Journal articles on the topic 'General Board of Church and Society'

In the early years of the modern missionary movement there were many influences which turned minds towards support for the general principle and practice of reliance on ‘native agency’. Strategies of conversion such as those of the London Missionary Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions at work in the Pacific, which aimed at kings or other influential local leaders, at least implicitly allotted important roles to the leadership and example of highly-placed converts. Awareness of the scale of the missionary task in densely-populated regions, contrasted with the limits of the western missionary input, pointed to the need for delegation as quickly as possible. The Serampore missionaries, Alexander Duff and Charles Gutzlaff, all travelled early down that road. Financial crisis – manifested either locally as Dr John Philip found in South Africa, or centrally as when the Church Missionary Society decided in the early 1840s to withdraw from the West Indies - prompted inevitable questions about the possibilities for deployment of local agents, who were far cheaper than Europeans.

First a Man - then a Christian. Grundtvig and Missonary ActivityBy K.E. BuggeThe aim of this paper is to clarify Grundtvig’s ideas on missionary activity in the socalled »heathen parts«. The point of departure is taken in a brief presentation of the poem »Man first - and then a Christian« (1838), an often quoted text, whenever this theme is discussed. The most extensive among earlier studies on the subject is the book published by Georg Thaning: »The Grundtvigian Movement and the Mission among Heathen« (1922). The author provides valuable insights also into Grundtvig’s ideas, but has, of course, not been able to utilize more recent studies.On the background of the revival movement of the late 18th and early 19th century, The Danish Missionary Society was established in 1821. In the Lutheran churches such activity was generally deemed to be unnecessary. According to the Holy Scripture, so it was argued, the heathen already had a »natural« knowledge of God, and the word of God had been preached to the ends of the earth in the times of the Apostles. Nevertheless, it was considered a matter of course that a Christian sovereign had the duty to ensure that non-Christian citizens of his domain were offered the possibility of conversion to the one and true faith. In the double-monarchy Denmark-Norway such non-Christian populations were the Lapplanders of Northern Norway, the Inuits in Greenland, the black slaves in Danish West India and finally the native populations of the Danish colonies in West Africa and East India. Under the influence of Pietism missionary, activity was initiated by the Danish state in South India (1706), Northern Norway (1716), and Greenland (1721).In Grundtvig’s home the general attitude towards missionary work among the heathen seems to have reflected traditional Lutheranism. Nevertheless, one of Grundtvig’s elder brothers, Jacob Grundtvig, volunteered to become a missionary in Greenland.Due to incidental circumstances he was instead sent to the Danish colony in West Africa, where he died after less than one year of service. He was succeeded by his brother Niels Grundtvig, who likewise died within a year. During the period when Jacob Grundtvig prepared himself for the journey to Greenland, we can imagine that his family spent many an hour discussing his future conditions. It is probable that on these occasions his father consulted his copy of the the report on the Greenland mission published by Hans Egede in 1737. It is a fact that Grundtvig imbibed a deep admiration for Hans Egede early in his life. In his extensive poem »Roskilde Rhyme« (1812, published 1814), the theme of which is the history of Christianity in Denmark, Grundtvig inserted more than 70 lines on the Greenland mission. Egede’s achievements are here described in close connection with the missionary work of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar, South India, as integral parts of the same journey towards the celestial Jerusalem.In Grundtvig’s famous publication »The Church’s Retort« (1825) he describes the church as an historical fact from the days of the Apostles to our days. This historical church is at the same time a universal entity, carrying the potential of becoming the church of all humanity - if not before, then at the end of the world. A few years later, in a contribution to the periodical .Theological Monthly., he applies this historicaluniversal perspective on missionary acticity in earlier times and in the present. The main features of this stance may be summarized in the following points:1. Grundtvig rejects the Orthodox-Lutheran line of thought and underscores the Biblical view: That before the end of time the Gospel must be preached out into all comers of the world.2. Our Lutheran, Biblically founded faith must not lead to inactivity in this field.3. Correctly understood, missionary activity is a continuance of the acts of the Apostles.4. The Holy Spirit is the intrinsic dynamic power in the extension of the Christian faith.5. The practical procedure in this extension work must never be compulsion or stealth, but the preaching of the word and the free, uninhibited decision of the listeners.We find here a total reversion of the Orthodox-Lutheran way of rejection in principle, but acceptance in practice. Grundtvig accepts the principle: That missionary activity is a legitimate and necessary Christian undertaking. The same activity has, however, both historically and in our days, been marred by unacceptable practices, on which he