AGAINST ESTABLISHMENT
An Anglican Polemic
By Theo Hobson
Darton, Longman & Todd
146 pages. £7.95
ISBN 0 232 52508 0
The Church of England is the 'established' church of this country, linked to the state with the monarch as its 'supreme head' and the Prime Minister having the final say in ecclesiastical appointments.
In the vision of the patriarch of Anglicanism, Richard Hooker, the Church was simply the nation in its spiritual aspect, the nation at prayer. Every English born person was a member, unless they specifically opted out. It went hand in hand with the idea of infant baptism.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church …