Lucy Sixsmith ViaMedia.News When the Music Fades: the Soul Survivor Generation
Mark Clavier Well-Tempered Formed for Faithfulness (9): Learning to Pray Again
Martin Sewell Surviving Church Persistent and Vexatious – Pursuing Justice in the Church of England
Gerry Lynch The Critic Schrödinger’s schism
Whilst one greatly respects Martin Sewell’s sterling work on behalf of survivors, sadly, some of the comments so far to his article on Surviving Church are wide of the mark and have misunderstood the legal issues. For a balanced and authoritative explanation of what has happened, I recommend the following article from Law and Religion by David Pocklington: https://lawandreligionuk.com/2026/03/12/complaint-against-archbishop-of-canterbury-dismissed/ It needs to be said that the President of Tribunals, Sir Stephen Males, is independent (the usual arguments that someone paid by the C of E cannot be independent doesn’t wash). By definition the President has to hold or have held… Read more »
Many thanks for this Rowland. When I have time, I will certainly look at the determination document rather than Martin’s summary as yes, you are absolutely right that there is a world of difference between a vexatious complaint and a vexatious litigant/complainant.
That having been said, if Survivor N’s complaint, and indeed their appeal, were genuine attempts to seek legal redress rather than submitted with the intention to harass any individual or individuals, to even label the complaint vexatious seems somewhat harsh (and arguably inappropriate) to me.
The circumstances of the complaint being vexatious will be readily apparent when the core material has been read.
Yes, you are correct in referring to ‘vexatious litigant’ (rather than ‘claimant’) in the secular legislation. As a matter of interest, the Church is introducing its own similar procedure in the CCM which replaces the CDM. I only have the CCM in its original draft form. It’s more flexible than the secular equivalent, and the President of Tribunals has the jurisdiction to make (and withdraw) a ‘restraint order’ against a ‘vexatious litigant’ (sections 30 and 31).
Rowland, in case you failed to notice it, there is a link to the President’s decision (redacted as published on the C of E website) at footnote [1] to Martin’s article. Also, Martin did not accuse the President of Tribunals of not being independent. . I would have posted the following comments on the L&RUK article but David Pocklington (DP) has, understandably, disabled comments on that post. With regard to the distinction highlighted by DP between a vexatious complaint and a vexatious complainant, readers will have noted that in his final paragraph Martin says ‘To have his complaint termed “vexatious”…’… Read more »
I suppose I should have expected this thunderstorm of complaints, and sadly from predictable sources. I was not commenting on Martin Sewell’s article, but the comments it had generated. I withdrew a comment I had made on ‘Surviving Church’ and, like you, discovered that David Pocklington had disabled comment on Law and Religion where I had simply intended to mention sections 30 and 31 of the CCM.
Further to my comment (above) I should have added that the Clergy Conduct Measure, recently given final approval for the second time by General Synod, after being amended to satisfy the concerns of the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament, contains, in sections 32 and 33, provisions that, once the Measure has received Royal Assent and has been brought into force, will enable a restraint order to be made against a vexatious litigant. Section 32(1) provides: “The respondent to a complaint, or a bishop or archbishop or the Investigation and Tribunals Team, may apply for a restraint order against the person specified… Read more »
An interesting coincidence that today, literally a day after these exchanges, Law and Religion have published an article about sections 30 and 31.
David, the chronology in this thread has become totally confused, also with people introducing side issues which were not mine to deal with. However you will see that I explained to Realist yesterday that the CCM would introduce restraining orders against vexatious litigants. Working from the original draft (as I pointed out) these were then sections 30 and 31 (I’m aware of the recent revisions reversing the default position of hearings being in private), and clearly they have been renumbeted.