reacts with forceful rejection. To this position Grundtvig adhered for the rest of his life.Already in 1826, Grundtvig withdrew from the controversy arising from the publication of his .Retort.. The public dispute was, however, continued with great energy by the gifted young academic, Jacob Christian Lindberg. During the 1830s a weekly paper, edited by Lindberg, .Nordisk Kirke-Tidende., i.e. Nordic Church Tidings, became Grundtvig’s main channel of communication with the public. All through the years of its publication (1833-41), this paper, of which Grundtvig was also an avid reader, brought numerous articles and reports on missionary activity. Among the reasons for this editorial practice we find some personal motives. Quite a few of Grundtvig’s and Lindberg’s friends were board members of the Danish Missionary Society. Furthermore, one of Lindberg’s former students, Christen Christensen Østergaard was appointed a missionary in Greenland.In the present paper the articles dealing with missionary activity are extensively reported and quoted as far as the years 1833-38 are concerned, and the effects on Grundtvig of this incessant .bombardment. of information on missionary activity are summarized. Generally speaking, it was gratifying for Grundtvig to witness ho w many of his ideas on missionary activity were reflected in these contributions. Furthermore, Lindberg’s regular reports on the progress of C.C. Østergaard in Greenland has continuously reminded Grundtvig of the admired Hans Egede.Among the immediate effects the genesis of the poem »First the man - then the Christian« must be mentioned. As already observed by Kaj Thaning, Grundtvig has read an article in the issue of Nordic Church Tidings, dated, January 8th, 1838, written by the Orthodox-Lutheran, German theologian Heinrich Møller on the relationship between human nature and true Christianity. Grundtvig has, it seems, written his poem in protest against Møller’s assertion: That true humanness is expressed in acceptance of man’s fundamental sinfulness. Against this negative position Grundtvig holds forth the positive Johannine formulations: To be »of the truth« and to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. Grundtvig has seen a connection between Møller’s negative view of human nature and a perverted missionary practice. In the third stanza of his poem Grundtvig therefore inserted some critical remarks, clearly inspired by his reading of Nordic Church Tidings.Other immediate effects are seen in the way in which, in his sermons from these years, Grundtvig meticulously elaborates on the Biblical argumentation in favour of missionary activity. In this context he combines passages form the Old and New Testament - often in an ingenious, original manner. Finally must be mentioned the way in which Grundtvig, in his hymn writing from the middle of the 1830s, more often than hitherto recognized, interposes stanzas dealing with the preaching of the Gospel to heathen populations.Turning from general observations and a study of immediate impact, the paper considers the effects, which become apparent in a longer perspective. In this respect Grundtvig’s interpretation of the seven churches mentioned in chapters 2-3 of the Book of Revelation is of crucial importance. According to Grundtvig, they symbolize seven stages in the historical development of Christianity, i.e. the churches of the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the English, the Germans and the »Nordic« people. The seventh and last church will reveal itself sometime in the future.This vision, which Grundtvig expounds for the first time in 1810, emerges in his writings from time to time all through his life. The most impressive literary monument describing the vision is his great poem, »The Pleiades of Christendom« from 1856-60.In 1845 he becomes convinced that the arrival of the sixth stage is revealed in the breakthrough of a new and vigourous hymn-singing in the church of Vartov. As late as the spring of 1863 Grundtvig voices a contented optimism in a church-historical lecture, where the Danish missions to Greenland and to Tranquebar in South India are characterized as .signs of life and good omens.. Grundtvig here refers back to his above-mentioned »Roskilde Rhyme« (1812, 1814), where he had offered a spiritual interpretation of the names of persons and localities involved in the process. He had then observed that the colony founded in Greenland by Hans Egede was called »Good Hope«, a highly symbolic name. And the church built by the missionaries in Tranquebar was called »Church of the New Jerusalem«, a name explicitly referring to the Book of Revelation, and thus welding together his great vision and his view on missionary activity. After Denmark’s humiliating defeat in the Danish-German war of 1864, the optimism faded away. Grundtvig seems to have concluded that the days of the sixth and .Nordic. church had come to an end, and the era of the seventh church was about to commence. In accordance with his poem on »The Pleiades« etc. he localizes this final church in India.In Grundtvig’s total view missionary activity was the dynamism that bound his vision together into an integrated process. Through the activity of »Denmark’s apostle«, Ansgar, another admired mis-sionary, the universal church had become a locally rooted reality. Through the missions of Hans Egede and Ziegenbalg the Gospel was carried out to the ends of the earth. The local Danish church thus contributed significantly to the proliferation of a universal church. In the development of this view, Grundtvig was inspired as well as provoked by his regular reading of Nordic Church Tidings in the 1830s.

