Bishop Harold on the Anniversary of The Reformation
Bishop Harold has given an interview to the Belfast News Letter published on the 500th Anniversary of (it is widely believed) Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Bishop Harold’s thoughts were published alongside those of the Methodist President, Revd Laurence Graham and and Dr Norman Hamilton (former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church).
He told the paper of his belief that the Christian world is in the midst of “tectonic” upheaval akin to Martin Luther’s Reformation.
“There’s a tag Luther himself had – semper reformanda: the church must always go on being reformed. In our generation the church will probably emerge very different.”
He feels it will become “much less institutionalised, much more egalitarian, maybe even more questioning”.
Old denominational labels do not mean as much to people today, he said, especially to the young – but “it doesn’t mean faith doesn’t mean much to them or that Christ doesn’t mean much to them”.
He said: “I would say we’re going through a reformation. “And like the reformation of Luther, it can take 150 years to build up to it but there come tipping points…
“I think we’re in the midst of something more than incremental change, something more radical.
“The other thing about it is that the centre of Christianity has moved really to the southern hemisphere… The heart of the Christian faith has moved south, and that’s going to transform the church too.”
Read the interview in full here.