What the Church of England should say to its conservative rebels

The evangelicals really are revolting. After a lot of talk of the need to break away from a tainted, liberal, heretical Church, something significant has happened. Last month, two of London’s biggest conservative parishes – All Souls Langham Place and St Helen’s Bishopsgate – held services ‘commissioning’ new leaders. It’s an obvious repudiation of the Church’s authority, and a step towards creating a new structure – a ‘de facto province’, as one of the vicars involved put it. When this new structure is authorised, they will be officially ordained into it, he said.

This move doesn’t quite break canon law, as long as these leaders don’t preside at the eucharist. But in the most recent service, it was announced that these men (they are all men of course) will lead services at which bread is broken and the death of Jesus is remembered. Obviously this rejects the Anglican principle that only ordained clergy can preside at the Church’s central ritual, which is the institution’s very scaffolding.

How should the rest of the Church respond? The Bishop of London issued a dry statement: ‘Incumbents have been reminded before and following these services of their responsibilities to ensure that the law of the Church of England as expressed in canon and liturgy is observed, and that all safeguarding requirements are fully met.’