Diarmuid Downs was a one-company man. He started work at Ricardo in 1942, after graduation from the University of London, Northampton Polytechnic (now City University) with a first-class honours degree in engineering, and retired 45 years later. His early meticulously executed research concentrated on spark-ignition combustion phenomena—essentially knock, pre-ignition and the effects of fuel additives— an important understanding in those early days for the oil and additive companies. Later, in the 1970s, his attention moved to engine and vehicle exhaust emission control, a key emerging technology at that time. In his more senior years, he took a broader picture of the industry and technology, building on his detailed pioneering research as he continued to develop his vision and balanced technical judgement. Recognized and encouraged initially by Harry Ricardo, he rose quickly to senior positions in the company, becoming a board member at the age of 35 and managing director 10 years later. In 1976 he became joint chairman and managing director, ultimately to become chairman and finally to retire in 1987. He authored or co-authored some 46 technical papers in his working career. He has been described as a ‘gentleman engineer’ with strong support for his staff at all levels. In the broad spectrum of engineering disciplines, Diarmuid leaned more towards the intellectual/scientific end. He was a deep thinker, with a prodigious memory and love of the arts as well as biographical and historical literature. He inspired respect through his vision, balanced judgement and supreme confidence and was an articulate orator. He was awarded many honours in his lifetime, including a CBE in 1979, a knighthood in 1985 and in the same year Fellowship of the Royal Society. He held appointments in over 30 professional organizations, including four charities, to which he and his wife, Carmel, were dedicated, helping the vulnerable and homeless. He was a lifelong devout Catholic and active supporter of the church and related charities, recognized by a Papal knighthood in 1993.

To a Synod with little controversial on the agenda apart from the decision about the Anglican Covenant, the Primus in his charge at the opening Eucharist spoke of the economic wilderness through which society and the Church were travelling. The Covenant had been a response to the apparent wilderness of disagreement and disorder in the Anglican Communion, and he hoped that the Synod would express its deep commitment to the version of the Communion in which members were drawn closer to one another. The Scottish Church aspired to be fully engaged in society.

The Vatican took a stand in February with its “notification” on Roger Haight's Jesus Symbol of God prohibiting him from teaching Catholic theology. Then in May it was reported that the Vatican influenced Thomas Reese's resignation as editor of America. In these two situations, as with other recent controversies in the church and American public life, the question was posed to the College Theology Society, “Where do we stand?”This is not answered easily. The appropriateness of entertaining the question is itself problematic given the specific ways the CTS constitution defines our mission as an academic society. Has the CTS, its Board or its members at the annual convention any business at all taking stands on controversies in the church or American public life? What would justify this? And to what sort of issues would this apply? And when? How is this decided? And by whom? For whom does the Board speak? Or for whom does a majority at an annual convention speak? And to whom? And to what end?Nor is the question of where we stand dodged without significant cost. Much is at stake for the specific pedagogical mission of the CTS both in the issues regarding Haight and Reese and in the questions of principle about taking stands. Both are part of a larger and consequential controversy about what place convictions should have in the interactions of the church, academy, and society.

The 2010 General Assembly was perhaps most notable for two events: on Sunday 23 May a special session was held to mark the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation and on 26 May, for the first time in its history, it was addressed by a Muslim, Dr Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies in the University of Glasgow. Otherwise, the Assembly devoted much of its time to detailed issues of church law, governance and the more general needs of Scotland's wider society.2

The General Synod met at St Paul's and St George's church in Edinburgh from 6 to 8 June. In his opening charge to Synod, the Primus, the Most Revd Mark Strange, encouraged Synod members to listen to the voice of God and respond to the command ‘this is the way, walk in it’. The Scottish Episcopal Church needed to be able to respond to a society crying out for reconciliation, fairness and hope but could only do so if, inside the Church, such values marked the way in which members treated one another.

