LONDON – The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion stressed the need to protect the environment in his Christmas sermon Tuesday.
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams said ”human greed” is threatening to distort the fragile balance of the earth and that the message of Christmas is about God’s love for creation, according to the Press Association.
"The whole point of creation is that there should be persons ... capable of intimacy with God – not so that God can gain something, but so that these created beings may live in joy,” the archbishop said in his sermon in Canterbury Cathedral in England.
"And God's way of making sure that this joy is fully available is to join humanity on Earth so that human beings may recognize what they are and what they are for."
Speaking on the environment, Williams said, "More and more [is] clearly required of us as we grow in awareness of how fragile is the balance of species and environments in the world and just how our greed distorts it.
"When we threaten the balance of things, we don't just put our material survival at risk, more profoundly we put our spiritual sensitivity at risk – the possibility of being opened up to endless wonder by the world around us," the archbishop added, according to the Press Association.
Williams encouraged people to show reverence to God’s creation and to each other.
"The delight and reverence we should have towards the things of creation is intensified many times where human relationships are concerned,” he said.
"And if peace is to be more than a pause in open conflict, it must be grounded in this passionate amazed reverence for others."
Comments
True followers of Christ worship the God of creation, not creation itself.
aidansway - Just because I've rejected your church, and don't agree on the description of church history you do, doesn't mean I'm "ignorant" of it, it just means that I believe it's false.
So what you think is that the "Catholic" church is responsible for the spread of Christianity by mixing it with pagan worship practices? What do you worship, your church or God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that caused the spread of Christianity, not the corrupt practices that arose over the centuries that drew Christianity from it's original form (the form described in the scripture, which bear no discernable comparison to the practices of your church) to what it is today.
I have studied Christian history, Catholicism and Anglicanism. I would suggest that you read and study only one book.....the Bible, it's the only one you really need to read.
You wrote..."God does not use pagan forms of worship to sanctify His children"
I couldn't agree more, He doesn't....what you need to understand is that your church isn't God. God doesn't need your "material means". We are to worship God in "spirit and in truth". Have you read the Old Testament? Here you had the Jews mixing the worship God gave them with the pagan worship of the nations around them. I would strongly suggest that before you advocate and support such practices, you take the time to learn how much God hated it.
My heart breaks when I think that the God of the universe has loved us enough for the Holy Spirit to cause men to write His thoughts and words, His love for us, His plans for us, what He wants us to do, and how we are to worship Him, and once again man has decided to ignore His words, and His love for us, and chosen to make up what they want to do and call it worshiping Him.
IT is interesting to note how often our Church has availed herself of practices which were in common use among pagans, and which owed their origin to their appropriateness for expressing something spiritual by material means. The Church and her clergy are " all things to all men, that they may gain all for Christ," and she has often found that it was well to take what was praiseworthy in other forms of worship and adapt it to her own purposes, for the sanctification of her children. Thus it is true, in a certain sense, that some Catholic rites and ceremonies are a reproduction of those of pagan creeds; but they are the taking of what was best from paganism, the keeping of symbolical practices which express the religious instinct that is common to all races and times. [Externals of the Catholic Church - Holy Water Chapter XXVII]
God does not use pagan forms of worship to sanctify His children.
RBB: you are ignorant of much of church history and even more so the Anglican church. There is no idol worship involved. Also if the church hadn't reached out to Greek and Roman pagans many centuries ago Christianity would not have evolved into a major world faith. Regardless what you think of the Catholic church or Anglican church they are responsible for more growth over the ages than other denomination. That is a fact. You need to conduct further research on the meaning of these images before making sweeping critical comments about something you have no grasp of. My heart "breaks" when I think we might not have an earth left in which to worship if we don't start changing our ways and the opinions especially those of uneducated, paranoid, and narrow minded individuals in all faiths and beliefs.
RBB,
Well said! :)
When I think of all the wonderful sermons and classes I've heard in the last two weeks about our Lord's birth, the prophecies foretelling it, His reason for being here and how we must not just think only of His birth at this time of year, but keep in mind that He came to earth that we might be forgiven or our sins and be saved, my heart breaks for those who will only hear sermons like this.
As I look at this picture I see a graven image, (or idol if you prefer) with Williams preaching from a podium, with Jesus on the cross and Mary and a man both with "auras" around their heads that are a man made invention. It brings home to me the many times in the scripture that God tells man not to worship images, that His people are not to worship Him in the way that the "nations, gentiles, etc..." are worshiping their god's because it's an abomination to Him. It reminds me that the Greek and Roman worship of idols was the place that the "Catholic" church came up with the idea of incorporating them into their worship, to appease the new Christians that didn't want to give up their old religion. Please come home to the real Christianity, the Christianity described in the Bible.
As I look at this picture and see a saint in the background, Williams preaching from a podium with Jesus on the Cross and Mother Mary at the foot of the cross with an aura around her head it brings home to me why 500,000 Traditional Anglican petitioned the Catholic Church to join last month and why the former PM of England converted to Catholicism yesterday. We miss you guys, please come back home.