atheisme.eu

. Toch weet maar liefst één op de zes dominees niet of er een God bestaat of ontkent dat zelfs. Ze zeggen dat lang niet altijd tegen hun gemeente, zo blijkt uit een gisteren gepresenteerd IKON-onderzoek.

Zes procent van de predikanten vindt het spreken over God niet eens belangrijk, concludeert Hijme Stoffels, hoogleraar godsdienstsociologie aan de Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

Artikel Times

July 31, 2002

Women priests put less faith than men in the Creed
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

ONLY three out of ten women priests believe in the Virgin Birth, and they are far more sceptical generally than their male colleages about the other central Christian doctrines.
While eight out of ten male priests believe that Jesus died to take away the sins of the world, just six out of ten female priests do, according to a Christian Research survey published yesterday.

Seven out of ten men believe in the bodily Resurrection compared with five out of ten women. Only belief in the Holy Spirit showed similar scores, with 77 per cent of male priests having faith in this, compared with 74 per cent of women priests.

The traditionalist think-tank Cost of Conscience commissioned Christian Research to survey nearly 2,000 clergy — a fifth of the total — in a £12,000 research project funded by a legacy from the United States.

The survey was designed to accommodate views from all sections, from traditionalist through evangelical to liberal.

The Rev Robbie Low, the Vicar of Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire and spokesman for Cost of Conscience, said: “On every item of the Creed women priests were lower than their male counterparts.

“Certainty about God the Father revealed a 9 per cent gap and belief in the Trinity an 8 per cent gap.

“What is quite apparent is that there are effectively two Churches co-existing uncomfortably in the Church of England.

“One that is overwhelmingly convinced of the historic truths of the Christian faith and one that is, at best, dubious and, at worst, frankly disbelieving.”

Members of Affirming Catholicism, whose founders include the Archbishop-designate of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, were among the lowest scorers on beliefs such as the bodily Resurrection and the Virgin Birth.

Mr Low added: “The people out there in the pews have no idea this is going on.

“They might think their vicar is a bit strange sometimes, but they won’t be aware that he does not believe 75 per cent of what he stands up and says each Sunday.”

Artikel Telegraph

One third of clergy do not believe in the Resurrection
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
(Filed: 31/07/2002)

A third of Church of England clergy doubt or disbelieve in the physical Resurrection and only half are convinced of the truth of the Virgin birth, according to a new survey.

The poll of nearly 2,000 of the Church's 10,000 clergy also found that only half believe that faith in Christ is the only route to salvation.

While it has long been known that numerous clerics are dubious about the historic creeds of the Church, the survey is the first to disclose how widespread is the scepticism.

Few bishops would now share the views of the former Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev David Jenkins, who caused a scandal in the 1980s when he contrasted the Resurrection with a "conjuring trick with bones".

Nevertheless liberal clergy, who represent about one in eight of the total, remain profoundly uncertain about the Church's core doctrines. In the survey, two thirds of them expressed doubts in the physical Resurrection and three quarters are unconvinced by the Virgin birth.

Similar levels of belief were found in organisations such as Affirming Catholicism, a liberal Anglo-Catholic group of which the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is a founding member.

Although Dr Williams holds firmly orthodox views on the Resurrection and the Virgin birth, the proportion of members of Affirming Catholicism who believe without question in the two doctrines is 35 and 24 per cent respectively.

Doubts are even greater among members of the Modern Churchpeople's Union, a liberal group whose president is the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev John Saxbee: only a quarter believe in the physical Resurrection and just eight per cent in the Virgin birth.

The survey, carried out by Christian Research, did find that clergy were more orthodox on other doctrines.

More than 75 per cent overall accept the doctrine of the Trinity and a similar proportion believe that Christ died to take away the sins of the world. More than 80 per cent were happy with the idea that God the Father created the world.

Unsurprisingly, the organisations whose members were the most traditional were Reform, a conservative evangelical group, and Forward in Faith, a traditionalist umbrella body.

The Rev Robbie Low, a member of Cost of Conscience, the traditionalist organisation which commissioned the survey, said: "There are clearly two Churches operating in the Church of England: the believing Church and the disbelieving Church, and that is a scandal.

"Increasingly, positions of authority are being placed in the hands of people who believe less and less. It is an intolerable situation where the faithful are increasingly being led by the unfaithful." He added that doubts about the core doctrines of the Church were higher among women priests and their supporters.

Only just over half of the admittedly small sample of female clergy in the survey said they believed in the bodily Resurrection and the figure fell to exactly a third when it came to the Virgin birth.

The Rev Nicholas Henderson, the general secretary of the Modern Churchperson's Union, said he was not surprised by the figures. Clergy, faced with intelligent and educated congregations, increasingly had to think "very carefully" about how to present complex doctrine credibly.

He was also critical of plans by the bishops to revive heresy trials for clergy who publicly questioned key Church teachings.

Dr Peter Brierley, the executive director of Christian Research, said the survey had been undertaken among 4,000 churches and reflected a representative sample of clergy, in terms of churchmanship and belief.

In findings reported earlier this month, the survey also showed that a quarter of the clergy still described themselves as "implacably opposed" to women bishops.

De wonderbaarlijke verhalen gaan er niet goed meer in bij veel clericalen, dus je vraagt je af waar ze dan wel in geloven.

Hans schreef:ik vind het helemaal niet zo vreemd dat er aan hem gevraagd wordt of hij uit persoonlijke titel aan het preken is of als vertegenwoordiger van de protestantse kerk

Hans schreef:Ze hebben hem getolereerd en zijn van plan hem monddood te maken ,ook geheel in de religieuze traditie ,maar zijn als de dood voor de gevolgen ,als je kunt bewijzen dat hij geen vertegenwoordiger meer is van de protestantse kerk dan kunnen ze hem wippen .