During the final months of the First World War, the General Assemblies of the two major Presbyterian Churches in Scotland - the established Church of Scotland and the voluntary United Free Church - committed themselves to work for the thorough re- construction of Scottish society. Church leaders promised to work for a new Christian commonwealth, ending the social divisions and class hatred that had plagued pre-war Scottish industrial society. Bound together through the shared sacrifice of the war, the Scottish people would be brought back to the social teachings of Christianity and strive together to realise the Kingdom of God. The Churches would end their deference to the laws of nineteenth-century political economy, with their emphasis on individualism, self-interest and competition, and embrace new impera- tives of collective responsibility and co-operation. Along with the healing of social divisions, church leaders also pledged to end the ecclesiastical divisions in Scottish Presbyterianism. The final months of the war brought a revival of the pre-war movement to unite the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church into a single National Church, and Scottish ecclesiastical leaders held forth to a weary nation the vision of a united National Church leading a covenanted Christian commonwealth in pursuit of social justice and harmony.

A resolution recognising the need to address the Covenant carefully and prayerfully was passed after considerable discussion on the final draft of the Covenant; it was remitted to the Faith and Order Board to be given careful consideration. Questions were raised as to whether the Covenant was a reasonable and necessary instrument to strengthen the cohesion of a diverse Communion and whether it was helpful to attempt to define a single view and substitute a central authority for Anglican co-responsibility. The difficulties being faced by the Anglican Communion were being faced by every Church across the world. It was now for the Faith and Order Board to advise on what process or processes might be appropriate to be followed by the Synod to enable due consideration of the final version of the Covenant by the Scottish Episcopal Church. Questions were also asked as to whether a loose arrangement might be better suited to taking the strain and it was suggested that the Scottish Church should not be afraid of breaking with the Anglican Communion. The Primus pointed out that the process as a whole would take a considerable amount of time and it was not a process on which the Church should feel rushed.

The General Synod met in St Paul's and St George's Church in Edinburgh from 11 to 13 June. In his charge, the Primus, the Most Revd David Chillingworth, told Synod that the most significant challenge before it was same-sex marriage; and he believed that the time had come when that fundamental issue had to be addressed. It had been an extraordinary experience to be in Dublin, the city of his birth, just after the Constitutional Referendum on Same-Sex Marriage, when the most Catholic country in Europe decided to make the change. Just because society changed, the Church did not have to change as well – but it clearly had to consider the possibility of change. And that is what Synod would do.

In February, the Synod revised the draft legislation on clergy terms of service. Attention was chiefly focused on the parts of the draft Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure dealing with the vesting of parsonage houses; in the event, the Synod voted to reject those provisions under which ownership of parsonage houses would have been transferred from the incumbent to the diocesan parsonages board. In contrast, the draft of the Regulations to be made under the Measure, which will specify the detailed terms of service, was accepted without amendment.

This article was developed from a presentation on ‘The Future of Ministry and The Church’ to the membership of the COMISS Network Forum at their meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, in January 2016. The article describes the declining role of the church in society and suggests ideas for the role of specialized clergy in revitalizing the church with hope for the future.

Under such general name on the basis of the Lviv Polytechnic University every two years scientific international conferences take place. In September of this year she was devoted to the problem "Human person and spiritual values". At the conference, 45 scientific reports were heard and discussed. The huge potential of Christianity in the formation, education and spiritualization of the human person and the Ukrainian society was pointed out.

Abstract The Sarang Global Ministry Center (SGMC) in Seoul, South Korea, is well known for its architectural design and for several controversies surrounding its construction. The SGMC does not have conventional Christian architectural features, such as a steeple or stone facade; instead, the church resembles a luxury department store. Reactions to this building have been mixed, reflecting differing opinions about Christianity in South Korea. Some value the fact that the building’s aesthetics blend Christian activities with everyday life outside the church. Others criticize the building’s corporate appearance, citing it as evidence that Sarang Church is “just a business.” While the way religion is permitted to operate in South Korean secular society is partially defined by legal principles, such as the separation of church and state and state neutrality toward religion, secularism also entails an active configuration of the social order through lived experience. Secularity both constitutes and is constituted by the materiality of religious space, which disputes over the SGMC design make clear. Considering varied responses to the SGMC building project, this article highlights how church architecture, city planning, and consumer capitalism participate in the shaping of Korean Protestant Christianity and how it manifests within South Korea’s secular social and political order.

