In Christ the two installments of the drama of salvation merge in united testimony to the will and ways of the Saviour God and the formation of the Israel of God, also styled as the Body of Christ. The way of inclusion in this people, this body, is delineated in the Gospel, and the preservation and presentation of this gospel is of the utmost importance. This is why the reading of Scripture is a matter of great care and holy caution.

He set me thinking about the knee jerk responses -- including his own. There will be those like the worst of the American televangelists who seek to monetise every disaster by claiming that they have power over it (and please send them the money to use that power). The press can always find a pastor somewhere in the tens of thousands of churches who will solemnly pronounce that Covid-19 is because of abortion/same-sex marriage/Disney.

This is the avowed intent of all Anglican ministry, which is predominantly exercised in the parish and the daily life of its residents. The presbyter is to learn from, work with, and explain the spe-cialist to the congregation and interested enquirers. The onus is on the theologian to resource the ministry, educate believers, develop and strengthen the community of faith in its grasp and commendation of Christ. He is to fertilize holy minds with fruitful thoughts.

The mention of sin is evacuated from the counsels of the church, and also from the comments of many individual professors of the Christian faith. God is portrayed as doting in a feeble-minded kind of way. The vocabulary relevant to human evil, reigning and raging in the human heart, rebelling against God, and ruling in the degraded nature of the entirety of mankind, is omitted from general discourse. The concepts of divine justice, the penalty due to the offenses