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Aim for the Big Toe
The sole objective of the Church of England, it must seem to those outside it, is to shoot itself in the foot. At this it is a world leader. Since its founding father, King Edward VI, imposed the Prayer Book in English and caused riots, it has never ceased to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
During the seventeenth century it deprived an Archbishop, several bishops, and hundreds of clergy of their livings because they refused to break their ordination oaths. In the eighteenth century it banned one of its most charismatic preachers, John Wesley, from its premises. In the nineteenth century it conspired to send faithful priests to prison for practicing their faith too vigorously. In the twentieth century, it consigned large numbers to the dustbin of history because they dared to disagree with the unilateral decision to ordain women.
These were not unhappy accidents. The dear old C of E has honed its self destruction carefully. It has committees whose remit seems to be to give the gentlemen of the press lots of scope for misunderstanding what they are trying to say. Such things as removing all references to Almighty God as male, taking out of the Bible anything vaguely violent, or excising militaristic references from the hymns, make wonderful copy.
Even when it tries really, really hard to present a good media image it falls flat on its face. A recent series of television programmes about life in one of our cathedrals gave the impression that the Dean and Chapter spent much of their time parading around in extravagant costumes, partying, drinking lots of wine, advocating same sex marriage and women bishops, all the while entertaining a gay American ordinand who thought that they were a load of homophobes.
Is there any hope for this venerable institution? If we pay attention to what happens on 1st November we know that there is. On that day we celebrate the lives of all the saints. Many of these we kicked out, others we executed in exotic ways. Despite the machinations of the kamikaze committees the saints have marched on for centuries. Long may it continue!
May God bless you all, Fr. Allan
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