Is the Church of England still a "National Church"?

There were two items that crossed my figurative desk today, one in the news, and one in the Anglican church building we rent for Mass occasionally since one of the local churches shut.

The late Cardinal Mindszenty, one-time Archbishop and last Prince Primate of Hungary, known for his long imprisonment in the cruellest secret underground prisons of both the Nazis and the Communists, used to say, "I desire to be the conscience of my people". Certainly a very noble idea; and one that, I should think, isn't very far from the original self-understanding of Anglicanism. It still boldly proclaims: "A Christian presence in every community".

At vicar-school back in the day the "established nature of the Church of England" was presented as this amazing missional opportunity because we were supposed to be the go-to Church for the nation; which gave us such a unique opportunity for "good". (Sadly, nobody defined what "good" should be). And then of course there are the Lords Spiritual who are, supposedly, such a great witness to Christianity in public life! What a tragedy it would be not to have them! Etc etc etc.

Whether these were indeed true at some point, I don't know -- but that it is no longer the case, I am certain about. The Church of England did not wait for its legal disestablishment in England to take place; rather, it went ahead and disestablished itself from the nation's soul. So two cases in point:

The Scandal

The news-item that really scandalised me was this:

=> British Man Convicted of Criminal Charges for Praying Silently Near Abortion Clinic

An excerpt:

This month, a British man was convicted of criminal charges for praying silently near an abortion clinic. The man, Adam Smith-Connor did not attempt to harass, intimidate, or interact in any way with those entering the clinic. Instead, he wordlessly prayed with his head bowed slightly. He wasn't even on clinic property—he was outside the sightline of the clinic itself, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a religious freedom group.

As a result, Smith-Connor was questioned by police and later charged with violating a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), a broad censorship order enabled by the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.

I do not wish to descend into a lengthy discussion of the above, suffice to say, I find this deeply unjust, no, blood-boiling.

And for allowing such laws to be in force in England I truly think we should be holding the Church of England accountable. They are the ones who are supposed to be that "voice of conscience" -- after all that is what the Lords Spiritual are for -- and that they have not protested and protested such laws is a failure that is costing people their freedom. I truly hope that this ruling will be overturned, and that it will eventually show up how preposterous this law is: you can get arrested for doing nothing and saying nothing.

I am not going to try to convince anyone in this post about the deep cutting moral issues around abortion, but I would like to ask the reader to try to understand the point-of-view of those who cannot be in its favour. Mentally, substitute for a moment the opposition to abortion with opposition to slavery. People who are against abortion would see it in very similar moral terms, and thus in conscience it will never be a "private affair" because it impacts on the lives of others and on society as a whole. "If you don't like abortions, well, then don't get one" sounds, to those opposing it, as if one said, "If you don't like slavery, well, then don't keep slaves." Just as nobody wishes to live in a society where slavery is accepted common practice, the same way those attending such prayer vigils wish to act in quiet ways against a perceived injustice.

In its offifical documents, the Church of England still classifies abortion as a "great moral evil":

"In the light of our conviction that the foetus has the right to live and develop as a member of the human family, we see abortion, the termination of that life by the act of man, as a great moral evil.

They chose to re-phrase the word "mortal sin" because the CofE does not really believe in such categories, but I don't know what else "great moral evil" can mean.

So surely, if this REMAINS the official stance of the CofE, which remains the "Established Church", surely the failure of Archbishops and Lords Spiritual to stop such laws to be passed, is, in the least, a failure of its mission?

But I think it is not just a failure, it is an outright forsaking of responsibility -- and a responsibility that they took on themselves (!) ever since they hoped to seize the role of moral guidance from the Apostolic See. It would be a failure if they had protested it and it still passed; but that they technically allowed it to pass unchallenged is truly pitiful.

That they chose to basically forfeit any moral or spiritual responsibility, that they opted to disregard the "Cure of Souls" that they so proudly boast, was also obvious during the lockdowns. (And as I am once again wading into murky waters, let me immediately state that no, I am not a COVID-denier, or an anti-vaxxer, or anything such like).

During the lockdowns the House of Bishops decided to go way beyond what the emergency regulations required, practically, once again, forbidding clergy to pray in their churches -- even alone. That the law of the land that required a Service of Holy Communion on Sundays and daily public Morning and Evening prayer to be celebrated in all churches of parochial status were deliberately not suspended by the government out of concern for the freedom of religion, did not matter to them. You were not allowed to pray for the people you were charged to pray for.Bizarrely, you had to enter the church buildings for insurance purposes, but God spare you if you dared utter a prayer while searching for bat-droppings. Ecclesiastical Insurers are clearly more to be obeyed than God.