Rowland, I’m not sure where “the chronology on this thread has become totally confused”, but what are now sections 32 and 33 had been so renumbered in the ‘Final drafting’ version of the Measure that was approved by Synod in February 2025 (available online on the CofE website as GS 2311B: General Synod February 2025 | The Church of England and go to the GS papers for Wednesday 12 February.) The L&RUK post this morning by David Pocklington is timely and a useful resource, giving the links to previous posts reporting earlier cases concerning ‘vexatious litigants’. As you will have… Read more »
It’s not only the church that is guilty of the misuse of process. The Medical Establishment is the same. Whistle-blowing is a career-ending move for most. The case of Dr Chris Day is just the most recent of many. There are often common features: “loss” of evidence, senior people perjuring themselves, closing ranks, acceptance by tribunals of the most bizzare things- so bizarre that one wonders if they have been “nobbled”. In Chris Day’s case a hospital administrator went in early one morning and deleted 20,000 emails pertinent to the case. They were then (the same day) “too ill” to… Read more »
Martin Sewell’s article is an interesting one. I would strongly suggest that the new President of Tribunals returns to his legal text books and looks up the definitions therein of a vexatious litigant. Exercising the right to appeal a decision with which one disagrees, with a genuine desire to seek legal redress, not simply harass other individuals, does not match any such definition. So unless there are things I don’t know about Survivor N’s history of initiating litigation that point to a pattern of harassment through litigation that is without merit, Sir Stephen is plainly wrong. If the Survivor had… Read more »
I think it’s sufficient to repeat that the President happens to be at the highest level below a member of the Supreme Court in our independent judiciary.
Does that make him infallible?
And with the greatest of respect to you, I would point out that status and deference to status are some of the things that have got the Church into the problems it is experiencing with safeguarding, as IICSA explicitly stated in its Report. Any Lord Justice of Appeal can be wrong, as can you, as can I, and organisationally, the longer a person occupies a very senior position and the less used they become to being open to challenge, the more likely that becomes. It also becomes more likely that they speak or label unwisely, not withstanding the immense care… Read more »
Rowland, Whilst the President may be a senior and respected judge, it is possible for even the most senior lawyer to make mistakes, or to be guided by prejudice. The story of Lord Lane and the Birmingham Six appeal provides evidence of that. It seems that he simply could not accept that the police would present manufactured evidence to the court, or if he held that the police had done so then the implications would be so troubling that he simply could not bring himself to make such a judgement. We now know better. Could you please help me with… Read more »
Re the Birmingham Six, similar sentiments to those of Lord Lane were expressed by Lord Denning MR when, prior to the convictions of the six men being quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991 (see the report at [1992] 2 All ER 417), they attempted to sue the police and the Home Office for damages in respect of injuries they alleged had been inflicted on them by the police when they were in custody following their arrest. In striking out their actions, Lord Denning said: “In their evidence [i.e. in their jury trial] they were guilty of gross perjury.… Read more »
Thank you David, for responding to my first point.
As Rowland Wateridge has chosen not to respond to my second paragraph, could some other legal expert please help me. If the complainant feels that the President is mistaken in this judgement is there an appeals process to challenge it, or is that the end of the matter?
Thank you.
Please read the President’s decisions and all will become clear.
Rowland, thank you. I have read the President’s decisions, and I understand the arguments he made, and therefore why he came to make the decision he did.
But that does not answer my question. If the complainant feels that the President is mistaken in his judgement at this stage of the process is there an appeals process to challenge it, or is that the end of the matter?
It seems to me that there has been a string of recent similar decisions where complaints never came to a “trial” because they were stopped at this stage.
I’m afraid you have totally misunderstood my contributions to this thread – others sidetracked the issue and have introduced unnecessary confusion. My original comment was solely concerned with the basis for the President holding a comment to be ‘vexatious’ – not the whole history of the case or why the President upheld the Archbishop of York’s findings. My view is that the comment was vexatious is unarguable. Others may correct me (with evidence, please) if I am wrong, but my understanding is that the President’s decisions are final and there is no possibility of appeal.
Rowland. I understand your position, but I was simply after some information from someone more legally knowledgeable than me.
You have now provided that in your final sentence. Thank you.
Bearing in mind the way that the President’s decisions can, it seems, stop a case dead in its tracks, and it has done a few times recently, it seems strange to me that such a decision is final with no possibility of appeal.
That is a comment made on the general process laid down, not necessarily on the particulars of this specific case.
