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Buy the Book
The Church of Somewhere
Sympathetic unbeliever John Derbyshire visits Dover Beach with Roger Scruton.
(Page 2 of 2)
That is all very well; but does the somewhere that the Church of England is the Church of, still exist? It is poignant to read Scruton, early in his book—he is writing about the Norman and Plantagenet kings—say this: “Our common law is inimical to laws made outside the kingdom.” Not anymore it isn’t, pal. England is currently bracing itself for a flood of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria, who from January 1, 2014, under EU rules, cannot be denied entry, common law be damned.
THE CHURCH HERSELF has been losing market share for decades. Entire large districts of English cities and towns are under occupation by foreign immigrants who give not a fig for the Church, nor indeed for Christianity. News stories about the installation of the new archbishop of Canterbury are decorated with gloomy asides about dwindling church membership.
Part of the problem, Scruton notes, has been the Empire, which diffused the Church over vast territories, but whose English inhabitants later melted away, taking their Englishness with them; or in the case of the North American colonies, rebelled…but then again, American Episcopalianism was birthed in Scotland, not England—an offshoot of an offshoot. The Church of Somewhere became the Church of Everywhere, and therefore, of course, of Nowhere. As Scruton writes glumly, “Its most important controversies today—those over women priests and homosexuality—are being fought out between American liberals and African conservatives, with the old English establishment looking on in mild astonishment at the fuss.”
Our Church is full of good things. Scruton writes fluently, with many memorable touches. I especially liked his recollection of his teenage self at Communion, listening to the organist’s improvised sequences: “It was as though the Holy Ghost himself were present, humming quietly to himself in an English accent.” He has provocative insights, too, as when he writes of “the pagan heart of the Roman Catholic liturgy.” He is only occasionally tedious, mostly when writing about theology, a subject in which I, along with most Anglicans (admittedly lapsed, in my case), have zero interest.
I liked this book. However, I was raised, like Scruton, in mid-20th century England, in a culture now as comprehensively extinct as that of the Moabites. Whether Our Church will find favor with, or even be comprehensible to, readers of different nativity, I would not venture to speculate.
About the Author
John Derbyshire is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism (Crown Forum).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (12) | Leave a comment
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gene| 3.15.13 @ 6:29AM
If you are not living for Him today, you will not die for Him tomorrow.
Appleby| 3.15.13 @ 7:01AM
I was a well contented Anglican until they decided to worship the male sex organ intead of God. The music above all else was a reason to attend an Episcopal Church in America; there is nothing like 14th century Latin during Holy Week to stir the heart and the bones toward Heaven. The one thing I miss about the Anglican communion is the music. Catholics mulishly refuse to sing. I sing in our small choir (which is not especially liturgical except at Easter -- "Jesus Loves Me" in two parts is usually the best they can do) and nothing disappoints so much as watching the congregation stand with mulish expressions and remain obstinately silent as the choir does all the singing. Heck, even the Mormon Church, which had more failings than world enough and time to detail them, could blow the roof off with "Come, Come Ye Saints." It was a sad day when the Anglican Communion decided to abandon the wonderful musical tradiion that sustained us so well, by dropping its collective pants instead.
C. Vernon Crisler | 3.15.13 @ 10:33AM
That is probably the worst thing about most evangelical (non-Anglican or Roman) churches today: abysmal music. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these so-called churches adopt rap versions of hymns, so bad has it gotten.
Quartermaster| 3.15.13 @ 1:01PM
Strange. I haven't seen any of that nonsense. perhaps you should go to a real Evangelical Church instead of one that claims to be Evangelical but has given into the spirit of the age.
C. Vernon Crisler | 3.15.13 @ 10:31AM
I was reading James Madison a few months ago and came across something he said that was very interesting. He said that prior to the Revolution, much of the clergy (imported from England) was insipid. However, after the separation of church and state, the churches began to flourish again in America with a much better quality of minister.
As someone who is more in favor of Cromwell and the Independents (displaced Americans perhaps), I think it's sad to see the choice England made in keeping with a denomination that was little more than a somewhat pious bureaucracy.
Occam's Tool| 3.15.13 @ 3:30PM
Structure is useful in all things.
Occam's Tool| 3.15.13 @ 11:21AM
The Derb is a lovely gentleman and writer. I do not always agree with him, but he is a simply superb human being. Let everyone here rejoice in that he is recovering from his Cancer and that he has strength again to write well.
Petronius| 3.15.13 @ 11:38AM
Once more into the ? Maybe Professor Scruton should have just published the Title. In this our age of Faith and faithful-more-or-less adrift, the somewhere is redolent of the song in West Side Story. Cut to the chase. The Faith bound up in altruism is sublime but the institution Sucks as all institutions do. Church goers want validation. And who gets it is determined by the rest of the congregation more than the clergy. My last parish was in reality a litter box decorated with crosses and statuary. The late comic Flip Wilson did The Church of What's Happening Now. Was he ever ahead of his time. What christian denominations have become is a corrupt cross between that and exemption from reality. Soon, the Fatima Prophecies may come true. And from what I see going on around me, we've got it coming. Papa Francisco might have the inside skinny on that.
pigdog| 3.15.13 @ 12:13PM
Re: "She coexisted peacefully with numerous Nonconformist sects and with remnant patches of Roman Catholicism. (That “Roman” prefix is necessary in this context: Reciting the Nicene Creed in their Eucharist service, Anglicans declare their belief in “one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”)"
I don't understand Derb's clarifying parenthetical about Anglicans declaring their belief in "one holy catholic and apostolic Church." Those of us who are Roman Catholics pray the exact same thing. Correct?
Quartermaster| 3.15.13 @ 2:06PM
Richard Dawkins could recite the same thing, but would mean anything? What it comes down to, who is a christian and who is not? In the final analysis, that's above the pay grade of anyone in the Church, including the Pope. Christ is the one that will decide that.
I will say, that I have met very people that have Borne the Roman catolic label that can be considered Christians in light of scripture.
Red Phillips | 3.17.13 @ 10:07PM
Although I don't agree with Derb's atheism, props to AmSpec for publishing Derb after the PC whipped squemish "cons" at National Review fired him.
JCS| 4.12.13 @ 5:45PM
Re: The para re: Roman Catholics "jeering" that "the Church only exists because Henry VIII wanted a divorce." Mr. D. tells us that Henry’s father wanted to ensure a clear succession for the peace of the nation, but his wife was barren: “The refusal of the Pope to grant an annulment of Henry’s first marriage was experienced by the King as a threat to his sovereignty,” i.e., Henry was driven by rational statecraft, not—or not only—by sexual boredom.
That the king thought he was above the rules set down by Christ regarding marriage and divorce and was entitled to institute a church in order to bypass rules he dislikes is sufficient to accuse the English king of inventing a religion in order to advance a immoral object forbidden to mere Christian mortals. OF COURSE, he perceived it as as a threat to his sovereignty: but that's the point, isn't it? He was NOT sovereign in this regard, was he? He was to be submissive to Christ. This is, by far, the emptiest attempt to rationalize Henry's (father or son) decision to defy the Pope.
The C of E will never be anything but the temporal plaything of the English royalty.