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From Anglicanism to Orthodoxy
By George
Hackney, formerly Fr Bryan of the Church of England
In an English village
Near to the geographical centre of England you
can find Rolleston, the tiny village where I was born. My family were
farmers, as their ancestors had been for generations. In the heart of the
village and under the jurisdiction of the Church of England stood the
ancient parish church of The Holy Trinity. For centuries it had been the
centre of village life. There were no other denominations in the village.
As a child I did not even know that other denominations existed. It was in
the Church of England that I was baptised and taught the orthodox Christian
Faith. It was in the Church of England alone that I learned and accepted the
great Orthodox dogmas concerning the Holy Trinity, Creation, Incarnation,
Virgin Birth, Resurrection, Salvation through Christ our God from sin, death
and the devil, the necessity for sacramental incorporation by Baptism and
Confirmation into the ancient Church founded by Christ and the blessings of
grace through the other sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Absolution
and also the ethical and moral demands of the Christian life.
The Church of England taught me all this and much, much more, including
devotion to Our Lady, both in the parishes where I worshipped and in the
Theological College I attended as a young man. It was in the Church of
England that I learned to accept the faith of Bible and Tradition and to
revere the seven Ecumenical Councils, rather than individual interpretation,
as the reliable guide to the interpretation of Scripture
In an English city
I was ordained deacon in 1968 and priest in 1969
and for 32 years I served in the Church of England as a priest, most of the
time in the industrial City of Derby. During those years I sought to pass on
to the people that which I had myself received - i.e. that the Church of
England was the original and ancient Catholic Church of this nation of
England, as its own catechism proclaimed. That it had survived the
Reformation troubles with the apostolic succession intact and that it had no
special doctrines of its own - only the agreed doctrines of the Universal
Church set forth before the Great Schism of 1054; holding to the Patristic
Faith and rejecting modern papal innovations. The orthodox Faith with
nothing added and nothing taken away.
First doubts
All this I firmly believed until 1992. It was
the unilateral decision of the Church of England to proceed with the
ordination of women to the priesthood that first began to shake my
confidence. I could scarcely believe that our Synod and our Bishops had
decided to proceed with this unprecedented innovation - ignoring pleas from
the Pope of Rome and the Patriarchs of the East that we should refrain from
unilateral action on so divisive a matter.
When the General Synod of England voted to accept the doctrine and practice
of female ordinations 500 or so clergy resigned almost immediately,
believing that these ordinations put the validity of the eucharistic
celebration in doubt. In the twelve months following the first ordinations
of clergy women the Church of England lost 36,000 regular lay worshippers.
This was equivalent to the total number of regular communicants in three
average English dioceses. The drift from the Church has continued ever since
and the number of laymen and women attending Church of England liturgy in
this land continues to fall every year.
Resignation.
Eventually I resigned from my parish duties in Derby, aged 60, and went into
early retirement because I was becoming very concerned at the way the
Anglican Communion, not just in England but around the world, is breaking up
into factions no longer in Communion with each other.
Tip of the iceberg.
This is happening over a range of matters
doctrinal, ethical and canonical. It is not just about the ordination of
women. That was merely the first crack in the wall and a taste of things to
come. It was the first sign that those in authority in the Anglican world
were willing to surrender orthodoxy and embrace novel doctrines and
practices previously quite unknown or previously rejected as heretical.
There is not just one issue but many.
Fragmentation of Anglicanism.
The fragmentation of Anglicanism, which
originated in the Episcopal Church of the USA, has spread deep into the
heart of the mother Church of England.
I became increasingly unhappy that the Church of England today is becoming
less and less like the Church as it was when I was baptised and ordained
priest.
In particular the General Synod in London (consisting of Bishops, Clergymen
and women and Lay men and women) and the State-appointed Bishops of today
are surrendering the orthodoxy of Anglicanism and replacing it with new
liberal ways on three fronts: in doctrine, discipline and ethics.
The national Church of England is becoming more and more protestant, more
and more liberal, less and less orthodox.
Its Leaders in the Episcopate and its rulers in the Synod seem to be
infected with secular ideas which they see as modern and compassionate and
in tune with the spirit of modern man and the present age but which plainly
contradict the witness of Scripture and Tradition.
