Sunday 14 February 2010

Labels

When we are asked to describe ourselves we use labels.

As a priest and second-year curate sent by a charismatic open-evangelical church to work in an evangelical church I had no idea that I was also a sacramentalist - until that part of my theology was challenged. 

Now my evangelical credentials are challenged, and I find myself writing that 'I am becoming a liberal'.  I'm not entirely sure I should use that label as I'm unclear what it means, but it seems to fit closer to my 'love and let love' understanding of Jesus' message than some of the certainties that I've read recently.  My understanding comes from reading scripture and looking for the over-arching themes and the core messages, so does that make me evangelical again?

Labels don't define us, but they do describe us, and one of the recent frustrations is that how much time has been spent arguing about what each label really means, and whether we can accurately call ourselves 'label' if we don't fully subscribe to someone else's definition (many of which require us to judge others and elevate ourselves morally above them).

Woud you mind if I just called myself a Christian, and a member of the Church of England?

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