In an open letter responding to a press release from the conservative ‘Alliance’ grouping within the Church of England the Bishop of Oxford has declared that the creation of a conservative third province within the Church of England, as proposed by the Alliance, could be something that ‘undercuts the very essence of Anglican ecclesiology.’
In this text I shall set out the ecclesiology of the Church of England after which ask whether, in the sunshine of this evidence, the bishop’s claim is true.
The Church of England is the historic Church of the English people
Contrary to a well-liked misconception, the Church of England didn’t come into existence on the time of the Protestant Reformation within the sixteenth century. We can see this, for instance, from the proven fact that the Venerable Bede, writing within the eighth century, refers back to the Ecclesia Anglicana, the ‘Church of the English people.’
This Church was formed within the seventh century as a mix of three streams of Christianity, the remnants of the Romano-British church which had a history going back to the primary century, the mission from Rome led by St Augustine of Canterbury which began in 597 when he landed in The Isle of Thanet and started to evangelize the dominion of Kent and the Celtic tradition coming down from Scotland and related to figures comparable to St Aidan and St Cuthbert.
The ‘Church of England’ is solely the trendy name for Bede’s ‘Church of the English people,’ Britian’s oldest repeatedly existing institution.
The Church of England is a Church with a transparent set of core beliefs
At the Reformation, the Church of England repudiated the authority of the Pope and reformed its theology and practice in line under the influence of the mainstream Protestant reformation. When challenged that it had subsequently grow to be a heretical church, the theologians of the Church of England replied by arguing that the Church of England still held to the fundamental principles of religion and practice that the Church as a complete had all the time held.
The classic example of this type of argument is the Apology of the Church of England published by the Bishop of Salisbury, John Jewel, in 1562, a piece which is mostly forgotten today, but which laid the groundwork for subsequent defences of the position of the Church of England.
In this work Jewel responds to the charge that those within the Church of England are ‘heretics’ who ‘don’t have anything to do, either with Christ, nor with the church of God’ by setting out that ‘faith wherein we stand.’
He begins by stating that the Church of England believes within the Trinity:
‘We imagine that there may be one certain Nature and divine Power, which we call God; and that the identical is split into three equal Persons, into the Father, into the Son and into the Holy Ghost; and that all of them be of 1 power, of 1 eternity and one Godhead; and of 1 substance.’
He then moves on to the person of Christ. He to start with declares that:
‘We imagine that Jesus Christ, the one Son of the everlasting Father (as long before it was determined before all beginnings), when the fulness of time was come, did take of that blessed and pure Virgin each flesh and all the character of man.’
He then adds:
‘We imagine that for our sakes He died, and was buried, descended into hell, the third day by the facility of His Godhead returned to life, and rose again; and that the fortieth day after His resurrection, whiles His disciples beheld and looked upon Him, He ascended into heaven to fulfil all things, and did place in majesty and glory the self-same body wherewith He was born, wherein He lived on earth….From that place also we imagine that Christ shall come again to execute that general judgment, as well of them whom He shall then find alive within the body as of them that be already dead.’
After that he turns to the Holy Spirit, writing that the Church England believes: ‘that it’s His property to mollify and soften the hardness of man’s heart’ and that ‘he doth give men light, and guide them unto the knowledge of God; to all way of truth; to newness of the entire life; and to everlasting hope of salvation.’
Having checked out what the Church of England believes in regards to the Trinity, Christ and the Holy Spirit, Jewel then turns to what it believes in regards to the Church, stating that it believes that there may be ‘one Church of God, and that the identical is just not shut up (as in times past among the many Jews) into some one corner or kingdom, but that it’s catholic and universal, and dispersed throughout the entire world.’ Furthermore, he adds: ‘we imagine that there be divers degrees of ministers within the Church; whereof some be deacons, some priests, some bishops; to whom is committed the office to instruct the people, and the entire charge and setting forth of faith.’
