I've been going to an CofE church for a while now and was wondering if i could have these questions answered:
1. Why is there infant baptism? Whats the point a infant cant know what is wrong and right and who says the child wont do evil in its life just because it was baptized.
In addition to the very good explanation offered by PaladinVater, I would point out that the Church of England is an Apostolic Church, like the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, and Assyrian churches, and the Lutherans of German and Scandinavia, and indeed the Church of Scotland, the Moravians and the Methodists, and like all Apostolic Churches, we are descended from the ancient Catholic Church formed by the Apostles, the one referred to in the Nicene Creed. Over the years, this church was divided by schism, but there is one thing all of the branches of this church adhere to, to this day, and that is the baptism of infants.
"Suffer the little children to come to me," said our Lord, and we do.
There is an implicit Pelagianism also in the rejection of infant baptism; infants may not have sinned personally, but are still born into sin, tainted by Original Sin, so they must be baptized into the New Covenant, for the same reason that Jewish babies were circumcised into the Old Covenant.
2. What are your views on marriage, Interracial, what are the grounds for divorce?
Interracial marriage is perfectly acceptable. It used to be for a time that the Church of England, embarassed perhaps by having been created in order to allow King Henry VIII to obtain a divorce, was so staunchly opposed to divorce, that obtaining one required, if i remember correctly, an Act of Parliament. Later, divorces were made somwhat easier, but for many years most Anglican parish churches in the country would not remarry divorcees. One of the very few exceptions was the Savoy Chapel, which is a Royal Peculiar, a chapel under the direct spiritual leadership of the Queen under advice from her chaplains, and not subject to the regular Diocesan structure. Sp, whereas the Bishop of London was in those days (the 1920s-1930s) staunchly opposed to the remisrriage of divorcees, the Savoy Chapel was not under his jurisdiction, and thus became known as the place in London where divorced people would go to get married.
There is a famous novel, I forget which, in which its former capacity in this role is alluded to.
Nowadays, this is not the case; its nearly impossible in fact to get married at the Savoy Chapel unless you are a part of some social grouping that it is connected to, the Yeoman Warders and their families, I think.
Tragically, nowadays, the Church of aengland is so lax on divorce we actually have divorced priests and bishops! I think that is an outrage, myself.
3. Do you do adult baptism?
Only if someone was not baptized as a child in the Trinitarian formula. And there are liberals who want to let the unbaptized take communion (not allowed in the UK, at least officially, but increasingly common in the US).
One does not need to be baptized ro join rhe Church of England. In the past, one had to be formally received to take the Eucharist, as was Prince Philip, but now, I believe any baptized Christian can turn up. There used to be strictly maintained rolls of who could take communion at a parish, even special tokens, but these have fallen into disuse.
In the American church, if one takes communion three times, one becomes a member automatically.
Yes.
They lead the Church, by ordaining priests and deacons, perform the sacrament* of Confirmation, making important decisions about how things should be done, and serving as the chief ministers of the Eucharist. The Church of England is led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and his deputy the Archbishop of York and has several bishops; one unique aspect of the Church of England is that as the established Church, our bishops sit in Parliament in the House of Lords as the Lords Spiritual.
The Roman Catholics on the other hand if memory serves no longer allows their bishops to sit in national parliaments or participate directly in secularmgovernment,
and why do you have them?
Because the ancient Church did. They are mentioned in the New Testament (the word is "episkopos," meaning overseer, which is precisely what bishops are), and St. Ignatius the Martyr, who was fed to lions in a Roman arena for his Christianity in AD 90, wrote in an Epistle, "Let nothing connected with the Church be done without the bishop."
