….. In my chapter in God’s Church for God’s World, I make the case that the Church of England has – however imperfectly – conserved the Catholic canon of Scripture, confessed the Catholic creed, taken part in the Catholic conversation (the Great Tradition flowing from the Fathers through the Doctors of the Church), been guided by the Catholic conscience (upholding the univocal moral vision of the Christian tradition), respected the Catholic cultus (pattern of worship), preserved the Catholic connection (upholding the unity of the church through episcopacy), and ministered within the Catholic circumference (the visible church of all the baptised). The catholic and reformed ecclesiology and method of the English Reformers is a coherent and compelling vision for the Church that safeguards evangelicalism from the spiritual, theological, and missional narrowness to which it can be otherwise susceptible.
In the midst of the acrimonious debates that currently besiege the Church of England, some evangelical clergy and even whole church congregations are tempted to cut loose and join up with one of the small alternative Anglican denominations that have arisen in recent years to answer that perceived need (and a handful of ministers and congregations already have). In response, several reasons are often given for why evangelicals should persevere in the Church of England despite the challenges and compromises currently being faced. Most of the reasons commonly given are pragmatic – both financial and missional. But the ecclesiological argument for “sticking with it” is not made often enough among Anglican evangelicals, and it is this lacuna I have sought to supply. Evangelicals should remain in the Church of England for catholic reasons. The Church of England helps keep evangelicals Catholic, and evangelicals help keep the Catholic Church of England evangelical. If “Evangelexit” were to occur, it would inevitably be into churches that are less Catholic than the Church of England. That would be to the detriment of the spiritual health of the evangelical Anglican movement itself, and of the nation as a whole.
The Rev’d Dr Tom Woolford is a Church of England priest in the Diocese of Blackburn and the co-editor of God’s Church for God’s World: Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP. He has also contributed a chapter to the book, entitled, “Keeping evangelicals Catholic, and the Catholic church evangelical.’
Read it all in The Tablet