The topic of the study is a component of modern scientific exploration that examines the role of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in building our multi-denominational society. In particular, the issue of determining the place and role of the Adventist Church in society and the state is important. However, today it is possible to unleash it only by summing up the accumulated experience in this field for the whole period of the history of Adventism in Ukraine. The problem of state-confessional relations is important, but it has not been given sufficient importance in terms of theoretical research, which sometimes leads to gross errors in the construction of these relations, which is not beneficial to society. Thus, it is interesting for us to experience the emergence of relations between the state and the Adventist faith in the Ukrainian lands that were part of the Russian Empire, since that is when the formation of the Adventist Church in the domestic territories began.

Isolation and integration are two sides of the same coin, the former denoting negativity with the latter denoting positivity. The penetration of the LDS church into Nigeria in general and south-western Nigeria in particular has been faced with a considerable amount of opposition from the populace and the government. Nigeria is one of the most religious countries in Africa. Due to the vast demographic space, I am limiting our study to the south-western states, where it seems the church is growing more. The eastern region, to an extent, has also been experiencing considerable growth. Our queries are: what are the elements that depict isolation from other religious sects and society? What are the parameters for this phenomenon? Is there any evidence of integration? If so, how is this manifested? How are the male and female members of the LDS church trying to integrate into society and how has the response been? These among other questions are examined. Nigeria is originally a Catholic and Pentecostal religious environment, where open miracles, wonders and other phenomena are visible. These are hardly visible in LDS services, and this serves as motivation for non-members to oppose and isolate members of the LDS church from the fibers of society. The undetermined position of the LDS church and its non-registration with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has and continues to have relevant effects on the integration of the church and its members into the Christian circle of the country in general and the south-west in particular. I have discovered that, though the church’s growth in the south-west is visible, the possibility of integration has proven difficult. Due to the limited literature on this subject in the country, I have utilized semi-structured direct and indirect interviews of pioneers of the wards/units in the south-west, and also those who have investigated the church, many of whom still view the church as a cult. I also used an analytic approach that straddles critical discourse analysis and postcolonial theory. This paper proposes ways in which the members of the LDS church can better integrate themselves in a society that has a very different religious and cultural background to that of American society, where the church has more fully moved from isolation to integration.

Constitutional debate in the twenty-first century Scottish media is often presented by reporters and commentators as a uniquely contemporary feature of the nation's civil society. The present article will explore how the Scottish press and eighteenth-century Scotland's highest profile civil society institution – the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland – interacted to facilitate constitutional debate around the legal, social and ecclesiastical meaning of the Union for Scots, some eighty years after the settlement of 1707. The article examines the Glasgow Advertiser's coverage of the 1790 General Assembly debate over a motion to repeal the Test Act (which stipulated a confessional qualification in the Church of England for Kirk members seeking to hold British office) to illustrate how the eighteenth-century Scottish newspaper press sought to uphold the constitutional interests of the nation through extensive coverage of a central institution of Scottish civil society.

The present research featured the public diplomacy of Russia in Armenia. The paper focuses on the activity of the Russian Orthodox Church as an institute of civil society in the context of Russian public diplomacy. It describes mechanisms and instruments used by religious organizations in Armenia. The research objective was to analyze the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church in Armenia as a special part of Russian public diplomacy mechanism. The authors employed analysis and synthesis to get a complex presentation of the subject, as well as induction and deduction to interpret facts. The historical method was used to study the phenomenon in its development. The network approach was used to study the current state of the phenomenon. The activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in Armenia is represented as part of Russian public diplomacy, which creates favorable conditions for achieving Russian foreign diplomacy goals. The results of the research can be used for studying principles and mechanisms of Russian public diplomacy. In conclusion, the authors claim that involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian public diplomacy can decrease the tension in Armenian public sphere. The tension is caused by various pseudo-religious movements that interfere with the restructuring of the local confessional space. Therefore, there is a growing need in a closer interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Armenian apostolic church.

The article is devoted to main problems of Russia's contemporary development. It deals with attribution of the formation type of the country's socioeconomic system and the role of the specific superstructural factor - religious consciousness, which motivates the type of economic behaviour of the subjects of social development. Problems of genesis of the dependent type of development under conditions of the formation shift are specially analysed.

