Comment on A Generous Orthodoxy …
This note is from an Anglican priest in England …
I have just finished reading “A Generous Orthodoxy” : on the eve of the 30th anniversary of my ordination as deacon in the Church of England.. I was ordained priest the following year.
I simply want to thank you for your book: the criticisms you make of the various traditions are made in love, even if, mercifully, they are sharp and honest and challenging. Your affirmation of what is good in all these traditions is really refreshing and a great encouragement.
It strikes me, thirty years into ordained ministry in a variety of parishes, that God is so patient with us and so impatient, simultaneously! He is ever nudging, cajoling, inviting, encouraging us to be attentive to His presence and action beyond the tidy limits of our structures… to “define” is to draw a boundary round..God is beyond boundaries! Praise Him for that! Orthodoxy is in any case about “right worship”… doxa is about “glory”, dogma about “teachings”.
I am thrilled that God in His love and beauty and majesty encounters us in those graced moments when our only response can be worship…your book has not only prodded me intellectually, but has fed my worship. So, thank you!