This article was written in 1993 when I was General Secretary of Church Society. Since then the numerical, moral and spiritual decay of the Church of England has continued, and yet the Doctrine and History of the Church remains.
God’s grace in my life, through the Church of England
I was born to parents who were members of the Church of England, duly baptized and brought up to go to Church (somewhat reluctantly). As a teenager I served at the ‘altar’, carried the cross and such like (partly because I thought it would look good on a CV). When I got to university I became a Christian, which is to say that God, who had been at work in me from before my birth took away the scales from my eyes.
But for all the apparent meaninglessness of my background I saw nothing wrong with the Church of England and have always subsequently felt that God was preparing the ground, which I think was fairly stony in my case. Indeed, it was an Anglican Bishop who preached the Word when God opened my heart to believe, I was nurtured at a liberal Anglican college chapel and a keen evangelical Anglican church, mentored by another Anglican clergyman and then a fellow student who is also now ordained. I was greatly helped by Christians from many other backgrounds, some of whom were appalled at the Church of England but I never felt any great pressure to leave.
I therefore have a strong attachment to the Church of England and can see that good can most definitely come out of it. But is that a sufficient reason to be an Anglican? I could claim to be an Anglican by accident of birth, which is theologically incorrect but how many people think. Alternatively I could say that it has been God’s plan and purpose that I should be an Anglican, but this would also ignore the possibility that God’s desire is that I come out of it, but I have been too stubborn to do so. I have been strongly tempted to leave at times, but I remain for other reasons.
History
First there are the facts of history. The Church of England is the historic church in England. Congregations existed from the earliest days but the Church of England as an entity is probably best dated from the Synod of Hertford in AD673 (thus is predates the creation of the nation of England). The inter-dependence of churches is something that is very vivid in the New Testament therefore there is nothing inherently wrong with an organizational structure of churches. The English church owes much to other churches who often gave selflessly in order that the gospel might grow here. But as with the Church of Alexandria or the Church of Rome, when a church grows its relationship to others changes and shifts from one of dependence to inter-dependence. The English Church finally came of age at the Reformation and in the subsequent ages has itself planted dependent churches and then had to work through the process of them growing up and becoming inter- dependent, which is what we are now living through in the Anglican Communion. I am an Anglican because I believe this history is important.
A Reformed Church
What strikes me about the mainstream reformation is that the Reformers did not set out to leave the Church but to reform it. Of course the prevailing mindset dictated this but it is significant that so many were even prepared to give their lives for reform. This was especially true in English Church which, by the grace of God, eventually broke free not only of forced dependence on Rome but also of its gross errors and abuses. Our reformers seem to have seen the church as much more fundamental to their understanding of what it means to be a Christian than we their inheritors do. What is more, if I look at some of the old books and papers in my office from the Church Association and our other 19th Century forebears they were much more conscious of the importance of the church. I am an Anglican because I believe the church matters in the purposes of God.
What the reformers left us was more than just history but also our doctrinal and liturgical heritage. Though there are one or two blemishes here and there that heritage is most definitely reformed, protestant, evangelical. The attempts of the 19th Century to claim otherwise ground to a halt and the failure was admitted by John Newman when he left to join the Roman Church. The subsequent endeavours to destroy this heritage by supplementing it and by desuetude have proved much more effective. Nevertheless, for the time being, the formal doctrinal basis of the Church of England if taken at face value is protestant, evangelical and reformed. Therefore, in my pig-headedness I see myself as the authentic Anglican article. I think our doctrinal formularies are right in that they were an attempt to reform the Church and its teaching under the word of God, to be utterly faithful to Scripture whilst declining to reform practices and beliefs which had arisen which were not contrary to Scripture (Christmas and Easter celebrations for example) or where Scriptural teaching is inconclusive. I am an Anglican because the Church of England is doctrinally reformed.
It saddens me that over the years so many good biblical Christians have left Church of England. The events of the 1660s, though defining the later Church also drove out many good people. In recent years I think I could list 20 or 30 clergy I know who have left. I cannot see how all the differences could be resolved but it seems to me that there are two which we must be concerned about and contend for. First, episcopacy needs reform. I believe that it would be possible to retain episcopacy whilst reforming it under the Word of God so that episcopal church government was acceptable to Presbyterians and to others. Secondly, there are so many in the Church of England who are not recognisably Christian. In my experience and from what others say there is far less willingness amongst evangelicals to be open about this today than there was in the past and far less concern to see such people converted to Christ.
I am an Anglican, but I am far from satisfied with the Church of England. I don’t want to turn the clock back because I wasn’t impressed with the church of my childhood. But I want the Church to be what it should be, and that is some way from what it is. I came to the conviction a number of years ago that I could only in conscience remain an Anglican if I was committed not only to being Reformed but to seeing the Church reformed.
(Note: In the 33 years since I wrote this I have known many many more clergy who have left the Church of England either to become part of other Anglican churches, some Presbyterians, some Independents. I have also been pirividedged to serve as a Trustee of what became an AMiE church.)
David Phillips 1993 Written when General Secretary of Church Society
Added to this website May 2026.