over a third believed the church should not change its teaching on sex outside of marriage.  Some 65 percent of priests said the church should end its opposition to gay sex and more than a quarter of those surveyed (27.3 percent) saying homosexuals should be allowed to have sex with whomever they want. Fewer than a third (29.7 percent) said church teaching should not change on the matter.

The Church of England is not the Missouri Synod.  Or is it?  Take a look at the differences between youth surveyed at Synod youth gatherings and the historic position of our Synod.  Things change and not for the good.  The weak link in every case is how well we teach and defend what Scripture says and our Confessions affirm.  It takes but a generation of failure in these areas before what we said is either forgotten or rebuked and we shift to confessing a faint echo of what the world has already come to regard as their truth for the moment.  Catechesis is not for children only.  Parents need to be constantly reminded of their roles and constantly taught so that they may fulfill them or we will lose our youth.  In so many ways the crisis in church decline for orthodox churches is less about the failure of our programs or our outreach but about our catechesis.  The doubts registered by one generation become the rejection of the next generation.  Luke penned his gospel so that the Christians may be assured or made confident of the things to which they had been catechized.  It is never a once in a while endeavor; this catechesis is the daily life of the Church.  It cannot happen only on Wednesdays at 5:30 pm at the Church but needs to happen first in the home through formal teaching and the informal conversations and God talk that happens around the dinner table and in every other spare moment in the household.  We need to be ready or we will see in our own church body the rejection of that which the generation before presumed to be permanent.  That is how it works. . .