Categories: uncategorized
Date: 23 October 2006 19:40:39
...After the news about the SPCK bookshops a few days ago there has been a bit of debate about what this means for the future of the chain. Dave has commented Here and Here, a commenter who wants to be a priest (or something...) has written a few thoughts Here, and there are worried voices appearing all over the net hourly, such as Here.
So do I still feel positive about the "takeover"? I am not sure, when I first looked at the St Stephen foundation website I noticed things like They are persuaded to join “Feel-Good” churches where they are told they will be saved by making a donation and saying a few simple words. Unfortunately, many of these are “feel good” churches are established just to make the management rich, which I agree is the case, but failed to give proper attention to One hundred and fifty thousand souls convert or revert back to the Roman Catholic faith each year in the USA. In their misguided belief, they assume that this is the true Church of Christ. and then going on to say the orthodox church is in fact the only true church.
Now I may be in the awkward situation of having no churchmanship (and so believing there is no such thing as the true church of Christ), but I have always seen SPCK to stand for unity in the wider and extended church, even often embracing groups that may may be termed by some as heretics and certainly but others as liberals. I have also always backed SPCK for its support in promoting things like Peacemakers, an initiative to foster understanding between Christians and Muslims, and one their long term aims has been To encourage Christians from different traditions and cultures to learn from one another. Sadly I can see no evidence from the St Stephens site thats they share these aims, although much of the site seems to have changed from when I looked on Saturday morning!
I still hope it is going to be good for the chain, and if need be I will contact the charity myself to talk through any worries I have, and will be talking to my manager tomorrow about the situation as it stands.