A church in “inexorable decline”

Justin Welby is out as archbishop of Canterbury, effective Jan. 6. The archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has the unenviable role, according to The Guardian, of both carrying on the tasks associated with the vacant See of Canterbury and participating in the process of choosing the next person to preside as first among equals. For those who feel any inclination to hope, there isn’t much to go on. The Church of England is beset by financial troubles, heresy, and, worst of all, no particular sense of what the Church is for or why it exists at all.

With Welby soon out of the way, Cottrell is coming under scrutiny. When he served as the bishop of Chelmsford, a priest in that diocese ended up resigning after alleging that Cottrell told him he could “leave the church” if he wanted to hold to the orthodox Biblical view of human sexuality. John Parker, as governor of a Church of England school, objected to the school’s “capitulation to transgender ideology.” Cottrell denied the allegations but remains one of the most progressive figures in Anglican church politics. He is president of Affirming Catholicism, a group that is “inclusive” and promotes “love, friendship, and community … irrespective of sexual orientation.” In other words, the person closest to the process of choosing the next archbishop of Canterbury is one of the chief proponents of LGBTQ inclusivity in the Church of England, a movement of theological subversion that has captured the ecclesiastical heights.

And that is really the rub. Getting rid of Welby was reasonable, but the immense push toward progressivism will certainly continue apace. No Anglican in the world today would be surprised to wake up and find that a woman has been chosen to ascend to that august chair. It would be impossible for any cleric holding orthodox views on Scripture, sexuality, the divinity of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, and a Biblical definition of the word “love” to get through the Crown Nominations Commission, even accounting for the inclusion of “global representatives”—bishops from the fading remnants of the Anglican Communion.

Old, quaint arguments between various theological and liturgical factions are artifacts of a lost era. Evangelical or Anglo-Catholic, high church or low, none of these are relevant now. Conservatives within the church face a losing battle. For those who stay, their moral authority and witness to the truth is heroic.

Those who have left the Church of England but maintain Anglican connections are gathered together with all of Europe and have only two bishops, Andy Lines and Gideon Ilechukwu, commissioned by Gafcon (Global Anglican Futures Conference). These congregations labor with little cultural support and very little money. Preaching the gospel amid immense spiritual darkness, Gafcon’s Anglican Mission in Europe represents real kingdom diversity and radical sacrifice for the sake of Jesus.

The Guardian describes the Church of England as being in “inexorable decline.” It isn’t that there aren’t Christians in England who go to church, they just don’t go to Church of England churches. There isn’t any reason to. Unless you want to hear about the faith, practice, and mission of lowering carbon emissions to net zero by 2030, be invited to a “Rave in the Nave,” or participate in “Messy Church,” which most people, even progressives, are not keen to do, you can easily find something else to do on a Sunday morning.

The Church of England is irrelevant, and the next archbishop will likely be worse than the last. I hope I am wrong, but I don’t have the smallest hope. It is a horrifying shame such a mighty and faithful Church that once brought the gospel into every corner of the globe, a church that transformed the worship of God into something of unutterable beauty, that produced the Book of Common Prayer, that built Canterbury Cathedral should fall into such disrepute. And yet, as the prayer book says, “In the midst of life we are in death; of whom may we seek for help, but you, O Lord, who for our sins are justly displeased?”

It is a divine irony that England’s former colonies must now step in and evangelize the lost of England. To find real Anglicans, you must go to Rwanda, New Zealand, Pakistan, upstate New York, and storefronts in Oxford, Manchester, and London. If you happen to stop by Lambeth Palace, take a picture, for it is only an artifact of another age.