The Church of England has only itself to blame for the problem. The clergy and bishops of the Church of England have not preached the Christian doctrines for ages because they didn’t really believe them to be true themselves. When I was a Church of England priest the majority of my colleagues were thoroughgoing modernists and many of them were default atheists or agnostics. The priest of my neighboring parish said languidly at a clergy meeting, “I wouldn’t presume to tell any of my parishioners what might be right for them spiritually…” In other words, its not just the people in the pews who don’t believe or behave like Christians anymore. Neither do the clergy.
The Church of England probably is on her last legs in her present incarnation, but churches grow and change and Anglicanism still has some juice. In Africa the Anglicans are strong and young and kicking. It’s just like the English to not see beyond their own snooty nose. Church of England dead? It won’t be long now. Anglicanism? It’s still going strong in some places.What’s the real solution? Not happy clappy services or more evangelical gimmicks.The only thing that will convert the world is beauty, and by beauty I don’t mean just pretty stuff. I’m talking about the real, intense, authentic beauty of the saints. I have seen sanctity and wow! It is beautiful. It is attractive. It is the deep beauty of sanctity and only the deep beauty of sanctity that will win converts. Only when they see human sexuality lived out in truth and beauty and in faithfulness to the church will they understand the church’s teaching on sex, and only when they see the doctrines of the church lived out in the lives of the saints will they be converted to believe in the doctrines of the church.