Foreword: Sandy Millar
FOREWORD
SANDY MILLAR
I first met Bishop Lesslie Newbigin when he came one evening to a concert at HTB, which was being given by the New English Orchestra. I asked somewhat diffidently if he would ever be willing to find time to come and talk to us as a church. He instantly and very graciously agreed.
In this way started an association over several years that was of enormous benefit to us, and which led to a warmth and friendship with myself and the church that he was kind enough to express both publicly and privately until his death.
He was involved in world Christianity for well over half a century and, after spending nearly forty years as a missionary in India, instead of retiring to a quiet life in the country, he went to serve in an inner city Birmingham parish.
There was certainly a prophetic anointing on him – for instance, his wisdom and insight in sensing that the beginning of the twenty-first century would see a clash between Western materialism and fundamentalist Islam. And I find it extraordinary to think that in The Household of God he so clearly identified the major streams of world Christianity – the Catholic, Protestant and Charismatic – so far ahead of time.
He was such a warm and wise figure. He had such a passion for and commitment to the church. In contrast to the timidity or anxiety of many Christians in the West, Bishop Lesslie’s renewed confidence was in the gospel of Jesus Christ and a passionate desire to bring it into the public square. It is of course the story he had come to see as true above all other stories. It is the only story through which humanity and history can be understood. It is the only story that, in its ending foreshadowed in Christ’s resurrection, holds out hope for the world. It is the story that had shaped him and in which he lived. It is the story that he brought to life with consummate skill and applied to every aspect of not only church life, but also the wider culture of the world. It is this story that he articulated at our School of Theology between 1994–95, and which forms the basis of this book. ‘Here it is,’ he seemed to be saying, ‘guard it, live it, proclaim it.’
Our hope is that this updated book, including a new introduction by Paul Weston, will inspire many to do just that.
Sandy Millar
Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of London,
and Former Vicar of HTB