{The Wings of the Church}[4th December 1987]

[Redbook4:195-196][19871204:0100b]{The Wings of the Church}[4th December 1987]

19871204:0100

[continued]

The Times extracts* from Crockford's** preface provide information about some of the workings of the Church [of England]. I wonder whether the problem can be analysed in Circles terms:

		(+C†I~)
		Leadership (Staff)
(G~)	Anglo-Catholic	+	Evangelical	(M~)
		('Broad Church'?) Liberals?
		(A~)

(I am not certain of the relative left-right polarity but this does not matter here.)

+C†I~ holds the balance between Right and Left, M~ and G~, in theological and cosmological terms by being neutral as between them, attractive to both and unified with both, not by being diverse and distractive in influence – that is the function of A~.

If M~ and G~ were to be abandoned, and A~ promoted to the position of leadership (+C†I~), the swift result would be structural collapse, leading to A~ only – and the long result, I guess, would be nothing. Liberalism is not to be confused with Neutrality. (I cannot use the political term 'Centrism' because of the risk of theological*** confusion.)

If Canterbury and York really {↔} are excluding Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics from the effective leadership of the Church – the Episcopate – and promoting only Liberals (or 'Broad Church'**** adherents), Circles Analysis and common sense alike indicate that structural collapse will be the result – and in the end, nothing: unless the process of renewal can occur, from buried seeds within the Church.

*[The entire Times article containing the extracts is inserted loose in the ms at this point. See [Redbook4:205][19871210:2315]{Church Suicide}[10th December 1987].]

**[Crockford's Clerical Directory (1988, presumably).]

***[& Circle?]

****(in the narrow sense of 'Broad Church'!)

{↔} [Words originally the other way round.]

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