Catholics have to be excited about the opportunity to take back England (or at least wrestle the Islamists for it). The experts ruining the Church of England have decided to drop the word “Church.” I imagine they will also have to drop the New Testament (not that they haven’t already). “Church” appears 117 times in the new book, a problem quickly resolved with a bit of editing, but that’s for later. The business of the day is getting out from under a dusty old, unmodern albatross that can’t begin to describe what it is they are doing.
I can’t disagree with that. It has been ages since the Church of England or its Episcopalian American equivalent has been focused on anything scriptural meaningful in a traditional sense, having surrendered to the culture war. Church is more like a weekly cocktail party. I’d say the only food and beverage at these social gatherings is the body and blood of Christ, but I’m not certain they still do that. And since there is not a whole lot of church in church, a reimagining was inevitable.
Dr. Foulger suggested that the Church of England might be moving away from using the word “church” as part of a cultural rejuvenation.
He said that the word “church” was not comprehensive enough “to describe what it is that these dioceses have been starting,” adding that the phrase “new things” might be more appropriate.
My Uncle was an Episcopalian bishop. I was raised catholic but jumped ship for the Baptists the first chance I got (they were more fun and had food after). No one ever suggested a need to separate Church from Church. The social part came after, but my guess is that attendance issues are hurting the collection plate revenue, so someone in Ministry of Marketing said, I have an idea to get more butts in the seats. Let’s not call it Church. And so it was unwritten. And why not? You can celebrate anywhere, and they do. In parks, on walks, in homes, or wherever people can congregate to share The Word. But the original Greek word means congregation or assembly.
You’re still doing church, even without the word (is the building still a church?), so who is fooling who, especially since the reporting suggests that they intend to call it The Church of England. THat’s ambitious. A few years from now, it is likely to be a Mosque so perhaps this is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Unless the Catholics want to try something. Take back what King Herny took all those years ago.
Seems more like they’d follow the Not a Church of England at least in England.
