There are also strong voices in society questioning the place of religion in public life. The barbarians of Bideford are at the gate. They say that faith is a private thing, and they imagine for themselves superior neutrality. Well, part of the Act of Uniformity was that we should live together under a rule of law, but this was a rule of law that included an established church, a set liturgy and a boundary commission for belief. These things have indeed gone on to shape our nation in countless ways. We should not lose them without a fight; though I for one intend to trust in the armour of the Holy Spirit, which of course looks to the world like nakedness. In other words we cannot expect a secular world not to challenge people of faith, and we will win our argument not by endless appeals to tradition, custom, or even law, but by living and proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ. It is only when people are converted to Christ that they will see the logic of prayer at public meetings, and everything else that follows from it. In the meantime we can work together with all people of goodwill, and especially people of other faiths, to guard our historic position as best we can.
[blockquote] “And it is this vision of a generous and moderately inclusive church that I want to speak about today, what Percy Dearmer in a wonderful essay on Loyalty to the Prayer Book, written in 1904 and recently re-published, calls the “pure Catholicism, reasonable, liberal, orthodox, faithful to the essentials of historic Christianity, beautiful and intelligible in its worship, glorious in rich simplicity… which our Prayer Book, Articles and Canons assert to be the ideal of the English Church.— [/blockquote]
So Percy Dearmer supported the modern concept of a “moderately inclusive” CofE. Who’d have thought it?
The good bishop mentions a number of issues in his Synod address. He conspicuously fails to mention the issues of women bishops, ordination and consecration of openly practicing homosexuals, or same-sex blessings. Truly courageous and effective leadership.
It appears some bishops of the Church of England are still living in denial. OVER TWO thousand ministers refused to take the oath, and were ejected from the Church of England. By insisting on swift adherence to an edition of the Book of Common Prayer which most people in England had not seen, the foolish bishops and parliamentarians of the time forced these people out, and created a vibrant non-conformist movement with a clear identity separate to that of the Church of England. Truly a great achievement! The spiritual descendants of those non-conformists found space in the New World colonies to develop, and today greatly outnumber the church which ejected them.
Now, foolish bishops in the CofE are trying to make the same mistake again. Only in this case, the soon-to-be-ejected orthodox don’t need to colonise a New World – it already exists in the Anglican Communion which is larger than the CofE and its allies, and ready to support those who are persecuted for their faith.