Church
Anglicans

Little by Little
By focusing on the institutional crisis, the media paint a picture of the Church of England in decline, but they do not take into account the experiences of living faith that are flourishing. We spoke with some protagonists of the Anglican world, to get the current facts, from the new leader to relationships with Catholics.

by Luca Fiore

“Who are you and why do you request entry?” “I am Justin, a servant of Jesus Christ.” This past April 13th, Justin Welby, the new Anglican Primate of all England, was solemnly enthroned in Canterbury Cathedral. The ancient rite required him to knock three times on the door with his crosier and answer the question put by a member of the faithful. It was only two days after Pope Francis’ Inauguration Mass, and the words he had pronounced in St. Peter’s Square rang out beneath the gothic vaulting in the church that is the heart of the Anglican Communion. “In humility and simplicity Pope Francis called us on Tuesday to be protectors of each other–of the natural world, of the poor and the vulnerable,” said the Archbishop during the sermon he gave from the throne that was that of St. Augustine of Canterbury. “Let us hear Christ who calls to us and says ‘Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.’”

A rentless Church.“Take heart.” How much of this is needed today to take the reins of a suffering and restless church like the Church of England! Justin Welby, 57, was a surprise appointment last November 9th. Few people knew him, since he had been Bishop of Durham for only a year. The task of leading the Church of England had taken its toll on even Rowan Williams, considered one of the most refined minds in the Anglo-Saxon world. He resigned, admitting that he had not succeeded in mending the internal divisions in the Church.
The statistics emphasized by the press paint a sorry picture of the Church of England. Out of 63 million Britons, 26 million profess their belonging to the Anglican Church, and of these only 7% attend the parish at least once a month. Although it is the national Church, the voice of the Anglican bishops goes unheeded by Parliament, which is moving rapidly toward the approval of marriage between homosexuals.
What discouraged Williams, though, was not only the declining numbers or the social irrelevance. His resignation was announced on March 16th, a few days after the failure of an agreement to prevent the communities of the Anglican Communion deciding liturgical and doctrinal changes without a general consultation. This had been a last attempt to preserve a minimum level of unity. Today there is no longer consultation between the two historical currents, the so-called Anglo-Catholics (High Church) and the Evangelicals (Low Church), or with the African Anglicans and the Episcopalian Churches of the United States. For the latter have already begun to consecrate women and gay bishops, something unacceptable for the culture that permeates the African communities. Many see a schism around the corner.
Yet the media, and often the Church leadership, fail to see a deeper movement within the body of the Church–currents far removed from the doctrinal quarrels between High and Low Churches–among people who live an experience of authentic, sincere faith, beyond the difficulties and contradictions.

Flourishing and vigorous.“The Church’s decline is exaggerated by the media,” explains John Milbank, Professor of Theology at Nottingham University and founder of the Anglican movement Radical Orthodoxy. He is sitting at a table in the Clown Café, a few yards from Jesus College (Cambridge), amid the bustle of busy waiters and customers. Outside, a light rain is falling. “The problem isn’t the numbers, but rather that the Church is growing in some areas and not in others. Often communities linked to cathedrals, for example, are amazingly flourishing.” Facing Milbank sits Andrew Davison, his former student and today a lecturer at Westcott House, Cambridge, one of the seven Anglican theological colleges in Great Britain. “In the 20,000 English parishes, the Church is doing an extraordinary job. Theological life is more vigorous than it has been for centuries. There are many witnesses and stories of faith.” Davison recalls a Hindu family he met when he was a curate in the parish in South-West London: “They came to me asking for economic help. They all eventually converted and became one of the most faithful families in the community.”

Boy sopranos. “The problem is that today society subdivides the needy into categories,” Milbank continues. “There are the unemployed, the handicapped, and the sick. If your need is outside these categories, it’s as if you don’t exist. The Christian community, today, is the only place where people are looked at in their global need.” The Church’s social role through works of charity and through schools is, according to Milbank, acknowledged by everyone, even by politicians. “Another sign of recovery is attention and care for the liturgy,” Davison explains. “The high quality of the choirs, the attention for the furnishings, the recovery of the Anglican tradition for bell-ringing, are all signs of a deeper understanding of what the Church is.” You just have to hear the boy sopranos of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, to understand that the rediscovery of tradition is moved by genuine faith. The notes of Allegri’s Miserere send shivers down your spine.
So after all, something is happening, yet few people notice. “The Church is looked at according to the models taken from politics–conservatives and progressives,” explains John Hughes, the young Dean of Jesus College. “Instead of using faith as a criterion, even Christians have begun to think in these terms. And instead of declining, the problems increase.”
“Today, in the Church, the liberals say that we have to be relevant to society, while conservatives ask for orthodoxy to be preserved,” says Milbank, “but the challenge is that the two have to be kept together.” Davison does not hide the problems under the carpet and, over the past years, at the academic level, he has re-proposed the problem of Church identity, promoting conventions entitled “Returning to the Church.” As an Anglo-Catholic–his wife Alison is a parish priest in Nottingham–John Milbank is promoting the rediscovery of the Catholic roots of the English Church. As the Oxford Movement did in the 19th century, Radical Orthodoxy believes in a return not only and not so much to tradition, but to the heart of the experience of the Church understood as an experience of genuine faith (see Traces , Vol. 10, No. 2, 2010, p. 21). This is the root of his interest in the work of Fr. Giussani, the friendship with the Rimini Meeting, and the birth of a small School of Community attended by Anglican and Catholic friends of Oxford, Cambridge, and Nottingham. “The importance of Catholic movements, like CL and Focolare, is that they show the difference that Christianity brings into life,” Milbank goes on. “England can learn a lot from this attitude. After all, even here the best things are born from this kind of witness.”