Next, Jewel explains that those within the Church of England:
‘…. receive and embrace all of the canonical Scriptures, each of the Old and New Testament, giving due to our God, who hath raised up unto us that light which we would ever have before our eyes, lest either by the subtlety of man, or by the snares of the devil, we should always be carried away to errors and lies. Also, that these be the heavenly voices, whereby God hath opened unto us His will: and that only in them man’s heart can have settled rest; that in them be abundantly and fully comprehended all things, in any way be needful for our salvation.’
Jewel goes on to say that the Church of England holds that there are two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The former is, he says, ‘a Sacrament of the remission of sins, and of that washing, which now we have within the blood of Christ.’ The latter is ‘is a Sacrament; that’s to wit, an evident token of the body and blood of Christ’ by way of which ‘Christ Himself, being the true bread of everlasting life, is so presently given unto us as that by faith we verily receive his body and his blood.’
Furthermore, the Church of England believes in justification by faith within the sense that:
‘We say also, that one and all is born in sin, and leadeth his life in sin: that no person is in a position truly to say his heart is clean: that essentially the most righteous person is but an unprofitable servant: that the law of God is ideal, and requireth of us perfect and full obedience: that we’re able not at all to fulfil that law on this worldly life: that there isn’t any one mortal creature which will be justified by his own deserts in God’s sight: and subsequently that our only succour and refuge is to fly to the mercy of our Father by Jesu Christ, and assuredly to steer our minds that He is the obtainer of forgiveness for our sins; and that by His blood all our spots of sin be washed clean.’
However, the Church of England doesn’t say that justification by faith means:
‘…. men should live loosely and dissolutely: nor that it’s enough for a Christian to be baptised only and to imagine: as if there have been nothing else required at his hand. For true faith is full of life, and might in no sensible be idle. Thus subsequently teach we the people, that God hath called us, to not follow riot and wantonness, but, as St. Paul saith, “unto good works, to walk in them.’
Finally, Jewel notes that the Church of England holds, ‘that this our self-same flesh wherein we live, even though it die, and are available to dust, yet on the last day it shall return again to life, by the technique of Christ’s Spirit which dwelleth in us.’
The beliefs set out by Jewel remain the premise of the religion and practice of the Church of England. They are reflected within the theology present in Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal, the three ‘historic formularies’ that are normative for Church of England’s theology, liturgy and consider of Christian ministry. To put it simply, the Church of England is a church which holds these basic beliefs and reflects them in its practice.
The Church of England is a Church with a transparent historic pattern of church organisation
The Church of England has a transparent pattern of church organisation, which it has maintained for over a thousand years. It has two provinces, Canterbury and York, each of which has its own Archbishop, and which governs itself by way of a Convocation of bishops and clergy and an attendant House of Laity. The two provinces are subdivided into dioceses overseen by bishops, that are in turn divided into archdeaconries overseen by archdeacons, and parishes overseen by the parochial clergy. Each diocese has a cathedral, which is the mother church of the diocese, is the place where the bishop has their official seat or ‘throne’, and is the setting for formal diocesan services comparable to ordinations.
In ecclesiological terms, the 2 provinces of the Church of England are churches in their very own right because they’ve their very own archbishops and are self-governing. Therefore the Church of England is, strictly speaking, a federation of two churches linked by a joint legislative body, the General Synod, by which the Convocations and Houses of Laity of the 2 provinces meet to make decisions about matter of common concern and to enact joint laws in the shape of measures and canons.
A 3rd province wouldn’t undermine the Church of England’s ecclesiology.
A conservative third province within the Church of England, established to offer an area inside the Church of England where the Church’s historic teaching that marriage is between one and one woman – and the one legitimate place for sexual intercourse is inside marriage thus defined – could be permanently maintained, wouldn’t depart from any of the weather of the Church of England’s ecclesiology set out above.
It would still form a part of the historic Church of England. It would still adhere to the fundamental Christian beliefs set out by Jewel and reflected within the historic formularies. It would still uphold the Church of England’s historic pattern of Church organisation and would participate within the meetings of General Synod. What could be different about it could be its willingness to make use of the powers of self-government which the 2 existing provinces already possess, to legally safeguard the Church of England’s traditional teaching on marriage and sexual ethics.
The Bishop of Oxford is thus simply flawed.
