Morwenstow Church North Cornwall, (A typical Rural Parish Church)
To the outsider the Church of England presents a very confusing picture and always has done. Amid the convulsions of religion in the sixteenth century the Anglican Church had a character and a story which are hard to fit into the conventional categories of Continental Christianity. The Anglican was and is a complex blend of Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Catholicism. Our Church grew into its distinctive position under the shelter of the supremacy of the English Monarchy. Its story is bound up with the greed and intrigues of Tudor statesmen. However the Church of England cannot be explained in terms of politics alone.
Anglicanism bore a spiritual witness, if only by linking together what Christians had torn asunder elsewhere. – the Gospel of God, which had made the Reformers what they were, and the old historical structure which the Reformers as a whole had rejected but without which the Gospel itself lacks its full and proper expression.
The impact of Luther and Calvin is seen not only in the 39 Articles but in the general return of the Bible as the ruling element in faith and piety. However it appealed to the Holy Scriptures along very different lines from those of the Lutherans and Calvinists. The Church of England also appealed to the Primitive Church and saw that scripture centres in the fact of Christ himself.
Prominent in the old structure which the Anglicans retained was the Episcopate. the reasons given for this ministry varied; for the stress and the strain of controversy was intense, and the Anglican position had to be defended often self consciously against Rome and the Puritans without, and the pressures of the more extreme Reformers within.
I haven’t gone into details, but Anglicanism is a rich cake containing many ingredients that clash and don’t always mix successfully. The average Anglican somehow manages to exist in happy tension with those who within the same church differ radically from fellow members.
One part of me would like to go along with traditional Latin Christendom, but the other half realizes that this cannot be and walks with the Reformers. One treads a tight rope and the danger of falling off is a continual hazard.
Within the same church all shades of opinion can be found. Remaining an Anglican and a faithful Christian amid the very uncertain vicissitudes of these times requires a quiet steadfastness and trust in the God of the Bible as revealed in Christ Jesus.
My modern hero in the C of E is Archbishop Rowan Williams. His career certainly ended in the public eye. And it could hardly be called a success, in conventional terms. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that those who have been exasperated, dumbfounded and distressed by the leadership of Rowan Williams would have been terribly disappointed by Jesus.
It’s hard to think of a diatribe leveled at the former head of the Anglican Communion that is not, in reality a diatribe directed at our crucified Lord himself. Jesus and Rowan Williams can both be infuriating at times. But they’re infuriating for largely the same reasons.
The kindly face of Anglicanism.
I’ve always thought that if we were an animal we’d be a platypus, diverse, hard to label uniformly.
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I, too, am a great admirer of ++Rowan, who is in every sense a good man. That the Church of England did not quite know what do with him and vice-versa tells a story with which we are all too familiar. But for all the criticism levelled at my old Church, England would be an infinitely worse place without its presence.
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Well, the Anglicans certainly know how to scandalize large groups of people or at least make everyone uncomfortable: https://www.ewtn.co.uk/news/gb/canterbury-cathedral-to-hold-masonic-service-on-someday-as-national-consecration-to-immaculate-heart 🙂
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I know which service I’d be going to 🙂
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Me too! I wondered what the price for hypocrisy was . . . now I know that it is a mere 300,000 pounds. I think the Pope got less when he rented out the Sistine Chapel for a commercial but maybe not . . . I forgot the exact sum for that one. 🙂
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Not sure I’d believe the connection between the money and the ceremony, that’s not ++Justin’s style. It is also necessary I suspect to contextualise. English freemasonry has never been like is Continetal namesake – the best analogy would be to one of your Lions or Kiwanis clubs.
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. . . also forbidden by the Church. We can speak at them but we cannot join them.
Regardless, I believe Rowan spoke against them several times or I am I imagining that?
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That seems a bit odd – the ones I knew in Missouri simply did lots of good work.
