"Why I belong to the Church of England"

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 11, Issue 9, 1 August 1945, Page 1

"Why I belong to the Church of England"

(Paper read to the Council of Christian Churches, Gisborne ,on June 25th by Canon A. F. Hall, vicar /of Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne.)

Let me say m the beginning that membership m any church, is in -the beginning due to two facts — geography and education. I mean this, that if you or I had been born m Spain we would probably have been Roman Catholics — if m the North of Ireland or Scotland, Presbyterians— if m America, well, there would be many choices, from the Mormons at Utah, to the Holy Rollers of wherever it is. Education also. bears a large share m our church membership. If ■ our parents belonged to a certain church and we were sent to their church for our early training, then we would naturally think that that particular church was the one and only, a»d that all others were heretical and unorthodox. We have only to look at the Seventh Day Adventists to see that. So that membership m any one church m the beginning is not our fault. It may be our misfortune, but m the early years of our life, cannot be altered. Early Impressions. Also, let me say this, that those early impressions are usually permanent, and that it is a common experience among clergy that few people change their membership of their church through theological conviction; of course, there are many exceptions, and often much capital is made out of these conversions for propaganda and bolstering up purposes, but the most common cause

of changing churches is to be found through, marriage, injured pride, or neglect by the original church officials. Having thug cleared the way, let me revert to the title of my address. There is no defence of the Church of England. She needs no defence and is able to stand on her own feet without fear or favour. I belong to the Church of England because I believe that she is the English of the original Catholic Church that Jesus Christ founded and which began at Jerusalem. She has had a chequered career and her shores are strewn with wreckage, but she has never lost her identity or her Catholicity. Originally we know that there was only one church, and that the early missionaries founded branches of that one church m the different places they visited. These churches were only divided by geography and not by doctrine. Gradually ' the chief centre of trade and civilisation and learning, the city of Rome, became the headquarters of the church, but. long before this, within 200 years of the Day of Pentecost, and probably long before that, the Christian Church was brought to England, possibly by Joseph of Aramathea, or by one of the early fathers, and there were Churches, Bishops, Priests and Deacons and a flourishing church for 400 years before St. Augustine landed m Kent.

But when he did come, he found that the invasion of the Danes had driven the church into the fastnesses of Wales and Cornwall and that England was populated by people who were not Christian, and so, with the help of missionaries from the Northern Islands of lona and Lindisfarne, he was instrumental m reconverting England to Christianity, during which time the original members of the church m England emerged from the west and united themselves with the others, so that there was again THE Church IN England. Augustine was always anxious that the church, of which he was the leader, .should retain its national independence and . characteristics, though she naturally looked to Rome as the titular authority and as being the senior branch and headquarters of the Christian Church. However, during the next 1100 years that authority became more and more dictatorial . and domineering, apart from differences m and accretions to the original doctrines of the early church. The Mind of the Early Church Various efforts to abate these de~ mands, both theological and financial, were made by the church m England, and dissatisfaction became more and more intense, until, spurred by the example of the Continental Reformation, the church used the dispute between the Bishop of Rome and King Henry VIII to

enforce her wishes and to proceed to re-form herself back to what she believed to be more the mind of the early church and of Jesus Christ Himself. She demanded financial independence and national independence—freedom to govern herself and to manage her own affairs — freedom to have the liturgy m her own language, and also the Bible — freedom to choose her own Bishops from among her own members, and the right to abandon such, growths of doctrine that she did not consider were either necessary or true. She never at any time wished to cease to be ari integral part of the original Catholic Church, nor to offer to her senior branch, Rome, such respect as was due to her, but she refused to be tied and bound by the

CANON HALL Italian .Branch of the Church at Ahe expense of her own. National development. In spite of hoarse protests and rumblings from Rome, she persisted m her aims, and it is a matter of history that the Roman branch' of the church made, the break from what they considered their erring daughter and not vice versa. The church m England refused to be tied to the apron strings of Rome, as she was old enough to leave home and to develop along it's own lines, but she was still the daughter and offered respect and veneration to her ancestors. I have taken some time about this, because it helps us to see what followed. It is a law of science that every action has an equal and; opposite reaction. It is also a known fact that if you pull a pendulum out of the vertical and let it go, it will swing over into the other direction,

past the original vertical position, and may go on swinging for some time, backwards and forwards, until the original straight position is attained again. . The Reformation This is what actually happened and is still happening. At the time of the Reformation there were many people who were fanatical zealots and who did not consider that the process had gone far enough. There were visitors such as Calvin and Zwingli, -fr,om the Continent, who urged greater reforms than the church m England was willing to accept, so we find the formation of different churches during the centuries that followed, each of them emphasising some particular form of doctrine which they considered vital, and each omitting something, either of doctrine or of management which they thought unnecessary. The formation of some of these bodies was also due to neglect on the part of the Church herself — she fell on evil days — she grew lazy and slack, she neglected her work, and so we had Evangelical revival, and later on, as a swing back of the pendulum, the Oxford movement, much of which, Thank God, is still with us. Throughout- the whole storm, counter-storm and the repercussions arising from each, the Church of England has never ceased to regard herself as a living part of the Catholic Church, keeping her government and administering her sacraments through bishops, priests and deacons, believing m the doctrine of Apostolic Succession — which means the transference of power through the laying on of hands, which succession has never been broken eyen through the days of the Reformation, m spite of Roman efforts to prove that it was (and these efforts failed). Not m the Prayer Book It is a fact that the word "Protestant" is not to be found m the Prayer Book of the Church. • The reason is that she has always regarded herself as Catholic (which mean universal), and only protestarit m that she protested against the Roman claim that she was no longer a member of the family from which she had sprung. She teaches the whole faith, she administers all the sacraments and she has kept her orders unbroken — she is the English branch of the Catholic Church of Christ, standing- midway between the claims of the Roman Branch of the Church, and those other churches which have weakened her by separating from! her. To this Church I belong — historically, I think; I could do nothing else, though, like you,

I long for the day when, not only m the eyes of Christ, but m the eyes of the world, we may all be one again and both East and West may live, so that the great High Priestly Prayer of our Lord may be answered. "That they may be one, as we are one."