World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 64 стр.

Church of Ireland are members of the Anglican Communion but are not “estab-           particular tradition of theology and prefers the illogical but practical atmosphere
lished” churches and have memberships of not more than about 100,000 each.            of “live and let live” within a broader church climate. Consequently there is al-
     Once in every 10 years the Archbishop of Canterbury invites all the bish-        ways a concern to ensure that all wings of the Church are represented among
ops of the Anglican Communion to a conference at Lambeth in London to ex-             the bishops, and that those appointed as archbishops shall be neither too contro-
change views and debate issues of concern. Rather like the Commonwealth               versial in their theology, nor too committed to one particular wing of the
Conference, the Lambeth Conference provides an opportunity for the sister             Church as to be unacceptable to others.
churches from every continent to meet and share their different concerns and                The Church is governed by its bishops. In that sense it is a hierarchical or-
perspectives.                                                                         ganisation. Nevertheless its regulating and legislative body is the General
     The Church of England is frequently considered to be a “broad” church be-        Synod, made up of three “Houses”, the House of Bishops (53 diocesan and suf-
cause it includes a wide variety of belief and practice. Traditionally there have     fragan bishops), the House of Clergy (259 representatives of the clergy) and the
been two poles in membership, the Evangelicals and the Anglo-Catholics. The           House of Laity (258 representatives of lay members of the Church). The Gen-
Evangelicals, who have become proportionately stronger in recent years, give          eral Synod meets twice yearly with two functions: (1) to consider matters con-
greater emphasis to basing all faith and practice on the Bible. There are over        cerning the Church of England, and to take any necessary steps for its effective
one million British evangelicals of different Protestant churches belonging to an     operation; (2) to consider and express its opinion on any matters of religious or
umbrella group, the Evangelical Alliance. The Anglo-Catholics give greater            public interest. In order to reach agreement on any issue, General Synod re-
weight to Church tradition and Catholic practices, and do not feel the same           quires a majority in each House, in the words of one religious commentator, “a
level of disagreement as many Evangelicals concerning the teaching and prac-          clumsy and largely ineffective cross between a parliament and a democracy. It
tices of the Roman Catholic Church. There is an uneasy relationship between           is a typical Anglican compromise”.
the two wings of the Church, which sometimes breaks into open hostility.                    This has been particularly true in the two areas of greatest controversy
     Yet most Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics are united in their deeper dis-        within the Church since the mid – 1980s: the ordination of women and of ho-
like of the liberal theologians within the Church of England. These have chal-        mosexuals (and the acceptance of homosexuals already in the priesthood). In
lenged the literal validity of several beliefs of the Church, and have argued that    both cases the modernists are ranged against the conservatives. After a long and
reinterpretation must constantly take place, partly as a result of recent biblical    often contentious debate, the Church finally accepted the ordination of women
scholarship, but also because they maintain that theological understanding            in 1992, and the first were ordained in 1994, long after the practice had been
changes as society itself changes and develops over the years. In that sense, one     adopted in other parts of the Anglican Communion. Some 200 clergy, fewer
can divide the Church of England in a different way, into conservatives and           than expected, chose to leave the Church of England rather than accept women
modernists. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the Church of England are of          priests. They were almost all Anglo-Catholic. While great passion was aroused
evangelical persuasion, and the balance is divided almost equally between An-         among some clergy and lay people on this issue, the large majority of church-
glo-Catholics and liberals.                                                           goers did not feel strongly enough, either way, to force a decision. It is unlikely
     However, a large number of church-goers either feel no particular loyalty        that any woman will become a bishop for some years. Having accepted women
to any of these traditions, or feel more comfortable somewhere between these          priests, a fresh controversy arose over the question of homosexuality with, if
poles. Since most bishops are theologians, the liberals are more strongly repre-      anything, even greater vehemence. This time the contest is primarily between
sented among the bishops than sheer numbers in church membership justifies.           modernists and evangelicals, but the essence of the debate is the same: biblical
     The Church of England is above all things a church of compromise. It is, in      and traditional values versus contemporary social ones. The director general of
the words of one journalist, “a Church where there has traditionally been space       the Evangelical Alliance claims that “a vast number of churches stand by 2,000
on the pew for heretics and unbelievers, doubters and skeptics”. It takes a long      years of biblical analysis which concludes that homosexual sex is outside the
view and distrusts zealous theological or ideological certainty. It prefers to live   will and purpose of God”. The modernists argue that it is ludicrous to pick one
with disagreements of belief rather than apply authoritarian decisions. It fudges     out of many culturally specific prohibitions in the Old Testament, and that a
issues where it can, to keep its broad body of believers together. Most of its        judgmental posture excludes Christians who quite sincerely have a different
members are happy with the arrangement. In that sense the Church of England           sexual orientation and perspective from heterosexuals. Modernists say the
is profoundly typical of the English character. It distrusts the rigid logic of a

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