a cross and a Crucifix are NOT the same thing...
Posted on 11/29/2013 4:24:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Most Rev Justin Welby said the Cross has been trivialised and ceases to shock or challenge people. Archbishop Welby wrote that the symbol should represent the ‘deepest encounter and radical change’ for Christians.
He added: ‘For those early Christians it was a badge of shame.
‘Today it is more commonly seen as a symbol of beauty to hang around your neck.
‘As a friend of mine used to say, you might as well hang a tiny golden gallows or an electric chair around your neck.’
In a foreword to a book which will be published in the run-up to Lent next year, Archbishop Welby continued:
‘Are we now living with a symbol emptied of power by time and fashion?
‘Christianity with a powerless cross is Christianity without a throne for Christ or an aspiration for Christians.
‘A cross that has no weight is not worth carrying. To look through the cross is to seek its weight.’
Archbishop Welby wrote in his foreword that the fact that the early church stuck to the story of the crucifixion – despite attacks on it – proves that it is true.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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a cross and a Crucifix are NOT the same thing...
it’s unfortunate that many have been removed from churches. put them back please...
Whoever wrote this is full of ——well you know.
The Church of England has entered a post Christian, post Biblical phase. More than half its clergy are agnostic or outright atheist.
‘As a friend of mine used to say, you might as well hang a tiny golden gallows or an electric chair around your neck.’
Your friend is an idiot.
Seems to me that the meaning depends on the faith of the wearer. Sweeping dictates and critics are usually part correct but mostly wrong.
I agree with Most Rev Justin Welby to an extent. After all, we see crucifix so often that we become desensitized to it like we have become desensitized to “In God we trust” on money.
Hardly a statement to get upset about. It’s not like the CofE is a Christian church. Even the Anglicans dismiss them as heterodoxical at best and heretical at worst.
Catholics wear crosses with Jesus on it. Means more that way.
But after crucifixion, Christ was buried, rose from the dead and is alive forever. The cross with Christ on it leaves out this most important part.
Agreed. This is meaningless at best.
It means more to us, but clearly not to Protestants.
symbols don’t mean squat
symbols have no religious significance
Nowhere does Jesus tell us to pray to a cross or the nails for that matter.
The center of our faith is that Jesus became man, died on the cross and rose again. The cross was not a pretty symbol, it was a death instrument. Taking the corpus off the cross trivializes His sacrifice. Too many forget that act of love.
Actually Rev. Welby, the cross lost it’s meaning when you decided to remove the Corpus from it, which makes it a Crucifix.
The Corpus is there to remind us that our sins put him there.
The notion that you removed it because it better represents the Risen Christ, is watered down nonsense.
Amen.
Ping.
My understanding (and appreciation) of The Cross is now 180 degrees from where it was, and this has happened in a few months.
I thought it to be no more than an instrument of torture and death. I thought it was obscene to use it as a symbol of Christianity. I thought Jesus to be just a victim of evil envious men. I thought The Cross was the worst possible symbol of what Jesus offered us.
He was a volunteer, not a victim. He volunteered to be tortured, taunted, slapped, ridiculed and mocked, and then made to die in the most painful and humiliating way known at the time. He did this to atone for our ancient ancestors’ rebellion and the subsequent loss of connection to God. He offered Himself as a substitute for you and I, as The Template of our psyche and soul, and the debt was paid. This closed the loop, paid the debt, and restored the connection.
He restored the connection for those who are willing to accept the vicarious atonement by faith. Justice and mercy are reconciled by what He did. I have chosen to believe and accept the gift He gave me on The Cross.
Now I see The Cross very differently.
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