As many readers of Cross†way will be aware, there is still a good supply of solidly Evangelical candidates going into the ministry of the Church of England. For this, we must be truly thankful.
Unfortunately, whilst these candidates are clear about their Evangelical identity, they are often much less clear about what it means to be ‘Anglican’.
Many of them come from churches with few traditional features of Anglican ‘culture’. The clergy rarely wear robes, the services are informal local concoctions rather than those ‘authorised or allowed by Canon’, the music is contemporary rather than traditional and the Book of Common Prayer nowhere to be seen.
More seriously, perhaps, many of them have little feel for the wider Church and little liking of its established structures. One can learn about the BCP or study the Thirty-nine Articles on a course, but if one’s basic attitude is that much of what goes on in the Church of England is a waste of everyone’s time, then such study will be of little help in practice.
The attitude of these candidates, moreover, is something they are learning from their ‘seniors’, who themselves often show a general disregard for the institution. The diocese is contemptible, the deanery a joke and as to bishops — who needs them? To read more, click here.
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