Sources of Authority (paper 2 - 1.1)

Question 1

What do Catholics believe about the ordained ministry and why

Answer 1

• Only men may be ordained.
  Why?
• The priest represents Christ at the Mass.
  Catholics also believe that only men should be priests because Jesus’ 12 disciples were men and priests are following in the mission of the disciples through apostolic succession.
• Priests must be celibate and may not marry.
  Why?
• It means that the priest is not distracted by his own family matters and can give his full attention to the people in his parish.
• St Paul recommended celibacy as the best way of living.
• Jesus was not married- he devoted his life to preaching about the Kingdom of God and serving others. Priests today follow his example.
• Jesus was celibate and a Catholic priest represents Jesus in the Mass.
• They have been chosen by God to perform the seven SACRAMENTS, especially Holy Communion.
  Why?
• For Catholics, Holy Communion is consecrated by the priest, meaning that the priest, acting as Christ did at the Last Supper, turns the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation).

Question 2

what do the CofE believe

Answer 2

• Men and women may be ordained
  Why?
• Examples of women being in leadership roles in the Bible.
• They take a more liberal approach based on accepted cultural beliefs that men and women are equal.
• Clergy may marry but the churches are split on the issue of whether a minister can be in a gay relationship or not.
  Why?
• Some believe that some of the apostles were married, e.g. Peter.
• In the early Church, leaders were allowed to be married.
• They believe that being married can help them to relate to members of their congregation that have families.
  Their main task is to preach ‘the word’ of God.
  Why?
• There is less emphasis on the Eucharist in the CofE compared to the Catholic Church because CofE Christians do not believe in transubstantiation but believe that the Eucharist is merely a symbol of Christ’s body and blood.
  The clergy may share roles with members of the laity in worship and in the management of the church.
  Why?
• The laity are more involved in the running of the Church because they have a more liberal approach than the Catholic Church to tradition.

Question 3

what is the attitude of non-conformist Churches to the ordained ministry

Answer 3

• In non-conformist Churches, the leadership may not even be ordained, but instead are simply respected members of the community.
• This is because of the influence of Martin Luther’s idea of the ‘priesthood of all believers’, whereby all believers, not just ordained priests, can understand Christian beliefs for themselves using the Bible and reason

Question 4

what is the role of the laity in Non-conformist Churches

Answer 4

• In non-Conformist Churches, the laity has a particularly dominant role because in these Churches the main authority is the Bible.
• Why do you think this makes the role of the laity more important than the role of a priest?
• This means that the priest or minister is just a guide and not a special authority.
• In these Churches, often the laity have a very important role to play because the Church is built on their participation rather than the authority of priests and bishops.
• The important role of the laity in Non-conformist churches was the result of the Reformation where - Protestants put more emphasis on personal faith through reading the Bible and prayer rather than the traditions of the Church.
• Martin Luther argued for a “priesthood of all believers”
  – i.e. that the clergy do not have unique powers and that
  all Christians can be channels of God’s word. This makes
  the role of the laity more important in Non-conformist
  Churches

Question 5

Why do Christians believe they should follow their conscience

Answer 5

• The Church says conscience is the voice of God, so Christians should follow it.
• St. Paul said Christians should use their conscience as the final part of moral decision-making and but that we should also follow great Christian leaders. (He was referring to conscience when he said that the law of God was written on the hearts of the Gentiles, meaning that all people can know the law of God by listening to their conscience).
• The teachings of the Bible and the Church do not come directly from God. The Bible has been translated and needs interpreting. The teachings of the Church come through humans who are sometimes mistaken, but conscience is God guiding us.
• The Catholic Church says that conscience tells us to ‘love good and avoid evil’ and comes from God.
• St Thomas Aquinas taught that conscience helps us to know how to act and that a person should always follow their conscience. But, conscience is not perfect and a person must inform their conscience of the teachings of the Bible, the Church and all the facts of a situation so that their conscience is properly guided

Question 6

What are the problems with following conscience?

Answer 6

• People have been mistaken about the voice of God, e.g the Yorkshire Ripper claimed that God had told him to kill prostitutes.
• Conscience can be distorted by sin.
• It can be influenced by psychological factors, for example, Sigmund Freud, argued that conscience is just made up of the rules that we learnt from our parents as a child.
• If everyone followed their conscience rather than the laws, everything would be chaotic, as people wouldn’t agree on what is right from wrong.
• The Bible and the Church should also be used to guide for Christians.
• St Thomas Aquinas said that if a person did not inform their conscience properly they could be blamed for wrongly following their conscience

Question 7

The Bible and its authority for Christians

Answer 7

• For all Christians the Bible is the word of God, however this means different things to different Christians.
  It is certainly an important and authoritative book for all Christians.
  authority is the power to give orders and determine truth from falsity

