Alternative Episcopal Oversight and the Church of England: Historical Perspectives on Authority, Identity and the Anglican Realignment

Durham E-Theses Alternative Episcopal Oversight and the Church of England: Historical Perspectives on Authority, Identity and the Anglican Realignment HARGITT, AIDAN,ROBERT,JOHN How to cite: HARGITT, AIDAN,ROBERT,JOHN (2015) Alternative Episcopal Oversight and the Church of England: Historical Perspectives on Authority, Identity and the Anglican Realignment , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11094/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Alternative Episcopal Oversight and the Church of England Historical Perspectives on Authority, Identity and the Anglican Realignment Aidan Robert John Hargitt Abstract This thesis will explore the historical roots of alternative episcopal oversight as it affects the Church of England in the form of Provincial Episcopal Visitors and the Anglican Realignment. This thesis will argue that these developments are the latest instalments in a cycle of conflict and adaption through which Anglicanism has consistently gone due to its non-specific and plural ecclesiology. That non-specific ecclesiology, containing both Protestant and Catholic elements as a result of the Reformation, has been able to shift its emphasis in response to circumstances, from national Protestantism, with high- and low-church elements, to a global Catholic sacramental communion as the 19th century gave way to the 20th. In the 20th century Anglican comprehensiveness, composed of Catholic and Reformed beliefs and practices balanced by latitudinarian tolerance, has broadened considerably with the inclusion of modernist theology grounded in contemporary experience. In a post-Christian and secular pluralist society, the breadth of belief and practice possible within that comprehensiveness has critically stretched the Catholic model of territorial bishops in sacramental communion both in England and the Anglican Communion. On human sexuality and women‘s ministry the broadening of comprehensiveness has been further driven by a phenomenon this thesis will identify as social erastianism. This term describes the particular pressure felt by the Church of England as a national church to keep its doctrine and practice within the limits of what the post-Christian nation it represents considers acceptable. The crisis of comprehensiveness and the Anglican Realignment are challenging but not unprecedented. On the contrary, as this thesis will demonstrate, they stand within a historical Anglican tradition of using the full range of Protestant and Catholic elements contained within its ecclesiology to adapt itself to the developing circumstances of each age whilst maintaining a recognisably continuous Anglican identity. 1 Alternative Episcopal Oversight and the Church of England Historical Perspectives on Authority, Identity and the Anglican Realignment Aidan Robert John Hargitt M.Litt Department of Theology and Religion Durham University 2013 2 Contents Introduction: Alternative Episcopal Oversight 6 Part 1: Doctrine, Crisis and Authority 1: A Crisis of Comprehensiveness 17 2: The High Church and the Anglo-Catholics 49 3: Episcopally Led, Synodically Governed 76 4: Anglican Authority and the Anglican Communion 101 Part 2: the Anglican Realignment 5: Historical Precedents 128 6: Methodists, Tractarians and the Anglican Realignment 155 7: The Anglican Realignment and the PEVs 178 Conclusions 213 Bibliography 228 Appendix: 237 Interview Methodology and Interviewees The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following for agreeing to be interviewed in the course of researching this thesis: Canon Chris Sugden Rev. David Banting Rt. Rev. Graham Kings, Bishop of Sherborne Rt. Rev. Jonathan Baker, Bishop of Fulham Professor Stephen Sykes Professor Mike Higton Rev. Rosemarie Mallett Rev. Jonathan Clatworthy Rt. Rev. Martyn Jarrett, Bishop of Beverley (ret.) Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir Ali, Bishop of Rochester (ret.) Monsignor Keith Newton 4 Dedications To my supervisors, Professor Alec Ryrie and Dr. Mathew Guest, for their friendship, patience, guidance and good humour. To my parents, for making this possible. To Catherine, for always being there. 5 Introduction Alternative Episcopal Oversight The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the historical origins, and the implications for the Church of England, of the late 20th and early 21st century Anglican phenomenon of alternative episcopal oversight. In addition to setting out the scheme and methodology for this investigation, this introduction will define the issue of alternative episcopal oversight and its implications for the Anglican ecclesiological claim to stand within the historic and apostolic episcopate as understood by the traditional Catholic churches of east and west. The purpose of this introduction is firstly to set out the scheme of the thesis and the methodology, and secondly to broadly define the issue of alternative episcopal oversight in relation to the Anglican understanding of episcopacy and Anglican ecclesiology. Chapter 1 will examine what Stephen Sykes called a ―crisis of comprehensiveness‖ within Anglicanism in order to understand the origins of the doctrinal disagreements which have led to the moves towards alternative episcopal oversight, and suggest that Sykes‘ theory, expressed in his The Integrity of Anglicanism of 1978 but somewhat neglected in Anglican scholarship since, has much to offer in explaining the pressures behind alternative episcopal oversight. Chapter 2 will examine how, during the 19th century, the rolling back of state involvement in the Church of England and the gradual secularisation of ecclesiology, against the background of the Tractarian movement and the Catholic Revival, led to episcopacy being elevated above and beyond its original more Protestant understanding which characterised the Reformation period. This elevation of episcopacy produced an ecclesiology with bishops as the fundamental ecclesiastical validators, linking congregations to the whole church and vice-versa through sacramental communion, and with the diocese as the fundamental ecclesiastical unit. It is this ecclesiology which alternative episcopal oversight has the potential to undermine. Chapter 3 will examine the relationship between this development of episcopacy and synodical governance, and the ways in which the interaction 6 between the two have not led to greater doctrinal clarity. Chapter 4 will look at the development of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the implications which this globalisation of Anglicanism has for episcopacy and alternative episcopal oversight, and vice-versa. The second part of the thesis will look at the historical precedents and roots of the Anglican Realignment, as the spread of alternative episcopal oversight within the Anglican Communion has come to be known. Chapter 5 will examine the non-jurors, particularly in Scotland and the United States where the principle of Anglican provincial independence enshrined in the Anglican Communion were first established, and the 18th century Methodists, whose development from the Evangelical Revival movement has close parallels with the contemporary situation. Chapter 6 will compare and contrast the differing experiences of the two principle off- shoots of the Evangelical Revival, namely the Methodists and the Anglo-Catholics, exploring the reasons why the former group separated from the Church of England whilst the latter group were able not simply to remain within it but to impart a great deal of their character to it. Chapter 7 will examine in detail the creation, functioning and reception of the official system of alternative episcopal oversight adopted by the Church of England during the 1990s, the Provincial Episcopal Visitors, and its relationship to the Anglican Realignment process. Whilst much of the methodology for this thesis is based upon the analysis and interpretation of written primary and secondary sources from the periods under consideration chapter 7 in particular, which deals directly with contemporary and on- going events, makes additional use of material derived from qualitative interviews conducted by me with key people directly involved in the issues surrounding alternative episcopal oversight and the Anglican Realignment. The interviewees were (in alphabetical order): Rt. Rev. Jonathan Baker (a PEV; at interview Bishop of Ebbsfleet, now Bishop of Fulham, Forward in Faith), Rev. David Banting (Reform, Anglican Mainstream), Rev. Jonathan Clatworthy (Modern Church), Professor Mike Higton (Church of England Faith and Order Commission), Rt. Rev. Martyn Jarrett (former Bishop of Beverley and PEV, Society of St. Wilfrid and St. Hilda (SSWISH)), Rt. Rev. Graham

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