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Heresies and how to avoid them 

Heresies etc 

Our autumn sermon series is on heresies, why they matter and how to avoid them. We will be looking at four of the most significant heresies, namely Arianism, Docetism, Donatism and Pelagianism. The first two are about Jesus Christ, the third about the church, and the last about humanity, so we have a great spread of major issues to think about. We have a guest preacher, Revd Rob MacDonald of Ridley Hall, coming to preach on Pelagianism. 

Our hope is that all of it will point us more clearly to Christ and his saving grace. 

Week 1 / 29 September - Arianism                                                                                                                                                                    
Is Jesus Christ divine and eternal, or was he created?

Week 2 / 13 October - Docetism                                                                                                                                                                  
Is Jesus Christ really human, or did he just appear to be so?

Week 3 / 27 October - Donatism                                                                                                                                                      
Do Christian ministers need to be faultless for their ministry to be effective?

Week 4 / 17 November - Pelagianism                                                                                                                                                  
Can people be saved by their own efforts?

The series booklet is here, with the readings for the series and a short description of each heresy. Hard copies will be available in church. Please do take away to read. 

A great book to accompany the series is ​Heresies and How to Avoid Them: why it matters what Christians believe edited by Ben Quash and Michael Ward. We will have copies of that available in church for £10. If you can't afford that, have one anyway!

Other really good books to read are ​The Cruelty of Heresy: an affirmation of Christian orthodoxy by C Fitzsimmons Allison, Heresy by Alister McGrath (if you haven't read any of his work, try this - he is a great writer), and A Short History of the Early Church by Harry R Boer. 

Listen again to the sermons here:

29/09/2024
The first of a series of sermons on Heresies: why they matter and how to avoid them. This week Arianism, in which we think on the full assurance of salvation we have in Christ the divine second person of the Trinity.
13/10/2024
Second in our series of sermons on heresies. Docetism: the belief that Jesus was not human - why it is wrong and why that matters to us today
27/10/2024
Third in our series of sermons on heresies. This week, Donatism, the schismatic heresy. Does the unity of the church matter?
17/11/2024
Rob MacDonald, Academic Dean of Ridley Hall, preaches the last sermon in our series on heresies. This week, Pelagianism, the heresy that suggests we can be saved by our own efforts.

 

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