A Response to The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) Study Committee Report on Women Serving in the Ministry of the Church

by WRF Member Dr. D. Clair Davis, Teaching Elder of the Presbyterian Church in America

I always thought it was a curious and lumbering name for a Christian organisation – but I never questioned it. It had always been there, or so it seemed to a six year old: the British and Foreign Bible Society. I knew for sure that I was British so, I wondered, who were the foreigners?

I invite you to support GAFCON. If you are already a supporter, please ask others to join also. Here are my reasons.

The need for the prophetic voice

No one wants to see an end to the Anglican Communion. That is why the Primates went to Canterbury.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That is what the Bible tells us.

We are commanded to enter the kingdom of God by entrusting ourselves to Christ as our Lord and Saviour. That is, we enter and continue through repentance and faith.

No sooner do I begin my new series of the state of the Church in Scotland than the Scottish Social Attitudes survey is published, resulting in headlines along the lines of ‘Atheists now the majority in Scotland’.  

As we think through the significance of the meeting of Primates in Canterbury, we come to the key subject of repentance.

The issues before us have doctrinal and political aspects. But, finally, they are spiritual and that is why repentance matters.

It’s Easter.  Time for Easter bunnies, crowded roads and of course Easter chocolate eggs.  But as regards the latter, not for long. Sainsbury’s, Nestle and Cadbury’s have apparently removed Easter from our seasonal chocolate. Why?  

Fellowship, or Communion, is a very precious gift of the gospel. The Lord Jesus laid down his life for his Church, his Bride. Christians are united to Christ for their salvation. Inevitably, then, we are united with one another. We are all one in Christ Jesus.

Since the Primates gathering in January I have been trying to assess its significance for the Anglican Communion.

To assess the implications of the Primates’ gathering in January and what we have seen subsequently, I am suggesting that we go back to basics. The first point was the authority of the Bible over our consciences and over the churches. It is God’s word written.

How can we build up the church, the Body of Christ?  That is somewhat  like asking, “How do we, as individuals, grow in Christ?” If you read an old enough book, you’ll hear about “using the means of grace,” about reading the Bible, praying and going to church.

Apostasy is a nuclear bomb word.  For those who are not conversant with the ecclesiastical language of the Christian faith, it describes a wholesale and fundamental departure from the faith, so egregious that it places the offenders beyond the boundaries of what defines a Christian.