THE CHURCH OF IRELAND
This is another case, albeit a bit unique, if the Anglican glacier calving an independent denomination, that still remains in the worldwide Anglican communion.
The Episcopalean church in the USA made a simpler, cleaner break after the American Revolution. The King of England could no longer be the defender of the faith in the American republic.
But there is a much longer history in the case of Ireland.
A young Roman lad in Wales called Maewyn Succat was captured by Irish raisers and carried off to slavery in “Hibernia” as it was called then. He later escaped and ended up studying in Europe to enter the clergy. He felt the call of God to go back to Ireland as a missionary, which he did. He adopted the missionary name “Patrick” and is remembered to this day as St Patrick.
Around this same time, the fulcrum of the Roman Empire as moving east to Constantinople. Western Europe was slipping into the Dark Ages. But during that medieval period, the church of Ireland grew in leaps and bounds. The following centuries are often called the Golden Age of Ireland. Rome was far away and fading. But when Irish missionaries arrived in England, they encountered a well-rooted Roman Catholic church. The surge of missionary activity arising from Ireland, went into Scotland, northern England. These “peregrini” missionaries even went to places in what we now call Holland, Germany and Switzerland.
This led to the Synod of Whitby in 664 where in effect the supremacy of the Catholic church was affirmed, and Ireland has been a very Catholic country ever since.
However, relations between Ireland and England got very complicated in the second millennia! The Normans were the first to invade Hibernia, starting to introduce change. Then came the Protestant Reformation and the various wars between Catholics and Protestants. We all know that the Anglican Church emerged at this time, when King Henry VIII nationalized the church. That had a knock-effect in Ireland, where the Catholic church became the Church of Ireland (equivalent to Church of England – reformed but without abandoning all of Catholic practices).
Then came Oliver Cromwell’s major effort to colonize Ireland. In the north of Ireland, nearest to Scotland, the Presbyterian church became predominant. A fully reformed church. But in the south of Ireland, the “via media” that we call “Anglican” became the Church of Ireland there. To sum up, there were three periods – the Golden Age when the church was truly Irish, the ascendancy of the Roman Catholic church, and then the Church of Ireland being aligned with the See of Canterbury.
Now it gets interesting, because the 19 th century the iceberg finally broke off the Anglican glacier and floated off on its own.
In 1800, when Ireland was included in the United Kingdom (the Act of Union), the Church of Ireland officially became a state church. Just like the Church of England.
But then in 1869, partly as a result of the Great Hunger, ties to the Church of England were cut. The Church of Ireland became a fully independent entity under the Irish Church Act. Some called it the disestablishment, a term that I wear proudly. I am pleased to be a “disestablishment Anglican”. Oh, did I mention that although self-governed, the Church of England remained under the See of Canterbury.
Finally the south of Ireland gained full independence from Britain in 1921. For the past century, it has been a republic. The Church of Ireland is still a force but in the north, which remains part of the United Kingdom, the Presbyterian church is predominant. In the republic of Ireland, the Church of Ireland is second to the Roman catholic Church. But in the north, the RC church is second to the Presbyterians.
Given the changing demography of the north (Catholics tend to have bigger families) the day is coming that the RCs may predominate even in the north, where the Church of Ireland is in third place.
Here is a historic example of how icebergs can e calved from the main Anglican glacier. It has been happening for a long time, in different places. Over and over again.
Some people call the Anglican church a “rainbow”. I actually call it a “checkerboard”. There are very conservative spaces, and very liberal spaces. Black and white. You can leave the Anglican church, without leaving it! The difference is that a real checkerboard has an equal number of black and white spaces. Whereas in the worldwide Anglican communion, two out of three spaces are conservative. Many of these spaces are in Africa, which explains why I call them the black spaces.
The Rev. Charles Raven stated:
…the charge that GAFCON is a breakaway or separatist group is not supported by the evidence. It is a movement of reform and revitalisation which has enabled faithful Anglicans to remain within the Communion, especially in North America and Brazil. While being clear that participation in its common life is based upon fidelity to the biblical gospel, not merely upon historic ties, the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008 says quite unequivocally that “Our fellowship is not breaking away from the Anglican Communion”.
From “Authentic Anglicanism and False Fears” Archived 11 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine, GAFCON official website, 28 January 2020.