The government soon understood that, with the sorry state of the CofE, there is a vacuum; and they needed a rallying point that would keep the moral of the nation managable, if not particularly high. The role that the Church of England was designed to fulfil was very quickly voluntarily forfeited and handed over to the NHS. Instead of Litanies and Processions, instead of actually giving the Nation something that still kindof resonates deep down, we had the Thursday evening ritual of clapping on the doorstep in an effort to appease the Gods of Healthcare and to drive away the Demons of Rona.

And the retreat from relevance in public life is having its effects already, as some anecdotal evidence may suggest:

The Shock

As I mentioned above this morning I was celebrating Mass for one of the local village communities where, under an "ecumenical agreement", the Catholic parish, having had to demolish its building, uses the local Anglican church for Mass twice a week.

Every time I enter my heart breaks a little more -- the building is in such a neglected state that it makes me want to cry sometimes. The church building underwent significant renovation when the Catholic community moved in and brought with it the cash they got for the sale of the property they used to worship in. That was perhaps a decade ago -- by now, there are cockroaches in the "new" community hall upstairs; ivy has overgrown the windows; there are missing ceiling panels and black marks where badly wired lamps exploded. The sacristy is a tip, with photos and photocopied documents littered around the place from about 10 years ago. I once wanted to wash my hands in there and drying my hands on the towel in there they ended up dirtier than before. But hey, it has wifi!

Among the many random bits of paper left lying around the vestment press I stumbled upon a relatively recent one, an Order of Service for the Confirmation they had about one week ago. Why they chose this building to host it in, I wouldn't know. But they got one of their bishops to come and attempt to confer some sacraments on some young people. I flicked through the service sheet, and on page two, there was a list of names.

There were 13 names on the list. There was a listing of which parish each of the young people (?) came from. There were 7 parishes listed. On average, at most two people decided to want to become members of the Church of England this year in that area.

I browsed through the list of towns where the candidates came from, and that truly was the shocking part: they included some really big local cities, as well as a number of villages.

I added up the population of each town (which may or may not correspond to ecclesiastical parishes -- but in the case of villages it most certainly will), and the result was 124,000 people.

Out of 124,000 people the Church of England managed to "recruit" 13. And I have to use double quotes because it is an often observed dynamic that only a fraction of Confirmation candidates remain committed members of the parish community. There's even a joke about it:

"Reverend! What do we do about the bat infestation in the church belfrey?" "Oh, nothing is simpler: just confirm them all, and you will never see them again."

If I were a bishop in the CofE in this area, I would be, frankly, bricking it. It's 0.0001% of the local population. That is shocking. I knew it was bad but I hadn't realised it was this bad.

And no, there is nothing to be smug about for Catholics: our numbers may look better but we also have the same "retention" issue; or have had it in the past, at least. I was heartened by last year's confirmation candidates and the commitment they showed. They were a similar number, I recall about a dozen young people -- but not from 7 but 3 parishes; and those did not include some of the large cities that the Anglican candidates came from.

So is this still a "National Church"?

All this will be purely anecdotal, so please, do not see more into this than reasonable. But in light of these tendencies, I would like to ask, IS the CofE still a "National Church"? Its social impact is shockingly low -- and yes, we cold argue that the "reach" is greater and that the charitable works carried out are (of course) of great added value to society. But it is significantly failing the nation when it comes to moral guidance or frankly steering them towards the teachings of Christ. Confirmation numbers are a good measure for how many wish to take the Church of England seriously in their personal lives: and in that field we are only left to wonder.

I'm afraid that my own, private opinion of the CofE has gradually become that of St John Henry Newman: that in its essence the CofE is not a "church" but a national institution. I know that this sounds harsh -- it does; and it was very painful to arrive to this realisation. It cost me everything. But if it was simpy that, then perhaps they can be excused for not doing what a church ought to do. It would be a categorical error to expect it. But it would still be an institution that is failing the roles it cast for itself. It is hardly a "presence" in each community, numerically speaking, and as it has relinquished its role as the voice of conscience, I no longer see what the purpose of keeping it around as the "established church" might be.