Thoughts Upon Michael Nazir-Ali Departing for Rome

A church that runs to apostasy will see the faithful run away.

I am saddened to see the once Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali depart the Church of England to join the Roman Catholics, the Ordinariate in England to be exact.  Nazir-Ali was a stalwart of orthodox Anglicanism worldwide.  I’ve lost count of the Anglican conferences I’ve attended that he helped lead.

But my sadness is not new.  Earlier this year, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet Jonathan Goodall also went to Rome.  Recent years have brought home to me that England has become a difficult place for faithful of a catholic Anglican mind.  Fifteen years ago the Church of England still retained a handful or more of orthodox bishops.  Now I am unaware of a single orthodox diocesan bishop.  (A few lower level orthodox bishops remain.)   Although here and there orthodox churches and ministries are doing well in England and seem to have church support, what kind of “mutual flourishing” is that?  Flourish but stay in your place, orthodox troglodyte?

In case one thinks I am overstating matters, nominate a robustly orthodox man for the bishop of a diocese and, no matter how excellent his ministry, you will be reminded that that you have your place and had better stay there. See what happened to the Philip North nomination.  The orthodox must know their place in the Church of England or they will be reminded of their place.

Maybe my observations are untactful.  Nonetheless, a church that runs to apostasy will see the faithful run away.  A church that tries to put the faithful in their place may find the faithful will refuse to stay in their place.

What makes the situation in England even sadder is that orthodox Anglicans hardly have anywhere to flee.  The Church of Francis is hardly hospitable. (Frankly, I would start my own apartment cathedral before I went there.) And Anglican alternatives to the Church of England are small, scattered, and struggling.  Unlike American Anglicans, with their multitude of orthodox jurisdictions, English Anglican culture has one stick to the Church of England.  English Anglicans may stick to a church party of evangelical or Anglo-Catholic or sleepy or apostate, but they stick to the Church of England. 

That abhorrence of schism is commendable, but it greatly reduces alternatives if the Church of England goes bad, and it has.  As awful as The Episcopal Church has become, American church culture has allowed orthodox Anglican alternatives to spring up more effectively than in England.

So with the apostasy of the Church of England and with the lack of orthodox Anglican alternatives, orthodox Anglicans in England are in a difficult and increasingly barren land.  Christians are often called to witness and minister in such places, and I know Anglicans who are doing so effectively and joyfully even.  And one of my joys is getting to participate in that from time to time.

Nonetheless, orthodox Anglicans have been pushed into a difficult place in England.  Otherwise a man who loves orthodox Anglicanism as much as Michael Nazir-Ali would not have left.