The Church of England has serious problems. Within the worldwide Anglican communion it is being increasingly sidelined and at home it faces internal disintegration with accelerating tensions between incompatible theological streams.

Credal beliefs

There are no pure denominations where everyone holds fast to the ideological purity of the credal documents. Outliers always exist, and how a denomination reacts to those with divergent understandings of the gospel tells us much about its health and strength.

The Roman Catholic Church contains a mixture of different understandings of doctrine. Among others, it includes Tridentine traditionalists, charismatics, liberation theologians, liberal modernists and even a few Savonarola-like neo-puritans. The Church holds together because they adhere to an ideological core, the centrality of the Church epitomised by the Pope. Many Catholics have little time for Francis, the present Pope, but they do hold to what the papacy represents.

What were once theological outliers are now central within the denomination and today the outliers in the CofE are those evangelicals who cling to orthodox theology.

We have to question what understanding most priests within the Church of England have of the theology of the 'Thirty-nine Articles', the closest thing the denomination has to a credal document. The 'Thirty-nine Articles' are commonly treated, much as the Westminster Confession of Faith is treated in the Church of Scotland, as a symbolic but largely irrelevant historical document. As a result what were once theological outliers are now central within the denomination and today the outliers in the CofE are those evangelicals who cling to orthodox theology.

Queer, trans archdeacon

Last week two events illustrated how difficult it is becoming for evangelicals to maintain their place in the CofE.

The Revd Canon Dr Rachel Mann was appointed by the Bishop of Manchester to be Archdeacon of Bolton and Salford, and is now believed to be the most senior transgender member of the clergy within the Church. Dr Mann’s appointment highlights the tensions within the CofE because at the same time the diocese of Manchester appointed as suffragan bishop of Bolton Dr Matthew Porter, who is an evangelical.

Born male, Dr Mann changed gender to female and is now a self-described lesbian and a ‘feminist and queer writer’. She is a long-time progressive activist seeking to ‘ground my work in my own story and experience, producing liturgy that seeks to be critical of patriarchy and liberative for both men and women’.

Dr Mann’s appointment highlights the tensions within the CofE because at the same time the diocese of Manchester appointed as suffragan bishop of Bolton Dr Matthew Porter, who is an evangelical.

The new archdeacon sees her theological mission as to ‘open up more satisfying ways for all – male and female, black and white, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered – to worship God’.

Chuckling, wise female God

Mann claims that her ‘work as a theologian has primarily been focused on feminist/queer liturgical theology and practice’. A ‘Prayer of Approach’ she has written shows that she has been true to her mission:

Holy God, chuckling wise woman, tender and strange, we bless you.
Bless us, trouble us, bewitch us into delight in your love, mercy and grace.
Christ our sister, unite us in your holy bleeding.
As you took spit and dust for healing,
take our hands, cracked and huge as washerwomen’s, for God’s work.
Take our sacred bodies for the healing of the world.
Birth-Spirit, as you coursed in intimacy through the veins
of Eve and Adam, Hagar and Abraham, Deborah and Lappidoth, Naomi and Ruth,
be the pulse of our lives. Desire us with your desire.

Evangelical appointment

Dr Matthew Porter, Bishop-designate of Bolton, who describes himself as a Bible-centred Christian, passionate in sharing the good news of Christ, said: ‘I am very much looking forward to ministering with Rachel as we seek to grow Christ’s Church, nurture disciples, and serve the people God has called us among.’

The ceremony had all the trappings of a doomsday cult and nothing of the gospel of Christ Jesus for and in whom the creation came into being and over which he has the supremacy.

As so often happens, when evangelicals are promoted to higher office in Protestant denominations they quickly lose their clarity about the teaching of Scripture. Often, from a laudable wish to maintain the unity of the Church, they hold their tongues. Sadly, by doing so they enable the outliers to take a grip of the denomination. Meanwhile, evangelicals looking for clear biblical leadership are left to question their future within the denomination.

CofE pantheism

Also last week, Bristol Cathedral hosted a multi (non) faith ceremony centred on the ideology of Extinction Rebellion. The ceremony included white-faced figures vested in red robes leading a procession of worshippers around the cathedral with liturgical chanting, decrying the evils of industry and worshipping creation. The ceremony had all the trappings of a doomsday cult and nothing of the gospel of Christ Jesus for and in whom the creation came into being and over which he has the supremacy (Colossians 1).

Care for the environment is part of the creation mandate in Genesis 1:28-2:15 but what was witnessed in Bristol was not God-driven but close to pantheism, the belief that the universe is identical with a supreme being. Whatever was being worshipped in Bristol cathedral was not the God who reveals himself in Scripture. And yet it went ahead without demur from the Church hierarchy.

Whatever was being worshipped in Bristol cathedral was not the God who reveals himself in Scripture.

Near breaking point

The Church of England is in the midst of an identity crisis, utterly unsure of what it believes or what gospel it should teach. When a denomination has no clear understanding of its core beliefs, it will find members believing in anything.

The internal divisions within the CofE are reaching breaking point. Is it possible to hold together a Church which welcomes mini golf and a helter skelter within a cathedral, and which promotes transgender lesbians who write that the angel didn’t want Mary to be obedient and that she regretted giving birth to Christ?

It is difficult to see how the eventual disruption of the Church of England can be prevented.