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Well, I believe, like the Rotary Club they have affiliations with Freemasonry; maybe I am confusing them. I read something in that regard just recently regarding the Rotary Club and some others like the Lions and Kiwanis. When in doubt, don’t join is my motto since the church forbids joining Masonic Lodges. For instance, I know that the Lions Club supports abortion and gives to Planned Parenthood. So that one is certainly off my list though as to their affiliation with Freemasonry it is unclear.
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Thanks for the info, Scoop.
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I say buyer beware to Fraternal Organizations, I joined the Sons of the American Revolution a few years back, which is basically just a genealogy organization, but something about swearing oaths every meeting turned me off.
My mother is a member of the Moose, which the Catholic Church has no stance on, but the Missouri Synod Lutherans have barred their members from joining. My mom asked if I wanted a membership, I told her no thanks. If it’s like the Masons and one Chrisitan sect says no thanks, I’m going to follow their lead.
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Furthermore, My mom was telling me how the Moose org. pray to a “Supreme Being,” which sounds a lot like deism. There’s also rituals for a “mooseheart” of some nature.
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I’m with you Phillip. I joined the Elks Club when I was in my mid-20’s so that I could drink booze on the cheap with a bunch of townies that I drove cab for same company that I did. That lasted probably a month and I never went back. It was like joining a sports bar. 🙂
But I don’t go for any secret organizations with vows and initiation ceremonies and the rest of their hogwash.
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My apologies. It seems Rowan had some confused and conflicting things to say in regards to freemasonry. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1427978/Rowan-Williams-apologises-to-Freemasons.html
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I think he’s expressing a common confusion -but then as I know nothing about them, I stop there!
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He seemed about as clear as Pope Francis to me; many words with little to no meaning attached. 🙂
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Well, sometimes things are not black and white 🙂
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Yes, sometimes everything is rose-colored or a rainbow of colors. 🙂
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Indeed 🙂
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Scoop, I don’t know what to make of Justin Welby. Freemasonry doesn’t remotely interest me and imho Welby was wrong even to have participated in such a service.
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I think so as well, Malcolm. The timing of this is even more egregious than the act, in my view.
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Chalcedon Yes, Rowan Williams ministry was a gift to many who were able to discern his poetic and intelligent ministry. All Church leaders make mistakes, alas our fallen humanity often gets in the way.
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I have always found him a most sympathetic figure.
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I really liked this piece, Malcolm, and I’m glad you shared it with us. As I was reading it, I couldn’t help but think of how the Anglican Church has been a kind of mother to our country, a source of comfort in times of sadness and rebuke in our folly. Whatever denominational background we come from, we always know she’s there with open arms for us – and that models our heavenly Father.
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That was a lovely piece, thank you Malcolm.
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In my opinion, Rowan Williams represents a great synthesis between the mysticism of the eastern church and the structured thought of our post-Enlightenment academia. Difficult to understand, but a well of depth. His writings remind us of the long neglected doctrine of panentheism, so horribly abandoned by proponents of substance dualism – thanks for that, Descartes! The God Rowan Williams has so often promoted is both transcendent and immanent: beyond our understanding and yet our very life itself.
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I agree 100% chalcedon.. I miss him very much.
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Panentheism, That’s a word I haven’t come across for long time, but its very apt. It appeals very much to me.
“God’s standpoint is all inclusive, and so in a sense we are not parts of God in the sense that God is simply the sum total of the parts or that the parts of God are lacking in independence and self determination. God and the creatures interact as separate entities, while God includes the standpoints of all of them in his omni-spatial standpoint. In this sense God is everywhere, but is not everything.” Cobb. in God and the World.
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I’m afraid some of my replies seem to have ended up in the wrong place as I’ve been out all afternoon. Ah well, nothing is perfect.
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These things are often sent to try us – and succeed only too well 🙂
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the kindly face of Anglicanism.
Freaky deek. He looks like the Devil himself.
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Behave yourself Bosco. Nothing that a trim of the eyebrows and a trip to the barbershop couldn’t remedy.
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Bosco,
There is a view that the Devil looks extremely beautiful, other wise why should evil appear so attractive and beguile us into forsaking God.
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You are right again good brother. Sin is beautiful.
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