Skip to main content.
« Previous entry: Perfection | Main page | Next entry: Learning to draw »

March 8th, 2006

Christian Unity

The Evangelical Alliance launched a new website recently. I’m not a member you understand, but it is of interest as the EA is one of the largest Christian organisations in the UK. I think the CofE probably beats it, especially if we are allowed to include our apathetic and backslidden members.

Anyway, the EA website. It has some good things on it, like this demolition of the extremely shoddy Dispatches programme on Channel 4. But the site is disappointing elsewhere. Take the lack of RSS feeds for instance. A major Christian organisation really shouldn’t be launching a new site in 2006 without RSS feeds.

Then there’s the new ‘Alltogether‘ initiative, which promisingly starts out “What does it look like when Christians work together? What happens in 21st century Britain when we do?”. What is odd is how it goes on to define ‘working together’ as something that only Evangelicals should be doing, rather than Christians as a whole. Which seems to imply to me that either non-evangelicals aren’t proper Christians or that in fact not all Christians should be working together. I’m not sure. I’ll write to them and ask.

On a more positive ‘Christian Unity’ note my old friend from way back Stephen March has written a book about how evangelical Christians and catholic Christians can work together. It is called ‘As Pilgrims Progress: Learning How Christians Can Walk Hand in Hand When They Don’t See Eye to Eye’, and is by by David E. Bjork and Stephen J. March. I’ll ask him to pop in and tell you how good it is.

Below is a link to the book on Amazon. If you buy it this way I will receive a small and insignificant reward (I am hoping that 2006 will be the year that my Amazon UK affiliate revenue crosses the £1 barrier).

5 Comments »



Share this on Facebook:

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy these (possibly) related articles:

If you liked this post why not send it to someone else by e-mail? Click here to do so.

This is a single post on the Cartoon Blog by Dave posted on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 11:26 am. Click here to read all of the latest posts. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Other things technologically advanced people may like to do: trackback from another site, follow responses via the comments feed, bookmark on del.icio.us or digg.

5 Responses to “Christian Unity”


  1. Tiffer says:

    You aren’t a member of the EA! What am I doing reading your blog???

    (kidding)

    March 8th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
  2. Stephen March says:

    Whilst I am grateful for Dave’s (almost) gratuitous plug for my book (currently the 111,964th best seller on Amazon.co.uk). I would be more impressed if I had actually ever seen him read a book (without pictures! For me the “Good News” Bible with it’s balloon figures was the definite precursor to the apocalypse.)

    My colleague and I wrote this book to try and help ordinary lay Christians make sense of the extraordinary variety of ways in which people who call themselves Christian, live out their faith.

    We try to show the factors and mechanisms which give rise to these differences, and to encourage a more healthy response to such difference.

    We argue that when essentials are shared, non-essentials (or secondary elements) can be treated as a matter for personal conscience.

    Following this perspective, difference need not be seen as a cause for split and division, but some differnces may even be able to be appreciated as riches to be shared.

    We see the Holy Spirit’s imprint in this as a factor to encourage unity and cooperation within the Body of Christ. Something Jesus must have known we would need help in as he prayed for it three times during his passion.

    Anyone with any comment to make is invited to get in touch.

    Grace and peace,

    Stephen J. March

    March 8th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
  3. robert marshall says:

    The link to the demolition of the dispatches programme doesn’t work (for me) :
    File not found: /media/dispatches-response.cfm

    March 8th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
  4. Dave says:

    Stephen – thank you. Less of the cheek though – I owned a book with words once.

    Robert – you’re right. It definitely was at that address though. They’ve obviously pulled the article for whatever reason. Wish I’d saved a copy now.

    March 8th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
  5. Pete C says:

    Response to Stephen March (who’s comments regarding the GNB are a precursor to the apocalypse!):

    The Good News Bible illustrations are outstanding work by Annie Vallotton. They demonstrate vivid emotion, they don’t portray western characters or envronments or denominational slants, they don’t compete with the beauty of Scripture, and they inspire mystery to the scene so that one should look to the text for the full story — a stated aim of Annie herself. If you can appreciate theological diversity why can you not appreciate the diversity in art?

    March 8th, 2006 at 11:13 pm