Enthusiastic reviews and an arresting title caused me to open this book with a certain expectation. At the end I felt challenged to offer an alternative narrative. As a piece of journalism it is an easy and enjoyable read. It is full of gossipy news and wry comments which do much to illuminate the history of parts of the Church of England in the past three decades. But it seems to me that it does not bear the weight of the authors' conclusions.
They begin with a report of a conference at St George's House, Windsor Castle, in 1986 in which an elite group discussed the state of the Church of England then under the leadership of Robert Runcie. Things were not going well; the liberal views of Archbishop John Hapgood and Bishop David Jenkins were brushed aside. The focus was on the possibility of reunion with Rome and the problem of the campaign for women's ordination to the priesthood.
In the following chapters we have detailed descriptions of the weaknesses and mistakes of George Carey and Rowan Williams, in which the Church of England appeared to stumble from one disastrous decision to another all under the leadership of these two Archbishops of Canterbury. The impossibility of any reconciliation on sexuality, the ineffectiveness of the General Synod, the panicky formation of the Archbishop's Council, the rejection of Jeffrey John as a bishop, and so on, all resulted, they claim, in the widespread collapse of attendance at church throughout the land and the total loss of the status and power of the Established Church. The appointment of Justin Welby as Archbishop is damned with faint praise; we are meant to think that this is a case of 'too little too late'.
The authors' case that the history of the last three decades proves that the Church has lost the English People is problematic. In fact never since the 16th century has the Established Church been fully the religion of the English people, and since the 17th century it has not even attracted a majority of the English people. A longer view shows that there have been many times in the past when the moral failure and corrupt leadership of the church makes the last few decades look like a Vicarage tea party. While they make much of the decline in numbers attending services in England, they give little attention to the increase in numbers in all the Cathedrals, in the Diocese of London, and elsewhere, nor to the fact that this decline is shared by most Christian denominations in the West, many with very different historical experiences from the Established Church.
An alternative narrative is not hard to tell. Throughout history the Christian Church shows the capacity to reinvent itself in every age. The present time may be another period of reinvention. The expression and form of Anglican Christianity which emerged in England in the religious and political turmoil of the 16th century, is a brand which has travelled over the world and thrived in all sorts of cultures and races. Catholic in its sacramental system and episcopal governance, but strangely relaxed and tolerant in its imposition of doctrine. That is because of the legacy and tradition of the Elizabethan Settlement, in which Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) attempted to unite the Christians of England by providing a new prayer book in 1559, and by saying that she did not want to 'open windows into men's souls'.
The Church of England is capable of holding together Christians of many kinds. Anglo-Catholics, Evangelicals, liberals and conservatives, all have found it possible to live together in the Anglican Communion of Churches throughout the world, not without some serious conflict and healthy theological disagreement. Maybe the future of the Church of England is not so doubtful. It is a going concern with some excellent examples of success. It encourages and sustains important new experiments in mission and evangelism, some of which look like succeeding. By comparison with many other denominations in England it is strong, although by comparison with provinces of the Anglican Communion around the world it is weak in numbers. Nevertheless, the Church of England remains strong in energy and zeal for the Gospel and its voice is still being heard.
David Lee is a retired cleric of the Church in Wales and an occasional contributor to Sofia.