Amidst all the media flurry of the last few days, for me there was one defining moment. I was speaking with a young journalist after our Sunday morning service gently pointing out the factual errors in the article in the local newspaper. Jutting out a finger at the text she exclaimed, "But who said this? Was it you or the Curate?" At that point I suddenly realised the nature of the issue. "It's a quotation from the Bible", I replied, and so together we looked it up in 1 Peter 3 to see the Apostle's instructions for wives.

At the heart of all the press coverage is the very ordinary fact that at St Nicholas Sevenoaks, as in many other evangelical churches up and down the country, we engage in an expository preaching ministry which requires both preacher and people to engage humbly with God's word, the Bible. Although some churches regard much of the ethical instruction of the New Testament as either wrong or outdated there are many other churches which recognise that God's word rightly and sensitively interpreted still has an abiding message for each succeeding generation. Certainly amongst evangelicals there will be legitimate differences of opinion about various interpretations and in a relatively large congregation such as St Nicholas we would expect a range of views. Nevertheless our fundamental commitment is to regard the Bible in the way it is described in the 39 Articles (which set out the key truths of the Church of England) as "God's Word written". Of course sometimes God's Word will challenge our accepted cultural norms but our task as preachers is not to let our culture shape our understanding of the Bible. Rather, with all the tools of learning we can muster, we are to seek to serve God's people faithfully by humbly understanding and proclaiming God's word afresh in our generation. It all seems very ordinary to me, yet the reaction of the press highlights what an extraordinary undertaking this is when the culture has moved so far from its Christian moorings.

With regard to the two sermons preached on marriage from 1 Peter 3:1-7 by our Curate, Mark Oden, perhaps the best thing to do is to listen to them on our website and make your own assessment. You will find a preacher bending over backwards not to be misunderstood in order that our congregations could try to understand how the Bible encourages marriages to work, which is a message that we desperately need to hear. You will find careful and thoughtful application which recognises the full equality of men and women whilst also being aware from the scriptures of their differing roles and responsibilities. Again, we fully recognise that there will be a variety of legitimate interpretations of this passage but every preacher has to grapple with these texts or they are simply being unfaithful to their primary calling.

On a different point another strand of headlines speak of the Rector telling women to be silent and of a leaflet written by him being distributed around the congregation in January. The reality is that I have written no leaflets, nothing has been distributed and no-one has ever told women to be silent. I certainly stand in the company of those opposed to the consecration of women Bishops - indeed I was invited to sit on the General Synod's Revision Committee along with a number of others precisely in order to represent the significant number of churches within the Church of England who feel they cannot support this development. Again, I fully recognise that some of the Biblical texts around this subject can be argued in various ways and some of my close friends both within St. Nicholas and in the wider church have arrived at different conclusions. Yet it is still striking how the media have reacted to views which are still fairly commonplace in many evangelical and traditional catholic parishes.

It would take too long to go into the many other factual inaccuracies. They range from the mildly amusing (apparently I wear my kilt to church services) to the downright hostile. But guided by 1 Peter our path is clear, which is to follow Christ's example in 1 Peter 2:23 "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly". Further 1 Peter 3:9 says "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult but with blessing, because to this you were called". Mark and I together with our families wish to thank the many people both within and beyond the congregation who have expressed their support. Our task now is to continue with the urgent work of preaching the gospel.

Angus MacLeay
15th February 2010