Church Times: Dr Nazir-Ali: ‘Inculturation has limits’

by Paul Handley in Jerusalem
27 June, 2008

THE most liberal-sounding speaker at GAFCON by the end of Tuesday was the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali (pictured at a press conference held on Tuesday).

Dr Nazir-Ali surprised participants on Tuesday by speaking up for inculturation, change, and diversity. But each of these had its limits, he said. The gospel had to be adapted to different cultures, but “capitulation to culture” must be avoided; change and development must be principled; diversity had to be legitimate.

He made few explicit references to existing Anglican polity, beyond saying that the things that bound it together — the Lambeth Quadrilateral, the Instruments of Communion, and “English good manners” — had not proved strong enough to hold it together. the rest