Looking around the Church of England, leaves you with a disturbing sense of fragmentation. There is talk of principled protest at a national level; there is already evidence of ‘visible differentiation’ with clergy setting up their own independent structures of fellowship and support; ordinands are refusing to be ordained; people - clergy and lay - are simply leaving; parish shares are being withheld; new alternative Anglican Structures (i.e. not Church of England) have been set up and are functioning within the UK - granted for some time, but with a new significance in the light of LLF. And all that is before you raise your eyes to look at the Global Anglican situation!
A photo taken at a recent Bishop’s gathering inadvertently showed in the background a wall of post-it notes of the Bishop’s concerns about where the LLF process - or more honestly, where the House of Bishops - has taken us. It makes dismal reading: Loss of vocations, missional energy, and unity. Schism. Confusion. Not just the fracture of the CofE but its complete disintegration. Strained and broken relationships in families, churches, dioceses, and the global Church. Splitting dioceses. Division within (if we proceed), ridicule without (if we step back). That ‘cancel culture’ will prove more dominant than grace-filled love and acceptance. Irrelevance.
Indeed. But then again, it’s hard to imagine how any of that could be unexpected. People have been saying the results would include all of this and more since LLF was conceived, and the materials first published. The Bishops finally realising the possible outcomes of their actions doesn’t do much to alleviate the pain that many of us have been feeling over recent months, whilst those entrusted with the spiritual leadership of our Church have blundered their way towards the ‘complete disintegration’ of our denomination. Mind you, none of this made it to the press briefing. That simply alerted us to the setting up of a series of working parties focussed on Pastoral Guidance; the liturgy of the proposed prayers; and pastoral reassurance. So, pressing on then …towards the complete disintegration of one of the greatest denominations to be born out of the Reformation. No official acknowledgment of the pastoral chaos we’re already living with? No apology for the trauma already caused and the losses already sustained courtesy of the LLF process? No suggestion of a change in direction… you know, to avoid chaos, division, schism, broken relationships, irrelevance?
Apparently not.
That last one is ironic of course. Given that the whole LLF project was ostensibly initiated (in part) precisely in the name of ‘relevance’. It was always a spurious claim, albeit one dressed up in the spiritualised language of ‘mission’. But I always thought a misguided sense of ‘relevance’ was closer to the mark. It is a misguided vision of relevance because it is built on the idea that the way to make Christianity ‘successful’ is to evacuate it of everything that is distinctively Christian. But hey, at least we might avoid ridicule by not stepping back from the brink.
Of course, the issue is much deeper than the pragmatism that has driven the House of Bishops into their present and myopic disarray. I read earlier this week a helpful analysis that gives us a sense of what is at stake. The Cambridge historian Richard Rex suggests that there have been three great crises in the history of the Church. The first, in its early centuries, revolved around the question of the nature of God. This first crisis, during the Patristic era wrestled with the Bible’s teaching on the Trinity, and the Incarnation, and gave birth to the great ecumenical creeds. During the Reformation, a second crisis navigated the question of the nature of the Church (inlcuding ministry, polity, sacraments, preaching etc.). Rex argues we are living through a third crisis of comparable magnitude, and the question facing us now is that of the nature of humanity. This includes – as he memorably puts it – to ‘an entire alphabet of beliefs and practices: abortion, bisexuality, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, family, gender, homosexuality, infertility treatment…’. It’s a disturbing thesis. The first two crises were fairly devestating to live through at a number of levels.
To be honest, I’m not sure that a wall of post-it notes really does the situation justice. Though, I’m not sure what could. The first two crises the Church navigated produced some of the greatest pastors and theologians the Church has seen. People are still writing their PhDs on the work of Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, (if I may be allowed to include him) Augustine, and the like. Likewise those who helped us through the second crisis. Names such as Calvin, Melanchthon, Bullinger, Ursinus, Cranmer are indicative of host of luminaries who fought for Biblical truth against those who obscured it in a mist of what seemed obvious and incontrovertible to the Church leaders of the day. Interestingly, in both crises, the mission / relevance card was played!
We pray for the Lord to raise up a legion of pastor-theologians to help us navigate this third crisis. It looks like we’re going to need them!
sources for the photo and associated story: Anglican Ink,
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-lost-shepherds-can-justin-welby-and-pope-francis-keep-their-flocks/