When a church fails – Compromise, Idolatry and the NHS
by Gavin Ashenden:
It’s not an easy thing being a national Church; especially when the nation and the Church want very different things. But has the C of E crossed the Rubicon of sacrificing its identity as Church in order to provide the nation with a comforting taste of spirituality on its own terms? Has it baptised an unholy social humanitarianism and backpedalled on the Holy Trinity?
Being the state church comes with complex privileges and some responsibilities.
The privileges include that the Vicar of a parish inherits a status that neither the Methodists or the Catholics enjoy; the Anglican communities own the grandest buildings in both city town and country, and bask in their reflected stature and beauty. At all the state occasions, their senior clergy are there somewhere.
They get to speak to the nation about God, and to presumably (if they are saying their prayers) to God about the state of the nation.
But it’s not easy. There are moments of national crisis when tragedies, and even pandemics needs interpreting to a society that has a very primitive and underinformed view of God. Looking back over the last one hundred years, how well has the C of E managed to be the national church? What happens if a secular nation decides it wants a new religion? In the wake of Covid, has the NHS become the new state religion?
See also:
Radical progressive activism and the Church of England, by Archbishop Cranmer:
“Civitas have published a new report: Rotting from the Head: Radical progressive activism and the Church of England…its message is stark:
What has happened to the Church of England in the past year reflects the direction other British institutions are currently travelling towards. As institutions have declined in their authority, there is increasing anxiety within them to be justified…a small number of activists are providing a path in defining the role and purpose of such institutions. Thus, ideologically, institutions like the Church are increasingly taking on the mantras of ultra-progressivism…”
“Rule of woke ” replaces God’s word as Church’s authority, by Julian Mann, Anglican Mainstream: “The Church of England seems to be devoid of senior pastors of deep theological learning and practised biblical holiness, capable of exercising real spiritual and moral authority.”
and
Cultural Marxism: crisis or conspiracy? Interview with Melvin Tinker, from Christian Concern
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