Jeepers, spirited — who's the "caricaturist" here? Methinks it is Schiori. No Christian would ever say that the mere mindless recitation of any specific verbal formula can save. Jeepers, is this woman so ignorant she doesn't even know her own tradition? And yet "somebody" put her "in charge of it" anyway?
According to Schori, it is heresy to believe that an individual’s prayer can achieve a saving relationship with God. “That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy.”
What a bunch of specious, sophistical claptrap! God makes individuals. On purpose. So as to have a direct relationship with them. If anyone is putting the focus on the individual, it is God Himself. Are we now to regard every attempt to give effect to divine–human relations and communications (as in prayer, meditation, contemplation, spiritual living, "following Christ") as a "form of idolatry" — just because this mindless, de-spirited creep declares them to be so? If the Anglican community really believes this — that is, if Schiori genuinely speaks for them — then jeepers, we had better steer well clear of their churches if we want to become or remain faithful Christians.
Schiori's "prescriptions" envision the phenomenal, real-world manifestation of programmatic anti-Christianity, right down to the ground.
On the other hand, just because she's a nutcase herself, does that give her the right to insist that the rest of us be nutcases, too?
Sorry to use such uncouth (not to mention uncharitable) language. But really — enuf is enuf. Somebody has to speak out against this "stuff" — this poisonous pabulum — sooner, later, and hopefully often....
Wonderful article at the link, dear spirited irish! Thank you oh so very much!