The Sad Demise of the Church of England
A point of clarification has been added to the end of this article. — Leo
I grew up in the Church of England. I went to a Church of England school, was baptised in my local village church, and even found my self sitting in a cathedral office to put myself forward for the priesthood after I left full time education.
I was possibly the only person of my age range to care about the local church, making an effort to go most, if not all, Sundays with my mother. For a time I sat under an old vicar whom had grown up in Nazi concentration camps and from him I learned a lot about the intricacies of my faith.
As I have written about previously here, I ended up leaving the C of E for the Roman Catholic Church. There were several reasons why I converted, but for now I shall let those lie. Instead I wish to take a sombre and mournful look at the reasons why the Church of England is failing.
The reality that England’s state denomination is crumbling simply cannot be denied. Just last April it was made known that up to half of England’s Anglican Cathedrals could close amidst a funding crisis. The ageing membership of the C of E is also apparent. In 2010 the average age for an Anglican churchgoer was 61 and this has meant that the most cited reason for leaving in adults is not a choice, but death.
The most common reported reason for adults to leave a worshipping community was death or illness (43%), followed by moving away (31%). The most common reported reason for children to leave a worshipping community was moving away (43%), followed by no longer worshipping at any church (34%).
- Page 22 of “Statistics for Mission 2014”
According to the bishops of the Church of England themselves, their congregations are quite literally dying off.
The Church of England, and the Anglican Communion in the West at large, has given up theological truths about God as well as adherence to His will. The C of E ordained it’s first female ‘priests’ in 1994 and then started to ordain women as bishops in 2015. They began with Libby Lane whom was ordained by John Sentamu, then continued by ‘ordaining’ more women.
The refusal of the Church of England to remain formally committed to Tradition has marked it’s recent history as well as it’s founding. This wishy-washy stance of inclusivity has left the C of E barren of almost all of it’s spirituality, leaving them with nice buildings and pretty words said to one or two elderly people in the back pew.
If it were not for the ACNA and the African portions of the Anglican Communion, there would be no hope whatsoever for my old home. Conservatism, however, can only accomplish so much. Even those members of the ACNA I know and have spoken to are all too prone to formal errors, such as the rejection of the authority of the Pope or the heresy of annihilationism.
With no formal dogmatic stance, the C of E shall continue to crumble in it’s vain attempt to keep up with the times. It shall succumb to modernism, it’s beautiful stained glass shall shatter, it’s buildings shall become nothing more than relics of the past, kept free from dust with the English need to retain some form of Englishness.
My prayer is that the Gates of Hell, though they have overtaken the wayward sons and daughters of Cromwell and the Tudors, shall never do so to True Church. Although the forces of evil are at work in some of the clergy of the Catholic Church, Christ promised that they shall not succeed. The fate of the Catholic Church shall not be that of the Anglicans.
Though all that said, I watch my culture die a slow death, slumbering as it’s nose slips below the waters of modernism, and pray that the souls therein shall come back to Jesus in the Catholic Church. May God have mercy.