Education has been playing the most important pivoting role in the development of human civilization in the present. Hence, education is inseparable and it is imperative to cater to the present needs of the society and prepare the society for a better future. One of the most valuable gifts that the Catholic Church has contributed is the holistic approach in the education, as we need to compete for Knowledge and wisdom; true education is not only training the mind but also the heart leading to wisdom. However the overall performance of the holistic education system faced wide spread controversy and continuing concern about how schools are being managed and controlled has led to many studies on school performance. The purpose of the study is provided evidence from single or a few perspectives such as selected indicators and school governance principals. In addition, there are many inconsistencies in the finding across the world that shows no signal school governance model is appropriate for all schools, countries and economic environments. The study has considered the three different school governance practicess of board clear funtion, sustainable policy, and board charter in capturing the effect of board governance on school performance. In addition, to elucidate school performance is dealing with board governance; the study used four perspective of balance score card as a determinant of school performance. The estimation results suggested that the board clear function, sustainable policy and board charter had significant positive driving forces on school performance.

AbstractA series of events in 1807 changed the mission of the early Church Missionary Society in Sierra Leone from one that was designed initially and solely to spread the Christian message in the interior of West Africa to one that included service to the Colony of Sierra Leone. Before 1807, the Society had identified the Susu language as the appointed language to be used in its conversion effort, and it intended to establish an exclusively Susu Mission—in Susu Country and independent of government attachment—that would prepare a vanguard of African catechists and missionaries to carry that message in the Susu language. In 1807, however, the Society's London-based board and the missionaries then present at Sierra Leone made a strategic shift of emphasis to accept government protection and support in return for a bargain of government service, while at the same time continuing with earlier and independent goals of carrying the message of Christianity to native Africans. That choice prepared the Society and its missionaries within a decade to significantly increase the Society's role in Britain's attempt to bring civilization, commerce and Christianity to the continent, and to do it within the confines of imperial policy.

In this article, the ecumenical heritage of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa is described by the General Secretary of that church. The early history of the UCCSA, related to the London Missionary Society, created a sense of self-awareness that led to the unification of racially divided congregational churches during 1967. This set the ground for the active involvement of the UCCSA in the political liberation processes in Southern Africa. In addition, the UCCSA 's continued exploration of further ecumenical endeavours is traced. The covenental theology of the UCCSA forms a unifying thread throughout these processes.

The relationship between the Church (religion) and politics is a very important matter to be discussed both in the academic sphere and in the scope of society in general. The relationship is different from time to time as the relationship between the two raises a polemic. This is due to the understanding that the field of service the church must be restricted to theological matters. On the other hand, there are those who hold that church activities cannot be narrowed only to abstract / theological matters. The church must instead show its concern on social issues that are very concrete, for example political issues. But before we enter into the discussion of the relationship between "Church and Politics", it helps us to understand what church and politics are

In our present-day secular society, which regards religion as an optional extra for those who like that sort of thing, it is trumpeted as a great discovery that, in classical Greece, religion was not an optional extra detached from the rest of society's working but was ‘embedded’ in the various workings of society. It is of course our society that is exceptional: religion has been embedded in most societies through most of human history. Christianity was far more effectively embedded in western societies in the past than it is now; there are still some links in England between the Church of England and the state, and there are rather stronger links in Norway between the Lutheran church and the state; some Christian festivals are still widely observed as public holidays; and, in other parts of the world (for instance, many countries in which Islam is the predominant religion), the links between religion and state are still much stronger.

The character of the church - a perspective on current theological thought The role of the church in society is currently much focused upon in theological thought. The author analyses various characteristics of the church with reference to views of well known theologians. As community of faith it is the body of Christ revealed very visibly in the world representing the kingdom of God. For that very reason the idea of a national church is unacceptable. The church is one, catholic and apostolic community, even particularly in its visible form. Though Scripture gives no clear guidelines on the structure of the church, there are many general biblical norms to be considered in ecclesiastical law and government.

Argues against the growing acceptance of euthanasia in modern society. Offers both medical and theological reasons for affirming the dignity of the person, and claims that the church ought to take a firm stand against the “culture of death.”

