The Church of England Now Preaches the Gospel of Woke

(Recently published in The Conservative Woman)

  In the last few days two emails have hit my C of E vicar Mum’s inbox. Could this be a promise of more support for her work as vicar of 8 village churches without even a curate? Could it be a response from the Bishop of Oxford to her query about legal protection if she refuses to marry a trans person to a member of the same sex? Of course not. Like 95% of the communication to priests from bishops the emails reflected the new priorities of the Church - Net Zero and ‘Racial Justice’. It would appear that preaching the Gospel of salvation in Christ is passé.

  The first email was all about General Synod’s endorsement of a plan for the Church to reach Net Zero by 2030. It was the first time that Synod had met since the start of the pandemic that saw the Church close its doors on the faithful and yet apparently climate change was their top priority. In email number two the devil is, perhaps literally, in the detail. There is enticing talk of money being ‘invested in local ministry as part of diocesan strategies.’ However ‘Diocesan strategies’ include allocating £190m ‘to help the Church of England transition to net zero’ and ‘£20m on work to promote Racial Justice.’ The net zero target is depressingly self explanatory. ‘Racial justice’ is a woke candy floss phrase, superficially enticing but unsubstantial and unhealthy. It has come to mean white people atoning for the racism of their ancestors and promoting people to jobs based on skin colour not ability. This new ‘racial justice’ is rather unjust.

   Under a scheme approved earlier this year the House of Bishops will strive to occupy at least 10 out of the 53 places with bishops from so called UKME/GMH backgrounds. https://www.london.anglican.org/articles/plans-for-uk-minority-ethnic-clergy-to-take-part-in-house-of-bishops-agreed/ These letters are Church wokespeak for UK Majority Ethnic and Global Majority Heritage, which is just non white to the rest of us. This racial quota follows a Church of England Anti Racism Taskforce that published a report called Lament to Action in April 2021. That taskforce disingenuously declared its mission as flowing “not from identity politics but from our identity in Christ” despite its recommendations revolving around racial quotas for all levels of church employment. At least one candidate on every shortlist for every job in the church is now ‘expected’ to be in the UKME/GMH category. This would prove extremely difficult in certain parts of England, especially many rural communities. Failure to include an appropriately non white candidate requires ‘valid and publishable reasons.’ Furthermore the report advocates ‘new approaches to shortlisting and interviewing which place a duty on the employer to improve participation on an “action or explain” basis rather than relying on “bland encouragements” for under-represented groups to apply.’ https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/news-releases/lament-action-archbishops-anti-racism-taskforce-calls-urgent-changes I have no idea what ‘bland encouragements’ are or indeed what less bland encouragements would consist of. The rather Stalinist sounding ‘Action or explain’ is likewise baffling and also sinister. What ‘action’ would be required? Surely not a job advert along the lines of ‘we’d rather non white people apply’ . . .

   The Church has created a paranoid, toxic atmosphere of looking for racism in every corner. My vicar Mum is a woman who never saw skin colour. It’s a long-standing family joke that she first described my dark brown Peruvian Dad to her parents as ‘handsome but a bit short.’ Yet such is the Church’s enforced racial hyperawareness that she felt uneasy about turning down a priest of Nigerian heritage without the requisite rural ministry experience for the role of ‘house for duty’ priest. Priests now fear woke Big Brother questioning their every decision.

  While its focus and indeed finances are directed towards a woke agenda, many under-resourced parish priests and their congregations are struggling. It is especially small rural parishes that are being abandoned, despite often having historic churches that need constant maintenance and are regarded as the heart of the village. Twenty years ago our North Buckinghamshire Newport Deanery of 22 churches employed 8 full time clergy and 2 full time curates. Now there are 5 full time clergy, 1 half time vicar and 1 curate. When the Bishop of Oxford recently visited our Deanery he was asked about concerns regarding dwindling clergy numbers. He assured us there were ‘no plans’ for further cuts.This is slippery politician phraseology that also totally misses the point. The problem is that smaller parishes are struggling to pay the ‘parish share’ from which enables them to have a number of clergy. Failure to pay means less vicars.

  Recently another ridiculously woke pronouncement from a Church of England bishop hit the headlines. Dr Robert Innes, the Bishop in Europe, declared that there ‘is no official definition of a woman’. Bizarrely even Rev Angela Berners-Wilson, England’s first woman priest, only said that she is ‘not totally happy’ with the answer and even added that the issue is “sensitive” and ‘maybe we need to reexamine our boundaries.’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/10/church-england-no-official-definition-woman/ Many in the Church hierarchy appear oblivious that for rational people the ‘boundary’ between a man and a woman is clear and doesn’t need ‘re-examining’. Shortly after this ludicrous wokery was in the news the full of horror of the Telford grooming gang scandal was revealed. Over a 1000 girls raped and abused whilst police and authorities turned a blind eye and yet the bishops were woefully silent in condemnation. Little wonder that many people, especially faithful church goers, are feeling increasingly alienated from such an institution. 

  The widespread disillusionment with the Church of England and ‘Woke Welby’ has been reflected in many of the comments made on the Conservative Woman website. I emailed the Bishop of Oxford, Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft, to respond to these feelings from both those inside and outside the Church. Just in time for this article I received a very friendly reply. It is encouraging to see a senior bishop engaging with criticism of the Church but I’m afraid his response did little to dispel my gloom. On shutting churches during lockdown there was regret at closing them to clergy but ‘In other areas we were complying with the government’s own guidance.’ It is quite surprising that Bishop Steven didn’t address the ‘minor’ issue of abandoning parishioners rather than clergy. Moreover should not the Church’s  ‘guidance’ first and foremost come from Holy Scripture? He then continued to address Net Zero by saying he was concerned about a ‘very disturbing turn away from net zero commitments in the current leadership election.’ There was no mention of the impact of these commitments on ordinary people, especially the poor and he just showed an unqualified acceptance of the ‘climate crisis’ consensus. Likewise he did not tackle the issue of identity politics or defining a woman. Indeed, whilst being grateful for a response, he rather proved how detached the Church has become from a considerable proportion of its parishioners who hold views it appears to regard as a kind of heresy. But what the Church regards as the new ‘heresy’ has nothing to do with being unfaithful to scripture and God. The Gospel of Christ has been replaced by the Gospel of Woke, making many in the Church of England’s hierarchy the real heretics.