This can be seen in many areas today ...
in the field of the individualistic interpretations of Scripture that are
accepted,
in the ordination of women to the priesthood and soon to the episcopate,
in the revocation last year of the old Convocation Regulations stating that
marriage is a lifelong sacramental bond,
in the permission given by some English bishops, such as the present Bishop
of Lincoln, for their clergy to give a liturgical blessing to homosexual
partnerships as if these were marriages,
in the permitted continuance in Office of higher and lower clergy who
publicly deny in the pulpit, on television, in the newspapers and in books
and articles even most basic doctrines of the Creed, such as the
resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ and his virginal conception and birth,
in the official acceptance of the new idea of Provincial autonomy in
doctrine which results in Anglican Provinces around the world deciding
on their own authority to introduce new doctrines and practices, of a
liberal kind, never before held in Anglicanism, and not held by other
Provinces.... and many, many other things which flow from this.
From Communion to Federation.
The Anglican Churches around the world which used
to be in full Communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with each
other are so no longer. The term Anglican Communion is still used by the
State Church in England but in reality and truth it has disintegrated into a
mere Federation of Churches of Anglican origin. It is no longer true that
they are all in sacramental Communion with each other. There is no longer
agreement in doctrine, ethics, morals or canon law.
In America already there are, I believe, over 40 Anglican jurisdictions
separated and not in Communion with each other or with the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Here in England there are at least three different Anglican
Continuing Churches not in Communion with the official State Church or with
each other .
Moreover the Traditional Movement within the State Church, which began as a
resistance to the innovations of 1992, and which I initially joined and took
an active part in, still hoping we could reverse the tide of liberalism, is
striving to form yet another totally independent Free Province as a refuge
for orthodox English Anglicans.
Flying Bishops
This movement has been allowed by the General
Synod to have four roving Bishops of its own to confirm and ordain members
in traditional orthodox Church of England parishes, across Diocesan
boundaries. This happens only where the Church Council has voted to resist
liberal innovations and has petitioned the Diocesan Bishop for the extended
pastoral care of an orthodox Anglican bishop. In the Church of England now
a parish can effectively choose its own bishop. This destroys the reality
of the Diocesan Bishop as centre of unity in the local Church.
However these so called Flying Bishops operate only under the control and
with the permission of the local Diocesan Bishop, who may be one who does
not believe in the virgin birth or the Resurrection of Our Lord and may well
be permitting his parish priests to have faithful homosexual relationships,
despite the pleas of Lambeth Conference, and to give liturgical blessings
to homosexual partnerships of both sexes and in most cases will himself be
ordaining female candidates into his College of Diocesan Priests. The
Flying Bishops have no jurisdiction, cannot select candidates for
ordination, and must be in full Communion with the Diocesan Bishop despite
the fact that the people and parishes they serve refuse to be so.
The old Faith
When I was ordained in 1968 by the Anglican
Bishop of Bradford, the Rt. Revd Michael Parker, I believed that our Church
of England was the ancient, original, western Orthodox and Catholic Church
of this land and that despite its faults and failings (for no Church is
perfect) it was the right and proper instrument for the ongoing
evangelisation and pastoral care of the English people. The Bishop who
ordained me encouraged me in this and held the same belief.
This is what I was taught as a young man at my Theological College. I
accepted it then and was guided by it up to my last days as an Anglican.
Visit to Serbia
This faith in the orthodoxy of the old Church of
England I still held strongly when, in 1983, with my family, I had the
privilege of spending several weeks visiting towns, villages and monasteries
throughout Serbia and adjacent Regions with Fathers Georgije, Dositej and
Longin; at that time parish priests in England and now Bishops of the
Serbian Church. At that time I was much encouraged by direct experience of
Orthodoxy and Orthodox people in an Orthodox land. It renewed my vision of
what the Church of England ought to be and had the potential to become.
The breaking of a dream
In these present times I see this understanding
of the Church of England, which I was taught and received, being abandoned
on all sides by those in authority. Orthodox Anglican congregations, people
and priests are in despair. There is a steady trickle of people and priests
leaving the Church of England every year. Most of them seek to be received
into the Roman Catholic Church simply because the liturgy of Rome is Western
in form and almost identical to the Anglican Rite, so they feel at home with
it and can worship without major difficulties. This is especially the case
with English lay people who initially find Eastern rites baffling.
