Would I – could I – leave the Church of England?

I have been unwell - hence the lack of posting - normal service may soon resume

The question of whether I might one day leave the Church of England is on my mind more or less regularly, dependent on how much attention I pay to what is going on at the national level. I love the Church of England locally, I love my local parish specifically (all the ones I have served in), and I deeply love the 'inheritance of faith as the Church of England has received it' which I see as an irreplaceably precious jewel for all English-speakers. Yet when I ponder the antics of the national church, most especially the activity of the House of Bishops (understood as a distinct entity, a corporate body, a principality) I am filled with gloom and doom and tempted to the sin of despair.

As well as some more personal reasons, I have been prompted to muse on this most recently by the accession of Leo XIV and his clear appreciation for the Eastern liturgy. If there was some reconciliation between East and West – and if there was then some integration of parts of the Anglican inheritance (eg the Society ) which in such a context I would not see as implausible then the gravitational pull for me would be immensely strong.

I would have two particular worries, one minor, one major. The minor one relates to women's ministry, which I have always supported. I was ordained into a church that accepts women's ministry and happily work alongside them. I still occasionally pick at the theological issues around this question – at some point I might 'steelman' the arguments against as I feel much of the standard rhetoric is extremely poor quality – but in the end I believe that God calls whom he calls. This might prevent my joining a united church.

The more substantial one, however, relates to Roman Catholic sacramental theology, where I am a convinced and convicted Anglican (see Article 25 of the 39). The official teaching of the Roman Catholic church stems, as I see it, from medieval philosophical innovations that are inherently inimical to the full flourishing of the church's life and witness (for more detail see my 'hocus pocus' chapter). I do not dispute the 'real presence' of Christ in the sacrament, I dispute all that is associated with the feast of Corpus Christi. Any insistence on accepting that theology is a non-starter from my point of view.

Which brings me back to the question of the more catholic variety of Anglicanism where as time has gone on, I've moved away from the more high-church rituals through which I came into (returned to) the Church of England and settled into an identity which I think of as 'Old High'. I am much more sceptical of the Tractarians than I used to be, and I ponder the wisdom of Keble's comment (which I used as a tagline on my old blog for many years) that 'if the Church of England were to fail, it would still be found in my parish'.

The truth is that I do not see any denomination as being in full possession of the truth of the Christian faith. I really like the fact that the Church of England does not claim to be the whole church, or the perfect church, but simply a part of the church, the part that seeks to serve the English people. As Rowan Williams once put it, 'the self-identity of the Church of England is that it is the catholic church in England'. I believe that. I believe and trust in the continuity of believing Christians in a particular place down the centuries. I see the idea that a particular worshipping community is cut off from the Body of Christ because of arguments between kings and popes hundreds of miles away as a very Roman way of understanding things. The church on Mersea dates back to at least the seventh century, and may be older still. The sharing of bread and wine while telling the story of Jesus has been happening there ever since. Any account of church identity which does not respect that will forever be deficient.

The truth is that the different parts of the wider church need each other – East and West are the two lungs or, a better analogy for me, they are the breathing in and the breathing out. The Eastern church, the tradition of Orthodox theology, is wonderful for the breathing in, the internal work, all that is incorporated in the Philokalia. Yet the internal work is not enough on its own, and I speculate whether the historical collapse of the orthodox churches in the face of Islam is linked to this, in particular whether – due to the influence of Augustine in particular (the one Western Church Father of real consequence) – the Western church has the resources in respect of the just war tradition to undertake reconquista, in the way that the Eastern church simply doesn't. That needs much more thought on my part; Serbians, in particular, might take issue with it!

Putting it succinctly, I see the church of the first thousand years as being without error, and the ecumenical councils of the undivided church as normative for all Christians, but that there is nothing since 1054 which has the same status. The particularities of the English Reformation, most especially the emphasis upon returning ad fontes to the early church for guidance, I see as immensely healthy – that, and the particular forms of English mysticism (Julian, the Cloud, Blake etc) represent what I see as the healthiest and most indigenous form of Christianity for this land. These are the tools with which I work, and with which I seek to feed the sheep.

Realistically, perhaps cynically, it is unlikely that there will be a reunion between the East and the West. I'm not sure the Roman church is capable of entering into a dialogue with a spirit of 'we may have been in error'! Yet good things might still come from Pope Leo XIV, and I shall watch his work with expectation.

As for me, in the end, I don't think I could leave the Church of England as a solitary act – that would be a distinctly Modern and Protestant decision. I would have to go with a community of people, a community formed and shaped by the English inheritance, to carry forward something of that historic, incarnational emphasis. I belong to the church that baptised me and ordained me and, one day, I suspect it will be the church that buries me too.

This weekend marks the twentieth anniversary of my blogging, and musing about the church has been a major part of that. See here for an index of some writing, and if you only read one thing, make it my Smallbone post!