Today saw the beginning of the end of the Church of England,
in an act of assisted suicide. Today the Church of England moved closer to
Islam than to the rest of the Christian community worldwide, and delivered a
massive Christmas present to secularism. The Church of England can no longer
claim any moral authority. It has made itself a laughing-stock. Despite the
overwhelming support of clergy and lay members for women bishops (all but two
dioceses in the provinces of Canterbury and York voted overwhelmingly in favour),
the House of Laity voted against, and diocesan representatives on General Synod
will now have to explain themselves to the diocesan synods that elected them.
Where did the rot start setting in? With hindsight, that’s an easy one. It
started when parishes were asked whether they were in favour of the episcopacy
being opened to women. Parishes which had had experience of women clergy were
overwhelmingly in favour. A few, which had only ever known the ministry of male
clergy, were opposed. In any other circumstances that would have sounded
warning signals and questions about methodology. Is a vote from a PCC which had
never experienced the ministry of women clergy as valid as a vote from a PCC
which had? Did male clergy in these anti parishes allow their PCC to make up
their own minds, or was there a bit of gentle nudging?
But the result was what we have today. Enormous efforts have
been made over the years to placate what was in reality a small (and possibly
ill-informed) minority. Flying bishops were introduced, but that didn’t work.
The Church split itself apart grovelling to a few people who preferred their
Church to stay in the 1stC AD, when women didn’t have a voice.
Our own Bishop John, Bishop of Burnley, implacably opposed
to women clergy, produced a report a few months ago about the future of the
Church of England. Declining numbers of stipendiary clergy, closure of churches
and merging of parishes, dependence on lay ministry: all the usual
sanctimonious guff. How can the same
head hold such violently opposing views, or was he just doing what he was told?
His flock are entitled to be told. Heavens above, we’ve managed to incorporate
Darwinism into mainstream (as opposed to loony) Christianity despite the
diehards and flat-earthers, but it seems we can’t accommodate half of the human
population, the ones without penises. It’s against Scripture, see?
A new argument (at least one I hadn’t heard before) was
introduced into the debate a few days ago. Apparently God didn’t create the
sexes equal, but complementary. Now this is a very dodgy argument indeed,
because not only does it wrench theology out of the New Testament and slap it
back into Genesis and myth, but it tends to confuse somewhat the ethical – and
linguistic – arguments for and against same-sex ‘marriages.’ The Church today
lost its way in that argument. Actually it’s far worse than that: the Church
lost something else today – the plot.
And today is the first time in my life when I am ashamed to
be a member of the church I was brought up
in
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