Sift,—The Church of England is, of course, vulner- able (more
than it ought to be) to the sort of attack made upon it by Auberon Waugh. Nevertheless, his article is a reminder of how thankful we should be that the C of E with all its many faults and in- adequacies has (after it had taken a hundred years or so to establish its illogical position) probably saved this country from the unpleasant extremes of bigotry and cold intolerance.
It may be illogical to allow equal importance to the objective authority of the sacraments and to the subjective force of personal inspiration, but in the end perhaps its very flexibility will enable the Church of England to continue to uphold valuable catholic traditions when more rigid and monolithic structures have begun to topple because of the inevitable upsurge of modern individuality. What will happen when the rank and file of Christians everywhere really begin to think for them- selves? Some, like Fr Charles Davis, for example, may leave the Church altogether. Others will no doubt continue delicately to balance an almost per- versely ardent spirituality with a cultivated worldli- ness, aided by a highly developed sense of paradox and sustained by a strong consciousness of superiority. Others again may continue to belong even to such an institution as the Church of England, making allowances for its inconsistencies and realising that it is incapable of providing authoritative answers to all the problems of faith, yet finding comfort and fresh insights within its fellowship.
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