A dinner invitation. “Many people have left the Church, it’s true, but they still feel an emptiness inside. There is an immense spiritual hunger,” says the Reverend Nicky Gumbel, the developer of the Alpha Course, a course of first evangelization attended all over the world by 20 million people in the past 20 years. “The Alpha Course is mainly meant for those who don’t attend church, people who would not define themselves as Christians. It is a way in which an opportunity is offered to ask about the meaning of life.” Gumbel is sitting in the study of his house in central London, just behind Brompton Trinity Church in Knightsbridge. The walls are covered with books. He sips a cup of tea with his legs crossed. “There is a meal, a discussion, a coffee, and small groups where people can talk. This is the standard session. We explain who Jesus is, why He died, what the Holy Spirit is, what it means to pray... all that Christians have in common. Our method is even used by Catholics and Orthodox.”
The courses designed by Gumbel, a Low Church Evangelical, are considered a success even outside the Anglican Church, so much so that a presentation of it was made at the last Synod for the New Evangelization in Rome. “The average age of those who follow the course is 26; 65% are between the ages of 18 and 35. Why do they work? I don’t know, but I think the form of dinner and hospitality are aspects very linked to the Gospel. Then there are simple discussions tied up with people’s lives. We speak of Jesus, and everyone can understand.” Darrel Tunningley knows this well. He grew up in a degraded area of Leeds, and the Alpha followed him in prison. He ended up in jail at the age of 17 for taking part in an armed robbery. “If I wasn’t the Antichrist, there wasn’t much in it.” He jokes about it today, now that he has become a pastor in an Evangelical church. Ayuko, a Japanese Buddhist, came to London to study to become an interpreter. She wanted to specialize in translations for art. But Western art has a lot to do with Christianity–of which she knew nothing–so she was advised to follow the Alpha Course. There she found not only what Christianity is, but that it is something for her.

A toast and Newman. The second lesson of the Alpha Course is entitled, “Who is Jesus?” But who is Christ for Nicky Gumbel? What changed in his life? “My encounter with Him happened by reading the Gospel. From then I changed direction. My relationship with God has become my number one priority. It affected my relationships, my ambitions, my objectives,” he explains. “It transformed everything–my marriage, the relationship with my children... life. Jesus brings life to its fullness.”
It seems paradoxical, but that’s how it is. An obvious crisis in the Church’s institutions (the latest example is the dispute that led to the failure of the agreement over the pastoral application of the appointment of women bishops) is going hand-in-hand with experiences of lively faith, sincerely interested in what generates the Church–Christ.
It is only in this perspective that the steps forward made over these years in the relationship between Anglicans and Catholics, and the feeling of sympathy between Joseph Ratzinger and Rowan Williams yesterday and between Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Justin Welby today can be grasped. Williams was the first Archbishop of Canterbury since the time of Henry VIII to attend the funeral of a Pope and the installation of his successor, and the first to be invited to speak at a Synod of Catholic Bishops. Now the new Primate quotes the Pope in such a solemn context...
But will Welby and Pope Francis be able to take further steps in the relationship between the two Churches? “Given Cardinal Bergoglio’s declaration over the Falklands-Malvinas, and the Protestant tendencies in Welby’s thought, the premises are not that good,” observes Professor Milbank. “All the same, Welby’s spiritual director is a Catholic and he himself has always expressed admiration of the Roman Church’s Social Doctrine. On the other hand, Pope Francis’ emphasis on the evangelical virtues and prayer can echo well among Anglicans, too. Then, both of them show they are able to conciliate ability to govern with defense of the great principles–two aspects that could help Christians to find their direction in troubled waters. And let’s not forget, their predecessors are still in circulation, able to think and offer advice.”
One thing is certain: nothing will be as it was before. We have never seen two Popes embrace each other. And what the new Archbishop Welby did at the reception after his enthronement in Canterbury has never been done before: first, he toasted the Queen, and then, the Pope. What would Blessed John Henry Newman have said?