‘The Form of the Church’

Extract

It is significant of the better relations existing between bodies of Christians that theological differences can be discussed without the bitterness that was one time so prevalent. This Anglican book is a model of the way in which such discussions should be conducted. We must recognise and acknowledge the sympathy and humility with which he puts forward his views. The points of difference we develop can contribute to the discussion only in so far as we make that recognition, and acknowledge ourselves to be as individuals poor vehicles of the Divine Truth.

‘The essential forms of the Church,’ says Fr. Hebert, ‘mark out its shape or structure, by mediating to us the Redemption on which the Church’s existence is based . . . Old Israel, the ecclesia of the old covenant, was based on the redemption by which God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt . . . The Church of Christ is based on the Redemption effected by His death and resurrection, on the New Covenant inaugurated thereby, and on His establishment of it as the New Israel. Both the Old and the New look back to a Sacred History, a Heilsgeschichte, an epic story of God’s saving work. The Bible tells the story, the Creed sums it up, as a Gospel-message, the Sacraments set it forth, the Apostles proclaim it to men. There could be no such essential forms if Christianity consisted essentially of moral and religious ideals, nor yet if its essential proclamation were that there is an Inner Light. There must be such essential forms for a faith that rests on a Sacred . History ‘(p. 14).