Even now there are still some Bishops priests and people struggling on
heroically to maintain orthodoxy in life and doctrine within the Church of
England, but they are increasingly marginalised and ignored. In the year
2000, when I was still serving as an Anglican priest, I was able to take a
coach-load of my parishioners to London for a Millennium Mass celebrated in
the London Arena and organised by the orthodox resistance network, Forward
in Faith. At that Mass there were 800 concelebrating priests and over
10,000 communicants. For a long time I remained an active part of this
struggle to recover orthodoxy in our beloved Church. Sadly I think
that great Liturgy in the London Arena was probably the last gasp of the
orthodox constituency in the Church of England. Many of those who took part
in it have now left the Church of England. For myself I cannot accept the
claim of Rome to impose new doctrines on the Church without the agreement of
an Ecumenical Council; doctrines such as that of Papal Infallibility and the
immaculate conception of the Mother of God and therefore I could not ask to
be received into the Roman Communion.
Time out to think
When you are a very busy parish priest you do not
have much time to think deeply about these things, however. The immediate
needs of your parishioners are paramount. The day to day demands of the
ministry in a large and busy City parish simply leave you tired and
exhausted.
Since Annis, my wife, and I came in 2001 to live in comparative isolation
near my home village in enforced early retirement I have been able to take
time to ponder and to pray.
The root of the matter
At root it is all a question of where Authority
lies in matters of Doctrine, Discipline and Order in the the Church of God.
This has always been a problem in Anglicanism but in these times it becomes
more and more acute as Provinces, Dioceses, individual Bishops and even
Parishes and individual priests assert their right to autonomy - their right
not to be bound by Scripture, Tradition, the Ecumenical Councils, the
Liturgy, or anything other than their own experience and what appears to
them to be the dictates of reason in the modern world.
This question of Authority lies at the root of the fragmentation of
Anglicanism today.
Coming home
After much inner struggle and distress I made a
clear decision to seek reception into the Orthodox Church . My sole
wish is to continue to be an orthodox Christian and not to continue fighting
my own denomination in endless wrangling and arguments over doctrine and
discipline in a Church where I can no longer remain in full Communion with
the Bishop of the Diocese... a church which with almost every meeting of its
Synod strays further and further from Scripture and Tradition.
It has not been an easy decision to leave the Church of England because I
have served as a priest for the past 32 years, it has been the whole of my
life and I knew that if I entered the Orthodox Church it would have to be in
lay Communion since I am not bringing a congregation, group or community
with me.
However it is more important to me to be simply an Orthodox Christian in the
genuine Orthodox Church than to serve as priest. It is a matter of
priorities.
Annis, my wife, and I began to attend Divine Service at the Orthodox
Parish of St Aidan and St Chad in Nottingham, England. The parish church is
a converted Methodist Chapel on Carlton Hill, Nottingham. To attend liturgy
we have to make a 44 mile car journey each time. This will always have been
normal for many Orthodox in this country but for 32 years I was used to
having the parish church right there on my doorstep! The parish is
under the Moscow Patriarchate and all services are served in the English
Language, so we have no language difficulties in worship. Although I am
more familiar with the Serbian Church than the Russian there is no Serbian
Church accessible to where I now live. The parish priest at Nottingham is Fr
David Gill and the assistant priest is Fr Peter Brameld. We have two
priests and two deacons. Three of these are former Anglican clergy. About
half our regular congregation are former Anglicans. The rest are East
Europeans and their descendants.
On the Eve of the Theophany this year 2003, eighteen months after resigning
my Anglican parish, I was received by Confession and Chrismation into the
Holy Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate. At present I am attending
the 2 year part-time Certificate in Orthodox Christian Studies
course at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Cambridge. This is
the first Pan-Orthodox Theological College in England. It is affiliated to
the ancient University of Cambridge and has a web-site at
http://www.iocs.cam.ac.uk
It feels strange to serve once again as a layman
after thirty-two years as a full time parish priest. I still have a lot to
learn and I do not know what the future holds. The Orthodox Church really is
all that I once believed the Church of England to be - but authentically
so. I have come home at last.
B.W. George Hackney, MA (Theol) Hull
Little Portion
Back Lane
Barnby in the Willows
Newark
Notts
NG24 2SD
England.
e-mail:
viator@members.v21.co.uk
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