University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap This paper is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our policy information available from the repository home page for further information. To see the final version of this paper please visit the publisher’s website. Access to the published version may require a subscription. Author(s): Andrew Village and Leslie J. Francis Article Title: Anatomy of Change: Profiling Cohort Difference in Beliefs and Attitudes among Anglicans in England Year of publication: 2010 Link to published article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1740355309990027 Publisher : © Cambridge University Press 2010 An Anatomy of Change: Profiling Cohort Difference in Beliefs and Attitudes among Anglicans in England Andrew Village1 and Leslie J. Francis2 [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT Conservatism in theological belief, moral values and attitude toward ecclesiastical practices was measured in a sample of 5967 ordained and lay Anglicans in the Church of England. Average scores were compared between those who classed themselves as Anglo-catholic, broad church or evangelical, and by six different age cohorts. Overall, most measures of conservatism showed decline among more recent cohorts, but there were marked differences between traditions. Younger evangelicals showed little or no decline in theolo- gical or moral conservatism, and, in the case of Bible beliefs, were more conservative than their older counterparts. In ecclesiastical variables, however, Anglo-catholics were often more conservative and younger evangelicals showed less conservatism than other traditions or older evangelicals. The findings suggest that the divide between traditions is increasing among younger generations mainly because those in Anglo-catholic and broad-church traditions are becoming more liberal on theological or moral matters, whereas evangelicals are maintaining traditional conservative views of theology and morality but becoming less traditional in matters ecclesiastical. KEYWORDS: Anglicanism, Anglo-catholic, broad church, Church of England, conservatism, evangelical, liberalism, survey 1. Department of Theology and Religious Studies, York St John University, York, United Kingdom. 2. Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom. Journal of Anglican Studies Vol. 8(1) 59–81 [doi:10.1017/S1740355309990027] r The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2009 60 Journal of Anglican Studies Introduction The tensions in the Church of England between liberals and con- servatives surface in different issues at different times. In recent years, the focus for these tensions has been on homosexuality3 and the ordination of women as bishops.4 In earlier years, the presenting issues have been the ordination of women as priests,5 divorce and remarriage,6 and cohabitation and sex outside marriage.7 In addition to moral issues and issues of church ordering, there have also been a series of debates sparked by bishops who publicly adopt apparently radically liberal beliefs about doctrine or Scripture: David Jenkins in the 1980s,8 John Robinson in the 1960s,9 and Hensley Henson in an earlier generation.10 The terms liberal and conservative in an Anglican context do not necessarily refer to well-defined parties, and this is especially true in England. Historically, conservatism has mostly been expressed as a rather general adherence to traditional patterns of beliefs or practices that may go back centuries. Liberalism has, on the other hand, had 3. S. Bates, A Church at War: Anglicans and Homosexuality (London: I. B. Tauris, 2004); A. Crockett and D. Voas, ‘A Matter of Attitude: Homosexuality and Divi- sions in the Church’, Modern Believing 45.3 (2004), pp. 23–31; R. Eames, The Windsor Report 2004 (London: The Lambeth Commission on Communion, 2004). 4. R. Butt, Church Divided: Women Bishops an Obstacle to Unity, Vatican Warns (London: The Guardian, 9 July 2008); R. Gledhill, Church of England Votes to Ordain Women Bishops (London: The Times, 8 July 2008). 5. I. Jones, Women and Priesthood in the Church of England: Ten Years On (London: Church House Publishing, 2004); F. Sani and S. Reicher, ‘Identity, Argument and Schism: Two Longitudinal Studies of the Split in the Church of England over the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood’, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 2.3 (1999), pp. 279–300; F. Sani and S. Reicher, ‘Contested Identities and Schisms in Groups: Opposing the Ordination of Women as Priests in the Church of England’, British Journal of Social Psychology 39.1 (2000), pp. 95–112. 6. House of Bishops, Marriage in Church after Divorce (London: Church House Publishing, 2000); T. Woods, ‘Marriage after Divorce: The Challenge for the Church of England’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 17.3 (2006), pp. 343–54. 