After three and half years of worldwide research, the Bible in the Life of the Church project has found that Anglicans around the globe share “a high common ground” over the essential place and use of the Bible in Anglican life
Theological Education - The Bible in the Life of the Church
"One of the things that I personally hope this project will help us develop in the Communion is a wider and fuller biblical literacy, in which the outlines of the one great story of creation and redemption will be clear. To be a biblical Church is surely to be a community that lives out this great story day by day and commends it to people everywhere as the most comprehensive truth possible about the nature of God and God's world. May God use this work to further that end, in our Communion and in all communities of his people."
+Rowan Cantuar
From the Foreword to the Final Report
The Bible in the Life of the Church project began its life following a resolution passed at ACC-14 in 2009. The background to the project can be found in the "About the project" section of the website. The Report on the work of the project since 2009 entitled Deep Engagement; Fresh Discovery.
In his introduction to the Report, the Chair of the Steering Group, Archbishop David Moxon from the Province of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia says this:-
"The Anglican Communion has always cherished Scripture and given it a central place in its life. This emphasis was historically summed up in Article 6 of the 39 Articles, "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation" and is confirmed by the way Scripture is so heavily drawn on in our liturgical life. In recent years the Communion has sought to handle the diversity of opinions in relation to moral and ethical issues. However, in turning to Scripture for insights we have discovered that we reach different conclusions as to the way forward. This raised the question as to whether we might benefit, as a Communion, by exploring in some depth the way we go about this engagement with and interpretation of Scripture."
Deep Engagement, Fresh Discovery explores the way this engagement with and interpretation of Scripture looks like in different parts of the Anglican Communion. It is accompanied by a significant collection of further educational resources to encourage us, as a Communion, to deepen this engagement. The Report and these resources are offered with an invitation to use them to deepen our love of the Bible and the rich treasures its pages offer.
Download Report + Resources 20mb file size
Please note that the Report itself is only pages 1-67 of the download. The remainder of the pages are extra resources that are referred to in the ReportThe extra resources are available separately here
To purchase the Report and the extra resources on the flash drive/memory stick go to the online bookshop.
For further information contact the coordinator of the project Stephen Lyon at stephen.lyon@anglicancommunion.org
Current News Items
In Lent 2012 the Anglican Communion produced a course – And it was good .... – exploring biblically our responsibility for the environment. It arose from the work of the Bible in the Life of the Church project. Following the course two comments illustrate how it was received:
La Quinta Marca de Misión – "esforzarse a slavaguardar la integridad de la creación y sostener y renovar la vida de la tierra." - a veces se ve como una marca desatendida por la Comunión Anglicana. La proxima Cuaresma ofrece otra oportunidad para compensar eso, con un curso que sale del trabajo del proyecto La Biblia en la Vida de la Iglesia.
Como parte del proyecto la Biblia en la Vida de la Iglesia nos comprometemos a hacer una encuesta por toda la Comunión Anglicana en cuanto a como los Anglicanos entendemos y interactuamos con la Biblia.