Anglican Ordinations, Anglian Troubles

As one might expect, the clergy of the Church of England are a colourful bunch, no longer restricted to tweed-wearing public school boys or spare, second sons of minor gentry. We have the Reverend Canon Sarah Jones, 58, the first Anglican ‘priest’ to undergo a gender change before being ordained. Anglican parish ministry also benefits from the likes of Bingo Allison, 36, who is self-described as ‘gender-queer’ and ‘non-binary’, the Church of England's first such vicar (does not the phrase 'non-binary' indicate a new binary??). Doubtless, their respective bishops glow with pride at episcopal gatherings; having oversight of such characters demonstrates how open-minded and tolerant they are, the cardinal virtues of any Anglican prelate. If the state church is to be broadly representative of the population it serves, then such appointments might not take us by surprise.

Yet when Calvin Robinson applied for ordination last year, he was refused. Although the Bishop of London’s official line was that there were simply no available curacies, there is evidence that the bishops pored over his tweets, which are anti-woke, pro-life and supportive of traditional values. Consequently, he was rejected and applied to the Free Church of England, a more sensible denomination, which rightly accepted him.

The much discussed 2021 Census indicates that Christianity is now a minority religion in the UK and continues to shrink each decade. The Church of England leadership has been pandering to secular wisdom and woke values for decades, and see now the result. Instead of providing an evangelical witness in all of its 12.5k parishes, it supplies men, women and non-binaries, many of whom have as much spiritual life as an under-cooked jacket potato. The increasingly secular outlook enjoyed by many Britons is not because of conservative, evangelical faithfulness to the Bible, but liberals’ insipid doubts, denials and disavowals.