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Fr. Dwight Longenecker
Will the Church of England Split?
Conservative Evangelical members of the Church of England are pretty displeased with the Church of England’s General Synod vote to bless same sex marriage. Their dilemma is real. How do they live in a church where they believe their opponents are heretics while their opponents believe them to be guilty of pastoral abuse for not accepting active homosexuality?
It’s a tough one. Already the Anglican communion has split into umpteen different Anglican-styled Protestant sects. If you’re interested you can check out a list here. These groups have broken away for a variety of reasons–some because the Anglican Church is too conservative, some because it is too liberal, some for liturgical reasons, others for historic or cultural/ethnic reasons. The big question is whether the Church of England itself will split rather then what has been the case historically–individuals simply leave and join some other Christian group: an Anglican breakaway sect, the Catholics, Eastern Orthodox or a Protestant group.
A genuine split in the Church of England is difficult to imagine because the Church of England is not primarily a church. It is first and foremost, at the religious arm of the English establishment–a bedrock of the English ruling class. An Englishman who belongs to the Church of England is and Englishman. As I remember one English clergyman explaining, “I could never become a Roman Catholic. I’m English and the Church of England is sooo quintessentially English!” Very nice in a Bertie Wooster-ish sort of way, but ridiculous as an ecclesiology.
Continued below.
dwightlongenecker.com
Will the Church of England Split?
Conservative Evangelical members of the Church of England are pretty displeased with the Church of England’s General Synod vote to bless same sex marriage. Their dilemma is real. How do they live in a church where they believe their opponents are heretics while their opponents believe them to be guilty of pastoral abuse for not accepting active homosexuality?
It’s a tough one. Already the Anglican communion has split into umpteen different Anglican-styled Protestant sects. If you’re interested you can check out a list here. These groups have broken away for a variety of reasons–some because the Anglican Church is too conservative, some because it is too liberal, some for liturgical reasons, others for historic or cultural/ethnic reasons. The big question is whether the Church of England itself will split rather then what has been the case historically–individuals simply leave and join some other Christian group: an Anglican breakaway sect, the Catholics, Eastern Orthodox or a Protestant group.
A genuine split in the Church of England is difficult to imagine because the Church of England is not primarily a church. It is first and foremost, at the religious arm of the English establishment–a bedrock of the English ruling class. An Englishman who belongs to the Church of England is and Englishman. As I remember one English clergyman explaining, “I could never become a Roman Catholic. I’m English and the Church of England is sooo quintessentially English!” Very nice in a Bertie Wooster-ish sort of way, but ridiculous as an ecclesiology.
Continued below.
Will the Church of England Split? | Fr. Dwight Longenecker
Conservative Evangelical members of the Church of England are pretty displeased with the Church of England's General Synod vote to bless same sex marriage. Their dilemma is real. How do they live in a church where they believe their opponents are heretics while their opponents believe them to be...
dwightlongenecker.com
