Church of England
I
In 2000, nearly a million people went to a Church of England service on a Sunday; by 2022, that figure fell to 549,000. The vicar, like the postmaster and the publican, historically created a social tapestry of individual, sometimes rather lonely, human lives. The tide of religion was already going out, when Matthew Arnold wrote in 1867: “The sea of faith was once, too, at the full … But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.” But if there is a God, none of this matters. Unpopularity doesn’t make the creed false just as popularity doesn’t make them true.
t is said that Joseph of Arimathæa brought the religion of Christ to Britain immediately after the Passion of Christ. Some claimed that the first Christian Church of the world was the wattle church of Glastonbury. The West of England was a Christian country a hundred years before Rome became Christian. The Druids very quickly became Christians, because their faith was very similar to Christianity. They looked forward to a Messiah and they had an impersonal God, and so their religion merged very quickly into Christianity. St. Augustine wrote a letter to Pope Gregory in which he used these remarkable words: "In the western confines of Britain there is a certain royal island of large extent, surrounded by water, abounding in all the beauties of nature and necessaries of life. In it the first neophytes of Catholic law, God beforehand acquainting them, found a church constructed by no human art, but by the Lands of Christ himself, for the salvation of His people. The Almighty has made it manifest by many miracles and mysterious visitations that he continues to watch over it as sacred to himself, and to Mary, the mother of God."
St. Augustine endeavoured to get the British Church to join Rome. The Bishops of the English church said to St. Augustine: "Be known and declared that we, all, individually and collectively, are in all humility prepared to defer to the Church of God and to the Bishop of Rome, and to every sincere and godly Christian, so far as to love everyone according to his degree, in perfect charity, and to assist them all by word and in deed in becoming the children of God. But as for any other obedience, we know of none that he, whom you term the Pope or Bishop of Bishops can demand. The deference we have mentioned we are ready to pay to him as to every other Christian, but in all other respects our obedience due to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Caerleon" St. David's, that is— "who is alone under God our ruler to keep us right in the way of salvation."
When Queen Mary made the British Church amalgamate with Rome, Cardinal Pole came to this country for the celebration, and before all the nobility in Westminster Abbey, before Philip and Mary, speaking about the reconciliation, he used these words: "God hath given a special token of his favour to this realm, for, as this nation in the time of the primitive church was the first to be called out of the darkness of heathendom, so now they were the first to whom God had given grace to repent of their schism." That is quite a late confession of the early prominence and priority of the British Church.
It is difficult to define the characteristics of the Church of England so as to enable an outsider to understand it. In much that concerns its external form and traditions it is probably the most mediaeval institution in Europe. In much that concerns its religious teaching and life it is more abreast of modern thought than any other religious body. The former characteristic may be illustrated by the fact that its property is held in some cases by direct gift of Anglo-Saxon kings, and that many of its institutions are feudal in their origin. Again it differs from any of the Protestant Churches of the Continent by the fact that it does not express as they do the teaching or influence of one individual reformer. In a very true sense its history has been continuous.
The doctrinal formula of the Church of England is the Thirty-nine Articles and the belief of the Church is also to be gathered in the Homilies and Prayer Book. The character of the Church of England is shown very clearly in the Book of Common Prayer. The Prefaces lay down that the object throughout was to preserve the old form of services but to fit them to the altered needs of the time, and in many cases to return to what were looked upon as more primitive customs. The first edition of the Prayer Book was issued in 1549, the second in 1552, the third in 1559, the fourth in 1604, and the fifth edition in 1662. The services throughout preserve the structure of the pre-Reformation books, but they are shortened and simplified. What was believed to be superstitious was cut out, and, of course, the whole translated into the English language. The Prayer Book was influenced to a certain extent by some of the earlier Lutheran formularies and some of the finest of the collects were the work of Archbishop Cranmer himself.
Though a learned Church, there have always been certain characteristics to distinguish it from other religious bodies. Its interest has been very largely in historical and exegetical studies. It has sedulously eschewed systematic theology. There is not at the present day an authoritative work stating the beliefs of the Church of England. It has been largely concerned with questions of ecclesiastical organization and the special features which have distinguished it from the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches.
There have been, generally speaking, three types of Churchmen, known respectively as High Church, Low Church and Broad Church. Each of these has emphasized some one side of Church teaching and has not escaped the dangers of one-sided partisanship. Each has emphasized one section of the Creed, and at times, failed to do justice to the others. The Broad Church are concerned for the Fatherhood of God, the moral and philosophical basis of Christian truth. The Low Church are chiefly concerned to present Christ as Redeemer and the Center of all their thought. The High Church have had to emphasize a neglected portion of the Creed, belief in the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, in Church and Sacraments as ordained means of union with Christ.
The Archbishop of Canterbury fills a unique position in the world-wide Anglican Communion. As primus inter pares (first among equals), of the Bishops, he serves the Anglican Church as spiritual leader. The Archbishop of York is Archbishop of the Province of York - the whole northern half of England with pastoral oversight of the bishops in that Province and responsibility for clergy discipline.
The See of Canterbury - that is, the cathedral, parishes and other communities and institutions that make up the Diocese - is the 'mother' church (diocese) of the Church of England. As its bishop the Archbishop is therefore the 'metropolitan' bishop of the whole of the ecclesiastical 'province' of Canterbury: that is, the 30 diocesan sees of southern England and the Diocese in Europe, in relation to which he has a permanent authority of jurisdiction.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is supported in his diocesan ministry by two supplementary (so-called 'suffragan') bishops: the Bishop of Dover (who acts as the archbishop's delegate for the day to day running of diocesan affairs) and the Bishop of Maidstone. Two further supplementary bishops - the Bishops of Richborough and Ebbsfleet - are based in the diocese and care on the Archbishop's behalf for those parishes across the Province of Canterbury that do not accept the ministry of women priests.
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