Of Bishopesses...

Well the inevitable happened, the Church of England confirmed it's desire this past weekend to renounce Catholic praxis and teaching entirely. No more the fudge of classical Anglicanism of being both "Reformed and Catholic" instead, just "Protestant". The residual vestiges of its once Catholic past will remain, the use of titles like "Bishop," "Cathedral," "Priest," "Eucharist" etc, but devoid of all their original, contextual and historical etymology. The "period of reception" i.e. experimentation of women priests now over, General Synod has progressed to the next, perhaps logical stage, of consecrating women as bishops.

Naturally I genuinley feel for those who had "hoped beyond hope" that this decision by General Synod would not be taken. But, frankly, it was inevitable. Why? Simply because the Church of England has perceptibly grown more and more secularist in its ideas and agenda and has become less and less like a Church in its governing policies and structures. The bishop of Durham (who will relinquish his bishopric tomorrow) said today that, "the day the Church stops listening to God and follows the powers of this world is the day when the Church ceases to be Church!" His Lordship of course, has hit the proverbial nail squarely on the head.

The problem is and has been in the Church of England, that many (notably not all) Christians desirous to re-present Christianity anew to the present generation, believe that modern secular approaches to social and moral problems are the same or even better than a traditional Christian approach on the same issues. In their attempt to make churches less "staid" they adopt popular secularist and humanist ideaologies. So it was that during General Synod's deliberations, the "pro-lobby" appealed to the "law of the land" regarding equal rights, rather than Scripture or Apostolic Tradition!