Simon, while the CDM 2003 provides for a right of appeal (since 2014, with leave) to the Court of Arches or (in the Northern province) to the Chancery Court of York, against any finding of a disciplinary tribunal or the Vicar-General’s court (for an appeal by the Designated Officer—i.e. prosecutor—only on a question of law), there is no right of appeal provided in the Measure against an ‘interlocutory’ decision of the President of Tribunals (or his delegate or the Deputy President) under section 13 or section 17, or following an application to the President for a ruling under rule 102A… Read more »
David, thank you for your helpful response. I am sorry that Rowland struggled to understand my concern, which was nothing to do with vexatious litigants, but everything to do with the question of a process where a key decision is made by a single person, with no right of appeal and no method of putting the situation right if he or she makes a mistake. That seems to be both extraordinary and unacceptable. Even the most senior and experienced lawyer, or other professional, will make mistakes. Any process must surely be designed to allow for that, and to to put… Read more »
There is of course another way of looking at it regardless of the pedigree of those involved. Has justice been done in respect of survivor’N’, or indeed many others ? Does the current system facilitate this? Are the upper echelons of the C of E quick to express remorse and make amends?
Answers on a postcard.
Not a post card, I’m afraid. Possibly sharing your own recent frustration about TA responses – or lack of them. As so often happens on TA people are commenting widely beyond what I said in my original comment about this senior judge. That was in response to Realist saying he needed “to return to his legal textbooks”. In my book referring to a Lord Justice of Appeal in those terms borders on insolence! I don’t propose to develop this with Realist, Simon Dawson or Janet. But the issue here is why the Judge held a complaint to be vexatious and… Read more »
“In my book, referring to a Lord Justice of Appeal in those terms borders on insolence!” Rubbish. Lord Justices of Appeal are not imbued with papal authority. Judges get things wrong; that is why there are routes of appeal in all UK judicial processes, apart from clergy discipline. Church of England processes are conducted in secret (and I use the word “secret” deliberately, despite the Church’s insistence that there is a distinction between “secret” and “private”), without the checks and balances that apply to other judicial processes. I have a decision notice from the President in another case that makes… Read more »
A postage stamp would be sufficient for the answers: No.
It seems unlikely that survivor N can take this further. The use of the word ‘vexatious’ was unfortunate in my opinion. The President maybe didn’t understand how it would be understood. Re examples of judges’ mis-speaking. Who could forget the horrific rape trial when the judge said some dreadful tin eared things about the victim. Some judges were, and remain, out of touch.
It’s a bit of a mystery to me that a senior research fellow in English (Lucy Sixsmith) was able to endure the appalling doggerel that makes up most “worship songs”. The obvious answer to her dilemma is to enter into the riches of the music which is available at her own college of St. John’s Cambridge. Perhaps she is doing that? I wish her well.
Dr Sixsmith was 14 (according to the article) when she began her association with Soul Survivor. She wasn’t Dr Sixmith then, or a senior research fellow in English. Does that help clear up the mystery?
Lucy wasn’t a senior research fellow in English when she got involved with Soul Survivor – she was only 14, and basically grew up with it. She was conditioned to think it was the acceptable way to worship God. Just as many people of my generation grew up thinking it good to sing lines like ‘There is a fountain filled with blood/drawn from Immanuel’s veins’, or ‘I am H A P P Y’, or (somewhat later) that muddle of mixed metaphors, ‘Jesus take me as I am.’ It’s sometimes only when you’ve achieved a bit of distance that you realise… Read more »
Those lines you quote seem to me to be completely biblical. What is the problem?
What are you doing every time you take communion?
The Bible nowhere mentions a fountain filled with blood, and it’s an image which will revolt most people in this day and age. We generally regard fountains as ornamental, which is hardly the right image for the agonising sacrificial death of Jesus. ‘I am H A P P Y’ – a reading of 2 Corinthians gives a very different picture of the Christian life: ‘sorrowful but always rejoicing’. And Jesus was a Man of Sorrows. The problem with ‘Jesus take me as I am’ is, as I said above, its abundance of mixed metaphors. And ‘make my flesh life melt… Read more »
Janet. I don’t think you mean that we can only worship using imagery explicitly used in the Bible. In the religious world – then and now – fountains and baths were/are places for ritual washing and cleansing. In Revelation the saints have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. in 1Jn 1 – the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin’. So I think Cowper’s hymn is more ‘biblically’ poetic than you suggest. Of course all hymns and songs need choosing (or not) with pastoral sensitivity. I have known ‘I am H A P P Y’… Read more »
Thank you.
No, I don’t mean that – I was only responding to Nigel’s claim the the imagery was ‘completely biblical’ I would have done better to say it’s an example of hymn words we’ve grown up with and got used to, but which might strike us quite differently if we came to them fresh.
