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guide. comprehension. follow –up. the Church of England. Pre-reading task
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GUIDE
WORD STUDY
I. Use the appropriate prepositions:
1. In addition, a majority approve …….. the fact that religious instruction at state schools is compulsory.
2. Furthermore, almost nobody objects …… the fact that the Queen is ‘…. the grace of God’, or the fact that she, like all previous British monarchs, was crowned ….. a religious figure.
3. Freedom … religious belief and worship (and also the freedom to be
a non-believer) is taken …. granted in modern Britain.
4. Except perhaps … Muslims, there is no recognizable political pressure group in the country which is based…. a particular religious ideology.
5. Despite …. the atmosphere of tolerance and the separation of religion and politics, it is in Britain that we find the last two cases in Europe of' ‘established' churches, that is churches which are, …. law, the official religion of a country.
6. Nobody feels that they are discriminated ….. if they do not belong …. it.
7. The Archbishop of Canterbury himself, ' repeatedly spoke …. ….. this trend,
implying that Conservative government was largely to blame …. it.
II. Match these words from the text with their meanings:
1. Methodist a. A member of a Christian Protestant Church
that broke away from the Church of England
in the 18th century
2. Bishop b. The study of the positions of the stars and the
movements of the planets in the belief that they
influence human affairs
3. Parapsychology c. A bishop of the highest rank, responsible for all
the churches in the area.
4. Astrology d. A senior priest in charge of the work of the
Church in a city or district.
5. Archbishop e. The study of mental powers that seem to exist
but that cannot be explained by scientific
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knowledge.
III. Join the words to make word combinations:
Speak out against the knowledge of the bible
To invoke the trend
To be enriched by God’s help
To have religious inclinations
To condemn politics
To stay out of the widening gap
IV. Explain the meaning of the following words and word combinations:
Anti-clerical party
Christian party
Conservative party
Clairvoyance
Denomination
V. Form derivatives to the words in the table:
| Adjective | Noun | Verb |
| Tolerant | ||
| Believe | ||
| Recognizable | ||
| Approve | ||
| Condemn | ||
| Appointment | ||
| Incline | ||
| Angry | ||
| Imply | ||
| Discrimination |
VI. Give the word to the definition:
1. that must be done because of a law or a rule
2. to make sb have a particular feeling or imagine a particular scene
3. the attitude to life and the world of a particular person, group or culture
4. to show respect for God or a god, especially by saying prayers, singing, etc. with other people in a religious building
5. to believe sth is true without first making sure that it is
6. the situation as it is now, or as it was before a recent change
7. willingness to accept or tolerate sb/sth, especially opinions or behaviour that you may not agree with, or people who are not like you
8. a person who goes to a place or an event, often on a regular basis
COMPREHENSION
I. Say whether the following statements are True or False. Explain your choice.
- The majority of British people can be described as religious.
- The British are quire tolerant towards the British monarch.
- There are no established churches in Britain.
- British people are restricted in religious freedom
- The Anglican church stays out of politics.
- The Anglican church used to have the reputation of being the defender of the higher ranks of the society.
FOLLOW –UP
- Do you think that politics should stay out of religion and visa versa?
- Express your opinion on the fact that religious instruction at state schools is compulsory.
- What about Belarus? Does church interfere in the state affairs and school education?
- How does the relation between religion and politics differ in Belarus and Britain?
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THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
PRE-READING TASK
- Is the Church of England the only established church in Britain?
- Does it try to adapt to modern life? In what way?
There are two established or state churches in Britain: the Church of England, or Anglican Church as it is also called, and the Church of Scotland, or 'Kirk'.
In 1533 the English king, Henry VIII, broke away from Rome and declared himself head-of-the Church in England. His reason was political: the Pope’s refusal to allow him to divorce his wife, who had failed to produce a son. Apart from this administrative break, the Church at first remained more Catholic than Protestant. However, during the next two centuries when religion was a vital political issue in Europe, the Church of England became more Protestant in belief as well as organisation.
Ever since 1534 the monarch has been Supreme Governor of the Church of England. No one may take the throne who is not a member of the Church of England. For any Protestant this would be unlikely to be a problem, since the Church of England already includes a wide variety of Protestant belief. However, if the monarch or the next in line to the throne decided to marry a Roman Catholic or a divorcee, this might cause a constitutional crisis. It has always been understood that if such a marriage went ahead, the monarch or heir would have to give up their claim to the throne, and to being Supreme Governor of the Church. In 1936 Edward VIII, who had only just succeeded to the throne, abdicated in order to marry a divorcee. Today it is more likely that the monarch or heir would marry the person he or she loved, and would renounce the title of Supreme Governor of the Church. It might pose a constitutional crisis, but is less likely to be one for the Church. The monarch is crowned by the senior Anglican cleric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, but if the monarch renounced Supreme Governorship of the Church, this ceremony might be abandoned or radically changed.
