Article (Cayman Net News): The Primacy of the Bible

ON 27 June 2006, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a commentary entitled ‘The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today, A Reflection for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion’.

Written in response to the 75th Convention of the Episcopal Church of the USA, which had ended a week earlier on 21 June, Dr. Williams’s encyclical focused on the primacy of the Bible as the centre of Anglican tradition and the basis for all decision-making within the Communion, especially regarding the debate(s) gripping much of the attention of the Anglican Communion at this time.

In Dr. Williams’s words, “it is a question, agonisingly difficult for many, as to what kinds of behaviour a Church that seeks to be loyal to the Bible can bless, and what kinds of behaviour it must warn against.”
Whilst one can appreciate the Archbishop’s challenge, what many church leaders fail to realize is that the Church has not equipped adult Christians to debate issues such as these. Many adult Christians regard Biblical interpretation as the sole domain of their priest or minister.

Instead, a critically thinking adult Christian should be able to appreciate that, because Holy Scripture was not written in a void, it can only be accurately interpreted in light of its original context, audience and language. Read more