To be clear, I find much of the imagery in the bible problematic, but it is what it is. I tend towards a very reformed position on communion wine. it is a communal event.
It’s funny – the NT is, in many ways, very straight and unadorned. Not much artistic license. but later hymns give full vein (sic).
Other examples are in Bach St Matthew passion, which gets very emotional.
Some preachers lay it on heavily during Good Friday.
Two words in the scriptures ‘Jesus wept’ get turned into lengthy sermons and books. Even Nietzsche had a discussion on it. Long weeping arias by Bach and others.
You’re spoiling them for me!
I love some of these hymns too – but we do need to think about how they might seem to newcomers, or even established believers encountering them for the first time.
I sometimes think Christians need to be a bit more enquiring about what others find helpful in worship rather than simply dismissing things that are not to our taste. I am not personally a fan of charismatic conservative writing (and think that some modern religious music is actually quite hard for congregations to sing, with funny intervals, instrumental bridges and syncopated rhythms that less musical people find harder to manage) – but it clearly works for some people both on an emotional level, and as being a corporate expression of faith. Having said that, there is a LONG list of… Read more »
Lucy Sixsmith does not tell us exactly which songs she is referring to – just that there were particular recurrent themes of humility and brokenness, about kneeling at the foot of the cross, about decreasing and bowing down. These have proper and important place in Christian worship and prayer of all traditions? Clearly, too, her involvement with SS extended into adulthood. Nor, for the record, does she tell us if she appreciates choral music. But an appreciation for contemporary worship music is not a sign of lack of intelligence or superficial faith. SS had some accomplished worship song writers. Matt… Read more »
Agreed. Later lines from Lucy’s eponymous chorus are – ‘I’m coming back to the heart of worship And it’s all about You, It’s all about You, Jesus I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it When it’s all about You, It’s all about You, Jesus‘ which suggests that, aside from people directly hurt by a leader, others struggling with questions of the enduring validity of their communal religious experience can look beyond the leader to the heart of Christianity. Of course that’s too easy, because part of what a leader might subliminally have been selling is themself (‘I’m sorted… Read more »
I wonder what “Jesus” represents when someone sings “It’s all about you, Jesus”? In the context of that song, presumably giving glory to Jesus rather than to the worship leader or the worship experience. In an environment dominated by substitutionary atonement, does giving glory to Jesus also mean an emphasis on one’s own smallness, brokenness, submissiveness? “Not me, but you” etc. To try to detect/remember/analyse those feelings i need to close my eyes tightly and pretend I’m singing the song and channel my inner charismatic evangelical. Gosh, I really don’t want to go there again. It’s not the theology that’s… Read more »
From the same song King of endless worth No one could express How much You deserve Though I’m weak and poor All I have is Yours Every single breath I’ll bring You more than a song For a song in itself Is not what You have required You search much deeper within Through the way things appear You’re looking into my heart Is it not a song from the creature to the creator?. I’m not necessarily the target demographic for Matt Redman songs, and when I first saw the song’s title appear on a slide, I sort of inwardly groaned.… Read more »
Going on a tangent, the Book of Common Prayer and its descendants, Roman Catholic liturgical books in English and the English translations of Scripture that I know do not capitalise pronouns referring to the divine. Yet this is a feature of so many contemporary publications, from Roman Catholic, Evangelical and other sources Older hymn books like the English Hymnal and Hymns Ancient and Modern also did it, but never the official liturgical texts. Where did this come from?
Is there a deeper question here about whether the idea within much of Christianity that we are bad (‘foul I to the fountain fly’) and only good because of Jesus (even because of Jesus’ dying the death that we truly deserve) is itself unhealthy? It certainly seems to be at least compatible with an unhealthy self image, for example encouraging the suppression of sexuality. It’s one thing to hold ‘total depravity’ as one perspective on how we are related to God, but another to sing song after song which constantly reinforce this self-understanding at an emotional level. I’m not sure.… Read more »
In lent the daily office features a hymn by an ancient chap known as George the sinner. That kind of hymnody has been going on a while.
SS songs are generally better than the offerings from Hillsong or Bethel FWIW.
Indeed. Are we now to banish Augustine, the mystical tradition, the penitential threads that have permeated Lent down the ages? I could easily counter that the position of Nigel Jones is the outlier in the history of Christianity.
Confused. What position do you mean?