7. Church of England, Something to Celebrate (London: Church House Pub- lishing, 1995). 8. A. Dyson, ‘The Bishop of Durham and All That’, Modern Churchman 27.3 (1985), pp. 1, 2; T. Harrison, The Durham Phenomenon (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985). 9. J. Bowden, Thirty Years of Honesty: Honest to God Then and Now (London: SCM, 1993); J.A.T. Robinson, Honest to God (London: SCM Press, 1963). 10. O. Chadwick, Hensley Henson: A Study in the Friction between Church and State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983). Village and Francis An Anatomy of Change 61 connections with particular movements, and owes its origins, in part, to the growth of Enlightenment rationalism. Liberalism in the Church of England is often traced to the work of Charles Gore11 and the collection of essays, Lux Mundi, which responded to the chal- lenge to Christian orthodoxy created by the emerging disciplines of critical biblical scholarship and natural science. Perhaps the most influential liberal movement in the Church of England has been the Churchmen’s Union founded in 1898, which became the Modern Churchmen’s Union in 1931 and the Modern Churchpeople’s Union in 1986. The union’s journal, Modern Churchman, which became Modern Believing in 1994, has sought to promote the discussion of liberal ideas in the church generally, and particularly in the Church of England. Liberalism has mainly influenced the Church of England by introducing new ways of regarding traditional beliefs and practices, often by introducing these through liberal clergy and bishops. A more common way to define parties in the Church of England has been to look at church tradition. The two main parties are the Anglo-catholic wing and the evangelical wing, both of which have their roots in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.12 Anglo- catholicism began with the Tractarian Movement in Oxford, and supporters sought to move the Anglican Church nearer to its Roman Catholic roots. The emphasis has been on church worship with keen interest in liturgy, sacraments and especially the eucharist. The evangelical wing of the Church of England arose out of the general eighteenth- and nineteenth-century resurgence in evangelicalism, but is also associated with key figures such as Charles Simeon, from Cambridge, and those of the Clapham Sect.13 Supporters sought to move the Church of England nearer to its reformed roots. The emphasis has been on the preaching of Scripture that leads to per- sonal conversion and holy living. 11. C. Gore (ed.), Lux Mundi. A Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarnation (London: John Murray, 1889). 12. K. Hylson-Smith, Evangelicals in the Church of England 1734–1984 (Edinburgh: T&TClark,1989);K.Hylson-Smith,High Churchmanship in the Church of England from the Sixteenth Century to the Late Twentieth Century (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993); P.B. Nockles, The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship, 1760–1857 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); N. Scotland, Evangelical Anglicans in a Revolutionary Age, 1789–1901 (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2004). 13. G.R. Balleine, A History of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England (London: Church Bookroom Press, 1908). 62 Journal of Anglican Studies Between these two wings lies what is termed variously as ‘middle of the road’, ‘traditional’ or ‘broad church’ Anglicanism. Although sometimes identified as a separate movement within the Church of England,14 churches in this category are linked mainly by not belonging to either of the two wings, Anglo-catholic or evangelical. Broad churches in this sense represent congregations that embrace a range of practices and theological stances. Many parishes in England have a long history of being shaped by different traditions from one incumbent to the next, and present-day practices can combine dis- parate elements. For example, buildings that portray evidence of the Anglo-catholic romantic influence on the design of the chancel may now host worship that is largely devoid of Anglo-catholic attention to liturgy or vestments. In other cases, broadly Anglo-catholic worship may include music derived from charismatic renewal, while pew Bibles portray an evangelical concern for the preaching of Scripture. Broad-church Anglicans, almost by definition, are likely to encompass a range of conservative to liberal views, and it can be difficult to predict what particular individuals may believe. Nonetheless, broad- church Anglicans are probably in the majority, and where they go, so goes the Church of England as a whole. Alongside these three traditions