1. The extent of the Alliance
Read moreBut it was not just the process that concerned them -- The Alliance believe that introducing such services would "be part of a schismatic move which departs from the teaching received and upheld not only by the vast majority of the Anglican Communion (representing around 75% of the Anglican Communion's 80 million members), the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches but also the vast majority of other churches around the world".
Read moreYou say that your network is supported by more than 2,000 clergy within the Church of England but I see no real evidence that this is the case (and I note that the Catholic signatories seem not to have signed the latest letter).
Read moreAnd it has been damaging - it has been performative - the illusion of militancy which has been an expensive distraction from the hard yards, financial planning and time needed to develop an actual workable strategy and to earn extensive buy in to it. What is more, the credibility of the orthodox as genuinely capable of proportionate militant action has been repeatedly undermined by what has been little more than tub thumping.
Read moreWhat is proposed is clearly indicative of "a departure from the doctrine of the Church of England in an essential matter".
Read moreIt is also beow the 747,000 people the Church of England predicted would have attended weekly services in 2023 if there had been no pandemic.
However, the data suggests that while in 2021 all-age Sunday attendance was 22.3% below the projected pre-pandemic trend, by last year, the gap had narrowed to 6.7%
The statistics are based on a snapshot of data returned from over 11,000 churches.
Read moreWell obviously the majority will tell them to get lost, you might think. For why should an institution agree to such bifurcation?
One answer is that Anglicans have sort of gaslighted themselves into a funny approach to unity. If this bifurcation keeps the conservatives 'in the Church', then it's seen a good thing, a virtuous attempt to live with diversity, to preserve a sort of unity.
Read moreBut is the Church up to task? Well, not really. Although the C of E does have an internal democracy of a kind, the decisions on appointments of senior positions such as bishops are reserved for technocrats rather than the laity and the clergy. The result, unsurprisingly, is that the vested interests of the State and the elites within the Church tend to lead to appointments in their own image.
Read more"Campaigners had raised concerns about Bishop North's views on the ordination of women, which he has said is an area on which the Church of England should not be at variance with the wider Church (News, 15 September 2017).
"A submission by the campaign group Women and the Church (WATCH) centred on concerns about how having a bishop who does not ordain women could undermine clergy in the diocese and the diocesan bishop's function as a figure of unity..."
Read moreBecause of a lack of maintenance, a chunk of the east wall has fallen away. If anyone buys it there will be hundreds of thousands of pounds needed to shore up the crumbling masonry.
St. Wistan's isn't alone. Several of the churches around where I live in Leicestershire have already been decommissioned, or are in the process of being sold off. You can buy one here if you like.
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