A Man For All Seasons

 Let’s move on to the establishment of the Church of England, with my most sincere apologies to all my Episcopalian and Anglican friends reading this.  While it is never easy to have someone criticize something you love, hopefully you’ll hear the heart of love that is intended.  

Whatever follows, I must say that there has been much good done by the Church of England: putting the Bible into and having services in English so that we could pray from our hearts, providing us with an eloquent and Biblically based prayer book (which will be its own post soon enough), the writing of some of the greatest music in the history of the world, and perhaps its greatest triumph, seeing slavery abolished in every country and territory in the Empire, a feat that was then replicated by nearly every civilized nation in the world.  England has produced some of the greatest theologians in history, from Thomas Cranmer to Nicky Gumbel.  

The Church of England began so King Henry VIII could get a divorce.  Henry had been declared the Defender of the Faith on October 11, 1521 by Pope Leo X.  The title was conferred in recognition of Henry's book Defense of the Seven Sacraments, which defended the sacramental nature of marriage and the supremacy of the pope. This was also known as the "Henrician Affirmation" and was seen as an important opposition to the early stages of the Protestant Reformation, especially the ideas of Martin Luther (isn’t it ironic?  Don’t you think?).  

The Oscar-winning film, A Man For All Seasons, is an excellent portrayal of the founding of the Church of England.  As Henry broke from the Catholic Church (1530), Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor rather than compromise his integrity.  More refused to take an oath recognizing the King as head of the Church leading to his arrest, imprisonment and interrogation.  More was convicted and executed only when a former acquaintance perjured himself.

The Church of England is so very close in liturgy and practice that it inherited many of the same weaknesses the Catholic Church has: the grand buildings that need to be kept up, the politics of its priests, bishops and its king, the corruption and scandal that so often come at the expense of the laity.

But more than perhaps any other nation, England has used “For God, King and Country” as an inspiration to countless wars and to the foundation of its Empire that encompassed one quarter of the earth.  And while England led the crusade against slavery, it is also responsible for the second-most Africans sold into slavery.  African slaves taken by each nation 1501-1866| Statista.  These two errors, I believe are what Revelation 13:10 may be referring to:  

“‘If anyone is to go into captivity,

    into captivity they will go.

If anyone kills with the sword,

    with the sword they will be killed.’ 

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.”

The result of this bad foundation: as of 2024, only 12% of people in England attend church regularly (however that is up from 8% in 2018 Faith Survey | Christianity in the UK).  This survey from 2015 predicted that church attendance in 2025 would be 4%, so I might suggest that the Truth is winning out.  It seems that a large percentage of this regrowth may be from “Messy Church”, a movement that started in 2004 with one church and now has over 2800.  It is difficult to find statistics on how many attend Messy Church.  Numbers range from 40 to 400 per church.  One article indicated over half of attendees were previously not attending church.  If you make some reasonable estimates, that could mean over 100,000 people each week, just in England.  The average attendance in the Church of England each week is about 700,000.  

However, it is difficult for any institution, nation or organization to build on a faulty foundation.  With 52% of its population identifying “none” as their religion, maybe Messy Church is actually moving the foundation entirely - away from politics, corruption and scandal, keeping all the best of English faith - the theology, the inspirational music and worshipping from the heart, in community, but returning to the type of church found in the Acts of the Apostles, only now with crayons.