'Protestantism undefined': an Anglican's lament for the Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism undefined as the Church of England and Ireland do.

The words of Burke, from 1792, came to mind when reading a Church Times story on how the Church of Scotland is intent on further abandoning its rich heritage and its vocation as a national Church. Judging by the Church Times, the Kirk's 'Theological Forum and the Faith Action Programme Leadership Team' (with that hideous title you immediately know just how bad its report will be) has explicitly stated its intense dislike for the Church of Scotland:

The Church has a self-image and identity which is based upon its history as a national church with a parish system of a minister and a building within each geographical area, secured by its former role as a key part/member/constituent in national and political life ... That self-image and identity served the Church well for four centuries from the Scottish Reformation of 1560 onwards but is now hampering the change needed to halt decline.

As one Anglican commentator has said of this, "if those in charge of the church despise that church and its history, then others might take them at their word and stay away".

The Team's report goes on to call for - wait for it - "Fresh expressions", a "re-orientation" towards "imaginative, adaptive, organic mission 'on the edge'". Yes, it does sound exactly like a manual produced by the lanyard class, for the lanyard class, expressing the prejudices of the lanyard class. Then there is the banal declaration "speak more about Jesus than about church". This entirely overlooks the theological truth that to confess faith Jesus Christ is necessarily to say 'I believe in the holy catholic church' (or, as the Westminster Confession puts it, "Unto this catholic visible Church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints"). There is also the practical outworking of the reality that Christian faith is not a disembodied abstraction: it is encountered, lived out and known in the local church, the parish, amidst its relationships, character, ministry, and communal presence.

Another shibboleth of the ecclesiastical lanyard class is evident in the report:

Proactive liturgical experimentation, purposefully reflecting the breadth and depth of belief within the Church of Scotland, will take us to the intersection of faith and public square ... Missional and cultural renewal will not happen effectively without liturgical renewal at its foundation. The renewing and refreshing of our worship practice and liturgy is a vital stage in the deepening of faith and the opening of pathways to spiritual experimentation that enables shifts in the relationship of faith and society ...  It is here that we need to be both courageous and disruptive. While the church continues to stand at the forefront of communities grappling with the complexities of our time and understanding the evolving mission that we are part of, our discernment and prophetic expression is made possible in our liturgical response ... . Investing in liturgical renewal is indeed a courageous act.

As sure as night follows day, the ecclesiastical lanyard class always confidently states that the answer to decline is further liturgical change. And notice that self-congratulatory declaration that such liturgical change is "a courageous act". Quite why this is so, we are not told: it appears to be a self-evident, magisterial truth. There is, however, nothing at all courageous about yet more liturgical "experimentation", more "disruption" (why is this meant to be a positive?), more (predictably tedious) "prophetic" liturgies - all signalling that the historic form of worship of the Church of Scotland is bad, reactionary, obsolete. Once again, the louder you say this, the more people - in the pews and on the periphery - will take you at your word and give up.

The ecclesiastical lanyard class also have form in repackaging devastating decline as something to be actually welcomed, an opportunity to be  'prophetic' (which, oddly, usually means aligning with the political and cultural values of the wider lanyard class). Predictably, the 'Theological Forum and the Faith Action Programme Leadership Team' deliver on this:

loss of national power and influence, of cultural hegemony and leadership, may prove to be a liberation, allowing the Church of Scotland to speak more unrestrictedly and more authentically than ever of Jesus Christ.

There you have it. The precipitous decline of the Church of Scotland, the abandoning of its vocation and heritage as a national Church, is actually A Good Thing. 

Of course, it is nothing of the sort. It is a tragedy - for the Church of Scotland, for Scottish society, for the United Kingdom, for historic Presbyterianism. 

Which brings us back to Burke:

The Church of Scotland knows as little of Protestantism undefined as the Church of England and Ireland do. She has by the articles of union secured to herself the perpetual establishment of the Confession of Faith, and the Presbyterian Church government.

"Protestantism undefined" - indeed, Christianity undefined - is merely a mess of pottage. It is a rejection of the particular identity and vocation of a particular Church and a particular Christian tradition - in this case, a deep identity and vocation that was a blessing to Scotland, to the United Kingdom, and to the wider Presbyterian tradition. To describe abandoning this as 'liberation' is the ecclesiastical equivalent of a mid-life crisis leading to 'liberation' by abandoning duties, covenants, and vocation in order to find 'freedom': it is sad and pathetic.

Looking across the North Channel, this Anglican offers a lament for the Church of Scotland, while yet hoping that there are other voices in that Church, voices encouraging the Church of Scotland to rediscover its historic identity and vocation (something rather different, it should be noted, to what too often passes for 'conservative'). There is much more to this, of course, than only preaching gowns, metrical psalms, and Scottish heritage - but such would be a very good start, not least because ecclesiastical 'style' communicates ecclesial identity and vocation.

It is the same for the historic Protestant traditions across Europe and the North Atlantic. The rejection of the historic vocation and identity of Protestant national churches has usually been accompanied by a rejection of the distinctive markers of that vocation and identity. For some this has resulted in the ubiquitous cassock-alb taking the place of traditional ministerial vesture, of historic liturgies being abandoned for texts and practices that are not distinctive; for others, it has meant embracing the norms of generic, non-denominational transatlantic evangelicalism. In either case, it is "Protestantism undefined". As Burke states:

Protestant without any qualification of the term ... without any positive idea, either of doctrine, discipline, worship, or morals.

For Burke, both the Church of Scotland and the Churches of England and Ireland were clearly not "Protestantism undefined". The former had its Confession and presbytery. The latter episcopacy, Prayer Book, and Articles. The respective Acts of Union reflected this. The Act of Union of 1707 was dependent upon "Resolving to Establish the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government within" Scotland. The Act of Union of 1801 declared, "The churches of England and Ireland [are] to be united into one Protestant Episcopal Church". 

How the 'Protestantism defined' of each was given expression in the parish church was powerfully and beautifully captured by Henry John Dobson's 'A Scottish Sacrament' (1875) and William Teulon Blandford Fletcher's 'Sacrament Sunday' (1897). In each painting we see the distinctives of the Church of Scotland and the Church of England embodied in ministerial attire, in liturgy, in sacramental practice. Here is no mess of pottage. Here is no indistinguishable, bland mush. Here, rather, is a distinctive tradition and heritage, a distinctive, national and ecclesial way of being Christian, with deep roots in the respective culture and society. This is not at all implying that recovering this would somehow end decline - although it could hardly do worse than the disaster imposed on the Church of Scotland by those who very clearly despise its tradition and heritage. It is, however, to suggest that these good, wise, and rich traditions and heritages, identities and vocations should be thoughtfully recovered and offered afresh to the societies in which historic Protestant churches minister.