Benjamin Crosby is a voice in the Anglican church worth attending to. In a new article in Plough (another voice worth attending to), Benjamin speaks about being a young (thirty two year old) priest in a declining denomination, and feeling like a lookout in the Titanic whose reports about icebergs ahead go ignored on the bridge.
Nevertheless, his faith is encouraging, and his faith is in the clear and unambiguous proclamation of the gospel that matters because: "everyone is beloved of God, who sent his Son to bring good news to a fallen and suffering world. There can be no doubt this world is suffering from evil and despair. So why on earth would we, who have been entrusted to share the hope of Christ, withhold or obscure it where it is so clearly needed?"
In a church where some of my clergy appear comfortable with having questions rather than answers, I appreciate Crosby’s faith in a gospel of life, resurrection, and hope. In the words of the singer Jason Isbill, I’ll work hard till the end of my shift, and then I’ll go to my rest grateful that younger clergy like Crosby will lift high the cross when my generation is gone. It will be a very different church, but as Crosby notes, it will the church of God who "is good and he is faithful, even when we are faithless”.
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