Question 8

The Bible and its authority for Christians - fundamentalists

Answer 8

• Fundamentalist Christians:
• Believe that the Bible is the direct word of God, meaning that God inspired the writers of the Bible .
• Its teachings are therefore true and authoritative for all places and times.
• Many fundamentalists also take the Bible literally, meaning they think everything in the Bible is literally true, e.g. that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh

Question 9

The Bible and its authority for Christians - conservative

Answer 9

Conservative Christians:
- Believe that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit but is not the direct word of God.
- Believe that the main ideas in the Bible, particularly Jesus’ teachings, come from God, but that the authors, being human, sometimes did make mistakes in describing these ideas:
- Genesis 1:26-27Adam and Eve were created at thesame time.Genesis 2:7 and 2:21-22Adam was created first, woman sometimelater.
- Because the writers were inspired by God, however, the - - Bible still contains a lot of truth and has authority.
- The Bible needs to be interpreted in places to understand God’s wishes

Question 10

The Bible and its authority for Christians - liberal

Answer 10

• Believe that the Bible was written by humans about their experience of God.
• Because of this it contains no direct teaching on modern issues that the writers did not understand, e.g. in new technology and medicine. Can you think of examples?
• They believe that Christians can only look at general messages in the Bible and also guidance from elsewhere, e.g. through the Church and prayer, on these matters.
• There are also accounts in the Bible that were based on the writers’ limited understanding of science, e.g. the creation story- these need to be interpreted using modern understanding. What does science say about ‘creation’?
• Many liberal Christians also believe that the Bible’s views on some things, e.g. homosexuality and slavery, are based on cultural attitudes at the time and need to be updated for current society

Question 11

Reasons for the Fundamentalist view-point - The Bible and its authority for Christians

Answer 11

• Even though the Bible was written over a period of many hundreds of years, and by many different people, there is a unity in the message, suggesting there is only one author behind it- God.
• Jesus himself refers to the Jewish scriptures (Old Testament) as ‘the Word of God’.
• The prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus, showing the Bible to be true.
• Through personal experience, some Christians believe the Bible has come directly from God

Question 12

Reasons for the Conservative view-point - The Bible and its authority for Christians

Answer 12

• There are key truths that were inspired by the Holy Spirit e.g. that Jesus died for all human sins and rose again.
• They believe it is only inspired by the Holy Spirit because it is a book about faith, not a science or history book, meaning it is spiritually true but not literally true.
• They realise that it is the overall message that is important and are not concerned over contradictions, for example, the contradictions in the Genesis stories do not detract from the message that God created and loves the world.
• They believe that the Holy Spirit inspired humans to write about their experiences of God

Question 13

Reasons for the Conservative view-point - The Bible and its authority for Christians

Answer 13

• They believe the Bible is written by ordinary humans about their experiences of God because it contains some mistakes.
• The writers of the Bible were influenced by the accepted beliefs at the time and therefore Bible should be interpreted by modern society, for example, some passages in the Bible talk about slavery: ‘Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything’ (Titus: 2: 9-10), because this was acceptable at the time.
• Many stories in the Bible were written by humans to express important messages. These stories are symbolic, for example, the message of the Genesis story is that God created and loves the world.
• There are some contradictions in the Bible which shows that it was written by different people, e.g. Genesis 1:26-27Adam and Eve were created at thesame time/Genesis 2:7 and 2:21-22Adam was created first, woman sometimelater

Question 14

Apostolic succession

Answer 14

• The 12 apostles were chosen by Jesus, knew Jesus and witnessed his life and teachings.
• Jesus gave them authority to start the Church and they passed on Jesus’ message to the first Christians.
• Peter was the leader of the apostles and became the first Bishop of Rome. Jesus had said to Peter, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church’.
• Christians believe that the authority given to St Peter by - Jesus is alive in the Church today through the Bishops and Priests.
• This is why the Church has authority on worship, how to live a Christian life and how to interpret the Bible

Question 15

The General Synod

Answer 15

The General Synod is an elected group of people that represent the Church and make decisions about worship and other matters that affect the Church.

it is made up of three groups of people:
House of Bishops
House of Clergy (vicars)
House of Laity (ordinary Christians)

Question 16

Decisions made by the General Synod

Answer 16

In 1994 the General Synod voted in favor of women being allowed to be priests.
In 2012 the General Synod voted against women being allowed to be bishops.
In 2014 the General Synod voted in favor of women being allowed to be bishops

Question 17

How do the CofE make decisions on how its congregation should live

Answer 17

• The CofE tend to take a more liberal approach to issues that affect how its members live their lives than the Catholic Church (while the catholic Church does not interpret scripture with a fundamentalist attitude, many of it’s practices are more rooted in tradition than CofE).
• This is because they believe that scripture (the Bible), tradition (traditions of the Church since the time of the first apostles) and reason (using reason and experience to relate the bible’s teachings to today’s problems) should all be considered
  when interpreting how the Christian life should be lived.

