Bishop Tom Wright on 'adiaphora'
Leading New Testament scholar and soon to retire Bishop of Durham, Rt Revd Tom Wright, will be our speaker at the clergy conference in October. In his last Presidential Address to the Diocesan Synod he addressed the issue of 'adiaphora', a theme he considers 'urgently necessary'.
'The word adiaphora means, literally, 'not-different things', or ‘things that don’t make a difference’. And the question of adiaphora can be posed, as I have often posed it, like this: granted that there are many differences between us, how can we tell which differences make a difference and which ones don’t? How do you know? Who decides? How can you tell the difference between differences which make a difference and differences which don’t make a difference?'
Bishop Tom develops the theme and reflects on, among other things, the recent consecration of Mary Glasspool.
'...And that, too, is why recent events in America are placing an ever greater strain on the Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury is, I believe, in the process of writing a pastoral letter to all the churches, and I don't want to pre-empt what he will say. But the point is this. Unlike the situation with children and Communion; unlike the situation with the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate; in the case of sexual relations outside the marriage of a man and a woman, the church as a whole, in all its global meetings not least the Lambeth Conference, has solidly and consistently reaffirmed the clear and unambiguous teaching of the New Testament. But the substantive issue isn’t the point here. The point is that the Church as a whole has never declared these matters to be adiaphora. This isn’t something a Bishop, a parish, a diocese, or a province can declare on its own authority. You can’t simply say that you have decided that this is something we can all agree to differ on. Nobody can just 'declare’ that. The step from mandatory to optional can never itself be a local option, and the Church as a whole has declared that the case for that step has not been made. By all means let us have the debate. But, as before, it must be a proper theological debate, not a postmodern exchange of prejudices.'
Please download the address in its entirety here.
Read the statement on the consecration of Mary Glasspool issued by evangelicals in the Church of Ireland.