Adieu, Church of England?

Professional commentators and bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic have been having a field day with the Vatican’s offer to take in disaffected Anglicans, clergy and lay. Author A. N. Wilson sees this as the final push to end England’s established church—an event, in his view, that is long overdue.

"Although it will be a sad day for those Anglicans who have reached a parting of the ways, for Britain itself, the pope’s maneuver is actually good news. It will formally bring to an end the idea of the Established Church, and of the monarch as that Establishment’s symbol and head. Whatever our private religious allegiances, we Britons no longer want to force our royal heads of state to jump through those impossible hoops. The paradox is that a move by a conservative pope to ease the tender consciences of conservative-minded Anglicans will actually be a move toward the complete secularization of Britain, and an acceptance of its new multicultural identity."