Question 18

what are the three things that the CofE should consult when making decisions

Answer 18

scripture
reason
tradition

Question 19

why should scripture be consulted when the CofE makes decisions

Answer 19

• While the central messages of scripture should be adhered to, it needs interpreting for our society using reason (God gave us this ability). The CofE take a conservative approach to interpreting the Bible.
  Why?
  -There are many issues that people face in today’s society that there is no mention of in the Bible, e.g. genetic engineering.
• The writer’s of the Bible were influenced by the cultural attitudes of the time (e.g. women not being allowed to speak in Church). Since society has progressed in many ways, we need to interpret the Bible in light of those changes in attitude (e.g. the equality of men and women).

Question 20

what are advantages and disadvantages of using scripture when the CofE makes decisions

Answer 20

advantages:
- It’s the word of God.
- Gives guidance on how to live a Christian life.
- Teaches Christians about the life and teachings of Jesus
disadvantages:
There are modern issues that are not mentioned in the Bible.
- The Bible contains contradictions.
- The Bible was written by humans who were influenced by the culture of the time
- Therefore, the Bible needs interpreting using REASON for modern day

Question 21

what are advantages and disadvantages of using tradition when the CofE makes decisions

Answer 21

advantages:
- We can learn from the
wisdom of previous generations who have studied Christianity.
- Some traditions have been passed down from the time of the apostles, who knew Jesus in person
disadvantages:
- Some traditions might have lost true meaning over hundreds of years.
- Some traditions are not relevant anymore to modern life

Question 22

what are advantages and disadvantages of using reason when the CofE makes decisions

Answer 22

• We can interpret scripture and tradition using it.
• We have made progress in science and ethics using our reason and we should therefore interpret scripture and tradition using it.
• God gave us reason to interpret scripture and tradition

Question 23

what are the benefits to Christians of decisions being made by the general synod

Answer 23

• The GS represents three major groups in the Church including ordinary Christians (the laity) and priest and bishops that have in depth knowledge of the Christian faith.
• Those who vote as part of the GS are active Christians who hopefully have spent much time in prayer, so they are inspired by the Holy Spirit in their beliefs and opinions.
• The laity that are part of the GS have experience of things that effect ordinary Christians, such as sexuality, feeling out of touch with the Church etc.
• Major decisions in the Church are made by democratic vote

Question 24

what are the problems to Christians of decisions being made by the general synod

Answer 24

• The laity in particular are influenced by their culture and popular opinion sometimes in a way that is contrary to traditional teachings of the Church and the Bible. (why might this be problematic?)
• Teachings of the Church are subject to change whenever the GS vote for change when some Christians (Roman Catholics) put more emphasis on the continuity of Christian teaching and tradition.

Question 25

How is the Bible used in the CofE

Answer 25

- The Bible is used during worship in church services, in small groups of Christians and in individual worship. - The Bible is used in small group/individual meditation/devotion on God and Christ’s message/teaching. - The Bible is used to teach people about Christianity in education

Question 26

How is the Bible used in worship in CofE

Answer 26

- During a church service, passages from the bible are read. This allows the Congregation to reflect on their meaning for their everyday lives. A reading from the Bible may also act as a theme for the prayers and singing of hymns in the service. - Some Christians meet in small groups to worship God. - - - These meetings will often be centred on readings from the Bible. The readings will help Christians to worship God through prayer and sometimes music. - Christians often use Bible passages to focus their worship of God in private, where they reflect on His message, pray and give thanks to God

Question 27

How is the Bible used in meditation/devotion in CofE

Answer 27

- Christians use passages from the Bible to focus their thoughts on God in private devotion/meditation. They reflect on the meaning of the passages for their lives. In small groups, Christians sometimes read passages from the Bible to focus their minds on God and the teachings from the Bible. - Passages from the Bible can inspire Christians to pray to - God in meditation/devotion in a Church service

Question 28

How is the Bible used in education in CofE

Answer 28

- Christians can study passages in the Bible privately or in groups to try to understand what it is saying for their lives. - Often Churches give out booklets of suggested daily readings to guide Christians in their faith. - Passages in the Bible are used in CofE schools and Sunday Schools to help children understand their faith and the teachings of Jesus. - The readings from the Bible in the church service help the Congregation to understand more about their faith and how it can be put into practice in everyday life