The nineteenth century witnessed a transition from the ancien régime to the ‘age of mobilisation’, says Charles Taylor, from an organically and hierarchically connected society to a fragmented society based on mass participation, charismatic leaders and organisational tactics. Amid this upheaval the Netherlands Reformed Church faced an unprecedented crisis as it lost its taken-for-granted social status. This essay examines the new legitimation that Abraham Kuyper offered the Church through his Free Church theology, and how various other aspects of his theology, including his baptismal and public theology, developed in conjunction with his ecclesiology. Kuyper's ecclesiology thus offers a case study of problems that ecclesiology in general faced due to the social and cultural shifts of the nineteenth century.

This contribution analyzes the views held by Danish and Norwegian church people regarding the welfare state, as expressed in the period when the general debate on the welfare state culminated in both countries. Generally speaking, religion played a relatively limited role in international welfare state research, which can be referred to as “blind to religion.” Tough socio-economic variables, well-established political actors, and government interests dominate the field. There are examples of religion as one among many variables, but when it has been ascribed explanatory value, it predominantly has been in relation to southern and continental European welfare models, because the focus has been on Catholicism. In recent years, the frequently mentioned “cultural turn” has made its entrance into comparative welfare research; yet, even then culture and religion are often assigned a modest role in “the black box,” which is invoked when the “harder” data are insufficient. Most recently, historians and church historians have launched a discussion on the Lutheran Nordic welfare state, but so far this discussion has not analyzed empirically the role of the church in the golden age of the welfare state. In this article, we go directly to those involved and examine what the church actors really felt about the post-war welfare state.

The Romanian Orthodox Church engaged, after the fall of communism, in the reconstruction of its public identity and its position in society. The public discourse of its official representatives – the Holy Synod and individual hierarchs, especially the Patriarch Teoctist – expresses and „translates” this process to the faithful and the general public. Its perception by this public, particularly when mediated by means of mass communication, is usually partial and frequently altered.</p> <p>By focusing on the official discourse of the Romanian Orthodox Church representatives, as expressed in the ecclesiastical press and (re)transmitted in the common mass media, this paper will explore the justification/explanation by ecclesiastical officials of this process, following the lines of two main - intertwined - lines: the legitimization of the resurgence in the public sphere of the Church as an institution of spiritual and social assistance and its presence as the privileged keeper and guardian of national values.</p> <p>It will be further argued that, while explicitly refuting and condemning any signs of secularization in the Romanian society, the Romanian Orthodox Church, through its official discourse, is actually contributing to the deepening of this very process within both society and the Church itself.</p> <p>Our main sources for the public discourse of the Romanian Orthodox Church will be the ecclesiastical press and collections of speeches, sermons, articles of Orthodox hierarchs and documents of the Holy Synod. For the theoretical framing of the paper, the main references will be works of Thomas Luckmann, Danièle Hérvieu-Léger, Grace Davie, René Rémond, etc.

Goal. The aim of the work is a comprehensive analysis of the main problems and features of the influence of religion on the formation of modern legal families, including in the context of modern globalization processes. Method. The methodology of the study involves the integrated use of a number of general and special methods of cognition, in particular: terminological analysis, synthesis, structural-functional and comparative law. Results. In the course of the research it was proved that in the modern conditions of society development the religious legal family plays an important role due to the large number of citizens of the states that make it up. The factor that reinforces this role is the migration processes caused by globalization and integration phenomena. Today, despite its conservatism, the religious legal family under the pressure of external circumstances is forced to abandon some of its dogmas, mainly in terms of ensuring the development of the individual and the realization of his rights. The religious legal family is a separate type of legal system with its own peculiarities. It is important to distinguish between religious law and the national legal system of the state that makes up the religious legal family. Scientific novelty. The study found that in the legal families of traditional law, religion is decisive. This is manifested in the fact that, on the one hand, it serves as a regulatory mechanism for traditional, customary and other social norms. On the other hand, religion within the legal families of traditional law plays an independent role mainly in cases when it comes to regulating the activities of public law institutions. Practical significance. The results of the study can be useful in the process of developing a general theoretical and comparative religious model of formation and development of legal families of today, in particular in the context of globalization.