Perhaps this position?
‘The idea within much of Christianity that we are bad (‘foul I to the fountain fly’) and only good because of Jesus (even because of Jesus’ dying the death that we truly deserve) is itself unhealthy?’
Yes.
In addition to more likely to be singable many of the older hymns were a little less ad hominem. There would be a nominal allusion to humility and abasement (maybe with a recognisable Scripture derivation) but it would often be fairly clear the bigwigs were in the same boat as us under God and not “dishing us up with” something. Some of the newer ditties have emotionalising “tunes”. There is and was a whole spectrum in “music”. (If you hear Bach you give him leeway because it is an “occasion”, or he’s foreign.) And religion was made to depend on… Read more »
Just a note from me to appreciate the series of blogs from Mark Clavier. He talks a lot of well-considered sense – I hope he gets a wide readership!
I’m surprised Mark Clavier’s 9 blogs have attracted so little attention. Have we given up on being a serious Church, or is it down to the Lenten fast?
I strongly agree with you and Jeremy and have been doing my best to spread the word. But Mark doesn’t offer us the chance to mount our usual TA hobby horses. And as I’ve occasionally commented here before, I think our TA community prefers to engage with others’ behaviours, usually from the moral heights, rather than get stuck in to some ‘boots on the ground’ ( perhaps not the most felicitous image in current times, but you know what I mean) stuff. But as an aged lay person, Mark has got me back saying the daily office, something I drifted… Read more »
Dear Allan and Jeremy, I’ve been following Well-Tempered since Mark’s blog was first noticed by TA, and very much appreciate his caeeful thinking and writing. Other opinions anyone?
Writing from the States, and inevitably from an Episcopal perspective, I find Mark’s papers very insightful and helpful. His most important emphasis, for me, is in the affirmation that our tradition is about our relationship with God as members of the Body of Christ, and not primarily as individuals apart from the Body. So the bread and wine of the Eucharist is the Body of Christ consecrated for the Church as the Body of Christ. We affirm that we are, as members of the Church, both the Body of Christ and also in process, also still becoming the Body of… Read more »
I think evangelicals everywhere, and of all denominations, have emphasised the importance of individual conversion. I’m not sure what you mean by there being a tension between individual conversion and being part of Christ’s body? Surely conversion is how we become part of Christ’s body? As for baptism, it is held to be ‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace’. Many evangelicals are more comfortable with believer’s baptism – baptism after conversion – than with infant baptism. Do you believe that those who have been baptised as infants remain perpetually part of Christ’s body, even if… Read more »
“I’m not sure what you mean by there being a tension between individual conversion and being part of Christ’s body? Surely conversion is how we become part of Christ’s body?”
Several years ago, I attended a TEC parish where the clergy came out of the TEC evangelical tradition. One of the priests (who later went on to be an ACNA bishop) once remarked that one of the most difficult parts of his job was getting people to move from “Me and Jesus” to “We and Jesus.”
Janet, we certainly have in common our understanding of sacraments as outward and visible signs of inward and invisible grace. But, in our BCP baptismal service, the priest (or bishop) baptizes, then makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of the newly baptized, and proclaims “you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” So, yes, we believe that those who have been baptized as infants remain perpetually part of Christ’s body. If as grown-ups they do not choose to remain active in a congregation, that is their loss, not Christ’s. The… Read more »
Thank you.
And a doctrine of baptismal regeneration impacts on one’s understanding of the Church. Baptists and some Pentecostals don’t believe in sacraments as ” effectual signs of grace” to quote the Articles, they seem them as Ordinances, done by individuals to testify to their faith. The C of E is with the bulk of catholic Christianity on this, or am I wrong?
I believe you are right. But then, as an American, I am in no position to say for sure.
Do you think those who deliberately renounce Christ remain Christians, against their will, because of a promise someone else made? Or is that a caricature?
Janet, you pose a fascinating question. I would say that from our perspective, someone who was baptized as an infant but who chooses later in life not to participate in the life of the Church is missing out on a significant opportunity to find meaning and purpose in life as well as to contribute to the coming of God’s Kingdom. From Christ’s perspective, however, that person is one of Christ’s own forever, always loved, always delighted in, always cherished as a child of God. The word “Christian” in our society has so many different meanings — there are, after all,… Read more »
God’s love never fails. But would God compel someone to spend eternity in the divine presence if they didn’t want to be there? What kind of love is that?
