In a transparently obvious plot to undermine Christopher Johnson's
other blog, the CofE is considering
a measure that would end ALL requirements with regards clerical attire. Yes, that includes vestments of any kind. The new rule would be come as you are and wear what you like.
Anglo-Catholics taught me pre-conciliar Catholic practices when the American Catholic Church wanted nothing to do with them, so thanks, but macht nichts to me if this goes through. Just as well if it does. The "Reformation" again. I wouldn't be surprised if this is coming from the Church of England's remaining conservatives, the Evangelicals. It's part of their heritage. For centuries the required vestments in the C of E were only the medieval choir dress, cassock, surplice, and scarf, which I think the Puritans objected to. Anglican liberals used to be low-church, thinking ritual was papist mumbo-jumbo, but have been high-church for a few decades, for a number of reasons, such as Sixties hippie shamanism and then-fashionable ecumenism which made it cool to look Catholic when they thought the Catholic Church was liberalizing, becoming more like them. So you won't see the Archbishop of Canterbury doing royal weddings in a suit and tie, for what it's worth. Few English people go to church.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is an excellent idea for it more exactly bespeaks to the theological trends with the CofE.
ReplyDeleteNext up, a partnership with the plethora of nudist churches that pop up in a Google search - the ultimate come-as-you-are?
ReplyDeleteI foresee the Church of England disintegrating. So, I believe, did Aldous Huxley.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, I can't help reading this through the lens of Fr. Stephen Freeman's "The Sin of Democracy." (http://glory2godforallthings.com/2013/12/27/the-sin-of-democracy/)
ReplyDelete