As head of the Church of England, the monarch appoints the archbishops, bishops and deans of the Church, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, who might well not be an Anglican. The most spiritual leaders of the Church of England are the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is ‘Primate of All England’, and the Archbishop of York, who is ‘Primate of England.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is head of the Anglican 'Communion'. This Communion is composed of the various independent churches which have grown out of the Church of England in various parts of the world. In fact England accounts for only two of the 28 provinces of the Anglican Church. In theory, about 40 per cent of the English might say they were members of the Church of England, far fewer ever actually attend church and only one million regularly attend, a drop of over 13 per cent since 1988. It is also a small proportion of
the 70 million active Anglicans worldwide. More Nigerians, for example, than English are regular attenders of the Anglican Church.
The Church of England is frequently considered to be a 'broad' church because it includes a wide variety of belief and practice. Traditionally there have been two poles in membership, the Evangelicals and the Anglo-Catholics. The Evangelicals, who have become proportionately stronger in recent years give greater emphasis to basing all faith and practice on the Bible. There are over one million British evangelicals of different Protestant churches belonging to an umbrella group, the Evangelical Alliance. The Anglo-Catholics give greater weight to Church tradition and Catholic practices, and do not feel the same level of disagreement as many evangelicals concerning the teaching and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. There is an uneasy relationship between the two wings of the Church, which sometimes breaks into open hostility. Yet most Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are united in their deeper dislike of the liberal theologians within the Church of England. These have challenged the literal validity of several beliefs of the Church, and have argued that reinterpretation must constantly take place, partly is a result of recent biblical scholarship, but also because they maintain that theological understanding changes as society itself changes and develops over the years. In that sense, one can divide the Church of England in a different way into conservatives and modernists. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the Church of England are of evangelical persuasion, and the balance is divided almost equally between Anglo-Catholics and liberals.
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The Church of England is above all things a church of compromise. It is, in the words of one Journalist, ‘a Church where there has traditionally been space on the pew for heretics and unbelievers, doubters and skeptics'. It takes a long view and distrusts zealous theological or ideological certainty. It prefers to live with disagreements of belief rather than apply authoritarian decisions. It fudges issues where it can, to keep its broad body of believers together.
Most of its members are happy with the arrangement. In that sense the Church of England is profoundly typical of the English character. It distrusts the rigid logic of a particular tradition of theology and prefers the illogical but practical atmosphere of 'live and let live' within a broader church climate. Consequently there is always a concern to ensure that all wings of the Church are represented among the bishops, and that those appointed as archbishops shall be neither too controversial in their theology, nor too committed to one particular wing of the Church as to be unacceptable to others.
This has been particularly true in the two areas of greatest controversy within the Church since the mid-1980s: the ordination of women and of homosexuals (and the acceptance of homosexuals already in the priesthood). In both cases the modernists are ranged against the conservatives.
After a long and often contentious debate, the Church finally accepted the ordination of women
in 1992, and the first were-ordained in 1994, long after the practice had been adopted in other parts of the Anglican Communion. Some 200 clergy, fewer than expected, chose to leave the Church of England rather than accept women priests. They were almost all Anglo-Catholic. While great passion was aroused among some clergy and lay people on this issue, the large majority of church-goers did not feel strongly enough, either way, to force a decision. It is unlikely that any woman will become a bishop for some years. Having accepted women priests, a fresh controversy arose over the question of homosexuality with, if anything, even greater
vehemence. This time the contest is primarily between modernists and evangelicals, but the essence of the debate is the same: biblical and traditional values versus contemporary social ones.
The modernists argue that it is ludicrous to pick one out of many-culturally specific prohibitions in the Old Testament, and that a judgmental posture excludes Christians who quite sincerely have a different sexual orientation and perspective from heterosexuals. Modernists say the church should listen and learn from them. It is a controversy likely to persist well into the twenty-first century.
The Church of England was traditionally identified with the ruling establishment and with authority, but it has been distancing itself over the past 25 years or so, and may eventually disengage from the state. 'Disestablishment', as this is known, becomes a topic for discussion each time the Church and state clash over some issue. Since 1979 the Church has been ready to criticize aspects of official social policy.
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Nevertheless, the Church of England remains overwhelmingly conventional and middle class in its social composition, having been mainly middle and upper class in character since the Industrial Revolution. Most working-class people in England and Wales who are religious belong to the nonconformist or 'Free' Churches, while others have joined the Catholic Church in the past 140 years. [3, p170-173]
GUIDE
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