It would be, well, hell.
Teaching of Hebrews 10.26-31 relevant here?
Yes – alongside John Wall’s post.
Perhaps such a person should be described as an apostate? A sad situation and one might pray that they return to Christian Faith and practice. I suppose a person can renounce their baptism but I don’t think such a person if they returned to faith should be rebaptised. One baptism once was the title of a Grove booklet by Colin Buchanan.
i would hope we all reject the perversion that unbaptised children are not loved by God/Jesus.
The baptism of dying babies is surely more for comfort of the parents than for the child.
Or maybe these kind of grotesque beliefs still prevail in some dark corners?
All babies, baptised or unbaptised are loved by God. As the old children’s hymn said: ‘Jesus loves the little children/all the children of the world/red and yellow/black and white/they are precious in his sight/Jesus loves the little children of the world.’
My question is whether baptism automatically confers salvation on a person, of any age, even if they later renounce the faith. I’m not sure it does. That would reduce baptism from sacrament to magic.
Perhaps have a look at your baptism service and see what is being claimed. Strictly speaking, ‘confers salvation’ sounds like language brought in from different context. The sacrament of Baptism rite: ASB: “Bless this water, that your servants washed in it may be made one with Christ in his death and resurrection, and be cleansed and delivered from all sin.” BCP (TEC): “Now sanctify this water, we pray you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that those who are here cleansed from sin and born again may continue forever in the risen life of Jesus Christ.” This is the… Read more »
I was responding not to the baptismal service, but to John Wall’s and Perry Butler’s comments above.Perry spoke of baptismal regeneration, and John wrote: ‘So, yes, we believe that those who have been baptized as infants remain perpetually part of Christ’s body.’
Common Prayer Sacramental Rite. DEARLY beloved, ye have brought this Child here to be baptized; ye have prayed that our Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to receive him, to release him of his sins, to sanctify him with the Holy Ghost, to give him the kingdom of heaven and everlasting life. Ye have heard also that our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised in his Gospel, to grant all these things that ye have prayed for: which promise he, for his part, will most surely keep and perform. Wherefore, after this promise made by Christ, this Infant must also faithfully, for his part, promise by you that are his sureties, (until he come of age to take it upon himself,) that he will renounce… Read more »
FYI From the Episcopal Church’s BCP (1979) — Prayers for the Candidates The Celebrant then says to the congregation Let us now pray for these persons who are to receive the Sacrament of new birth [and for those (this person) who have renewed their commitment to Christ.] A Person appointed leads the following petitions Leader Deliver them, O Lord, from the way of sin and death. People Lord, hear our prayer. Leader Open their hearts to your grace and truth. People Lord, hear our prayer. Leader Fill them with your holy and life-giving Spirit. People Lord, hear our prayer. Leader Keep them in the faith and communion of your holy Church. People Lord, hear our… Read more »
Wasn’t the tension there right at the start?
‘You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.’
‘Simon do you love me? Feed my sheep’
Other opinions anyone? Indeed! And forgive me for talking my own book, but I posted a few days ago, under the heading ‘Bishop of St Germans’, 3 pieces arguing for smaller dioceses in the CofE and hence more (and hopefully more relational) diocesan bishops. Apart from Simon Dawson’s gracious response, it has provoked no comment. This leaves me entering Passiontide with the unhelpful belief that everyone agrees with me.
I do. Smaller dioceses, humbler, more local relational bishops. No palaces, no advisers, smaller staffs, less bureaucracy.
Admin re money, faculties etc. at National level.
I’m not sure what current CofE thinking is on this. In 2021 a report was produced by the archbishops and the bishop of London advocating larger dioceses, with suffragans operating as area bishops. It earned widespread ridicule by departing from Anglican ecclesiology in which bishops have to be bishop of somewhere to recommending ‘fixed term’ bishops for ‘Brexit’, ‘Covid’ and so on.
I participate in Anglican services and private prayer with a sense that it is part of my life, and the only contact with God that I really have, but it’s different from what it was for me once, in that nearly every Bible verse has a problematic impact on me now and I don’t hold the doctrine of Trinity in the affection which seems so pervasive with others here and elsewhere. It confuses me and its origins strike me as unedifying.
Hymns mean a lot to me though
I’m another Clavier fan