Mary

 

Imagine the Virgin Mary as just another unmarried young woman surprised by the results of a home pregnancy test.
That’s the idea of this new billboard put up by a church in Auckland, New Zealand.
St. Matthew-in-the-City Church put the billboard up just in time for Christmas. And right on schedule, the scandalous depiction of Mary has sparked debate.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to have outside a church,” one resident told local TV station 3 NEWS.
But Vicar Glynn Cardy defended his church’s position.
“The point is really to get the season focused on Jesus and on the reality of his birth and some of the anxieties that his mother felt and the real situation of people who are in poverty like his family were,” Cardy told Auckland Now.
The church has a competition on its website to come up with the best caption for the billboard.

St Matthew says it is a church that practices “Progressive Christianity.”  Their website defines it this way:

Why does St Matthew-in-the-City need to give a modifier to the brand of Christianity it practices?  Because contrary to our human tendency to make sweeping generalisations, being “Christian” does not tell us much about a faith community beyond the probability that Jesus plays a part in its beliefs.
Neither does denomination.  Denominations are historical in nature.  That St Matthew’s is Anglican tells you only how we are organised (we are under the authority of a bishop in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, worship using forms originally based on the English Book of Common Prayer, and have historical roots in the English Reformation, when politically and theologically it made sense to look Catholic and sound Protestant.  We call this the “middle way” (via media).
Every Anglican church has its own “personality.”  Some emphasize tradition and look more Catholic.  Some emphasize preaching and Scripture and sound Evangelical or charismatic (Pentacostal).  Some are visibly and audibly a blend and focus on the importance of reason.
But those differences have to do with what authority is most important to them: Scripture, Church Teaching and Tradition, or Reason.
Progressive Christians take all three authorities seriously but make none of them supreme.  Progressives are more interested in spirituality than right belief or proper worship. The identity of Progressive Christians is centred in ethical living.