The Reformation was a process of both renewal and division amongst Christians in Europe. In this Reformation Anniversary year, many Christians will want to give thanks for the great blessings they have received to which the Reformation directly contributed. Amongst much else these would include clear proclamation of the gospel of grace, the availability of the Bible to all in their own language and the recognition of the calling of lay people to serve God in the world and in the church.
Many will also remember the lasting damage done five centuries ago to the unity of the Church, in defiance of the clear command of Jesus Christ to unity in love. Those turbulent years saw Christian people pitted against each other, such that many suffered persecution and even death at the hands of others claiming to know the same Lord. A legacy of mistrust and competition would then accompany the astonishing global spread of Christianity in the centuries that followed. All this leaves us much to ponder.
Remembering the Reformation should bring us back to what the Reformers wanted to put at the centre of every person’s life, which is a simple trust in Jesus Christ. This year is a time to renew our faith in Christ and in Him alone. With this confidence we shall then be ready to ask hard questions about those things in our lives and the life of our churches that get in the way of sharing and celebrating faith in Him.
There is something more serious going on here than our hand-wringing Archbishops issuing yet another po-faced instruction to indulge in repentance for another trendy cause of theirs:
At her coronation, the Queen and Supreme Governor of the Church of England answered yes to the following oath:
Also the Archbishops of Canterbury and York bound themselves by the following Oath of Allegiance:
and the following declaration of assent:
Article XXXVII of the Articles of Religion of the Church of England states:
It is no more open for the Archbishops to disavow the independence of the Church of England, its reformed character, and to break their oaths, and by her toleration of their actions, cause the Supreme Governor to be compromised in her oath given, than for the Provost of Glasgow Cathedral to permit the denial of the divinity of Christ by Koranic readings.
It is time for those who seek to lead Christians to exercise more humility and judgment.
It also has to be said that it was not those within the Church of England which excommunicated and ordered the assassination of the English Monarch, authorised the sending of the Spanish Armada or indulged in endless sanction of invasion, insurrection, gunpowder plots, assassination attempts, and the appaling martyrdoms of the reign of Bloody Mary. Guilt? Not on our part.
It is good to celebrate the coming together in respect and mutual enjoyment of one another going on among Christians in this century, but it is important to remember how we got here, rather than rewrite our history in a desire to apologise for everything in sight and instruct us to indulge in yet another pointless guilt trip, Archbishops.