What is the Real Division In Anglicanism?

between Catholic minded Christians who believe their faith is revealed by God and cannot be changed, and Protestant minded Christians who believe their religion is a man made construct which must be changed according to various circumstances and cultures. If Conservative Protestants dislike being grouped with those who think their religion must change they should examine how much Evangelical positions on important moral questions have changed over the last sixty years.

This divide in Anglicanism has actually been at the foundation of their church from the beginning and throughout her history. It is a division that cannot be resolved except by continued latitudinarianism.

Two objections will be made. One might say, “But it is the most Protestant Evangelical bishops of Africa who are holding the line against the progressive changes of the Episcopal Church.” That is true, but at the foundation of it all their position is shaky. When the progressives say, “But that is only your interpretation of Scripture. We are good Christians too, but we have a different interpretation of Scripture” what will the conservative Evangelical Protestant Anglicans respond? There is no response because that is the dilemma at the heart of Protestantism. It is ultimately a system of private interpretation.

The second objection is, “But aren’t Catholics at each others’ throats just as much?” The answer is, sadly, “Yes, because there are many Catholics who hold to a Protestant understanding of the church–that it is a man made institution founded in a particular time period and that it should change according to the times.” Fortunately, their position is countered by a clear magisterium and authority structure which corrects their error and calls them to Catholic unity.