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Clergy on the Spot

Some suggested topics:

1. Of Jesus’ miracles, like the changing of water into wine, one often hears it said: “If he was the Son of God, he could do anything.” How sound is that viewpoint?

2. Now that western civilisation has opted firmly for glorious individualism, do we have any further need for the Church, except as a crutch for the socially inadequate? Surely the motels are right: the Bible, as the ultimate self-help book, is all anyone needs by their bedside for direct access to God?

3. Moderate religious conservatives concede that the ceremonial and food laws in the Bible are not binding today, but the moral laws are not for discussion. Are even moral laws immune from the cultural setting of their time? Does not the Bible itself progress from vengeance, via moderate reprisals (one eye for one eye only), to forgiveness?

4. Can we trust the Bible documents, when there seem to be so many older and more authentic documents being discovered nowadays?

5. German theologians, who have always led the field in serious theology (but who are virtually unknown in Canada) continuously ask the question: “Who is Christ for today?” Surely ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever.’ What do they mean?

6. We say that the newly baptised have been “welcomed into the Lord’s family”. Would it be better if this well-worn phrase were welcomed into retirement? A. M.
[Letter to the Church Times]

7. If God is non-interventionist, why ask Him to make things happen? If He does intervene, why is He so selective?

8. Is Christ the Saviour of Muslims?

9. When we pray, who benefits - the one who is prayed for, or the one who prays - the pray'er' or the pray'ee'?

10. At a dialogue sermon at the Cathedral a couple of summers ago, St Paul was recalled as defining humanity as a society ("we are members one of another."). Margaret Thatcher's memorable phrase was also quoted "there is no such thing as society." When the guest speaker (sociologist and churchgoer Prof Scott Grills) was asked who was right, St. Paul or Margaret Thtacher, he opted for the Iron Lady. Was he right?

11. Which is less damaging in the (i) long (ii) short run – heresy, or schism?