The article deals with the specifics of religion as a regulator of relations in society and family. The analysis of the actualization of Christian family values and the form of their implementation on the example of the Church "New Generation", in the conditions of the revival of religious life and the development of Ukraine as a polyconfessional state is analyzed. Shown is the change in the role of the church and the extent of the impact of Christian values on the social in the regional dimension, as well as those social problems that the church should deal with. It turns out that the crisis of a modern family prompts Christian denominations to react to the existing state of affairs. This forms a confessional specificity in understanding the roots and ways of solving the problems of society. Charismatic churches today are characterized by increasing recognition, increasing tolerance in society, deepening of institutionalizing change, and the formation of their own theology. They function in the Ukrainian society and cause more or less influence on different components of society. Charismatics do not have a single center or doctrine, so the purpose of this article is to clarify the peculiarities of actualization of Christian family values ​​and the specifics of their implementation in the theology and activities of the charismatic Church "The New Generation"). The task of the article is to determine the specifics of theological understanding, the main forms of the practical solution of the charismatic Church "New Generation" of those problems that exist in the Ukrainian society and are related to the family as a primary collective. Another task is to investigate the influence of the church's role on marriage relations and the family in the region. It is stated that the theological basis of the Church "The New Generation" is in the dynamics of formation, based on the general religious principles of Christianity in general and Protestantism in particular. The Christian system of values has a theistic-objectivist character for them. The Protestant principle of "Soli Deo gloria" ("only God's glory") laid the foundation for the formation of the family values of carismatic spirituality carriers. The charismatic church as an institution reacts to constant changes in all spheres of society's life. It becomes mobile, open to change, modernizes, and tests various forms of solving relevant social problems associated with the family. The charismatic church's position on marriage is serious and well-considered. In the ecclesiastical environment, a series of seminars devoted to family and marriage issues have been developed, and preventive and spiritual work is being conducted on the prevention of hasty marriages. The region's statistics indicate positive changes towards strengthening the family's institute, reducing the number of divorces, and so on. Such indicators allow us to speak about the positive influence of the activity of the charismatic Church "The New Generation" on church parishioners, on the situation in the city and the region, as the "New Generation" subsidiary churches are located throughout the region. This testifies to the effectiveness of the practical activities of the charismatic Church "New Generation" in the region and the desire to extend its experience to other regions of Ukraine. The results of the research can be used in religious studies courses, in particular in the teaching of disciplines related to the study of Christian and non-Christian trends, the specifics of new religious movements, as well as for state bodies, with the aim of improving the state-confessional relations and harmonizing social work with the population.

Mr Chairman, Vicar General, Worshipful Chancellors, ladies and gentlemen. This is the second time that I have been privileged to address this Society. Three years ago I spoke after a good dinner at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, when members' critical faculties had undoubtedly been dimmed by the College claret! It is quite a different thing to speak to you today on a dull Saturday in the solemn environs of Westminster Cathedral, especially as in 1987 I spoke as a diocesan bishop and today I speak as one of those living in what is euphemistically called “retirement”. It is a demanding way of life in which one lacks the resources and the defences long taken for granted, and of course, it is subject to the changes and chances of British Rail for which I profoundly apologise. I had an unscheduled bus journey of an hour and three quarters round the villages of my former diocese this morning.

Handball in the name of ChristianityIn the further development of industrial society that took place during the 20th century, a need soon made itself felt for cultural activity other than that provided by religion. One result was that sport became popular among young people. In the Christian KFUM-associations they began discussing the advantages of offering sport as part of their program. Sport could be used to capture youth and thereby make converts to Christianity. On the other hand, there was the dangerous possibility of sport leading youth away from Jesus. In Fredericia members of KFUM began playing handball in 1926. It soon turned out that the sceptics were right. KFUM gained more new members, but they did not come from Christian societies, and they didn’t allow themselves to bee converted to Christianity. In fact they would rather play handball than spend their time with the Bible. This lead to internal difficulties within Fredericia KFUM, where Christian leaders of the sports sectionn tried to put a stop to this »unfortunate« development. First they forbade members to join non-Christian clubs as long they were members of KFUM, then they forbade the teams to join »non« KFUM tournaments and finally they placed a missionary on the board of directors of the sports section to »keep an eye on people.« In the meantime KFUM’s sports section was hit by the phenomenon of secularisation, – in popular terms, a process whereby the impact of Christianity on society in general was gradually decreasing. Secularisation hit Fredericia KFUM so forcefully that during the 1950’s and 60’s members and leaders chose to spent all their time on handball at the expense of proclaiming the Christian message. When in the 1960’s the number of handball players had risen to the point that it was necessary to play matches on Sunday, the church suddenly began to block handball activities. The handball players of KFUM were prepared to play during times intended for church services but a number of leaders were of a different opinion. In the end the handball players had it their way and the church service lost its sacred status.