Why Anglican Reflection?

What does it mean to be Anglican in 2020? Is it a good thing, a bad thing or a meaningless thing? I'm starting a new blog reflecting on Anglicanism in 2020. What it is and where it's going - right and wrong. I'm especially writing from a UK perspective, but no-one can these days fail to reflect on the broader Anglican communion and its issues

Some of you may have had a chance to read my old blog, which was called Northern Souls. That reflected a time when I was a Church of England minister. Something I was for 10 years, but at this present moment that is something I am not. At least I don't have a post and I'm not seeking one. I stopped that blog in part because it was about reflecting on ministry - ministry in the north of England in deprived communities and ministry in the Church of England in the Twenty First Century. If I'm not in that ministry, it's a little more difficult to write about it. I am, however, still interested in reflecting on what is going on in Anglicanism. Hence this blog.

If you read my old blog, then you'll know that I write from what would be considered a Reformed or Evangelical or Conservative Evangelical perspective. You can choose your label! In that bracket, I'm certainly not unusual in stepping away from the Church of England. There is a steady trickle of people like me, leaving ministry, planting with other Anglican, but not Church of England, organisations, or leaving Anglicanism to minister in independent churches or other denominations.

Even since I have left, only a couple of months ago, there has been a steady stream of things to encourage that - whether ongoing scandals within evangelicalism in the Church of England, an appointment to the Archbishop of York of someone who seems to be pretty antagonistic to orthodox Christianity, or a statement and then apologies about civil partnerships!

I like writing and thinking about the church I was baptised in and grew up in. I still go to a Church of England church and I still love historical, Reformed Anglicanism. However, I hope being in a different position - perhaps less invested at a personal level - might give me a chance to write with more clarity about Anglican history, theology and current events. Maybe that might be useful to you to read. I hope so. I think it will be useful for me to write!