Letters
A wise church
Sir: In the circumstances it was wise to invite a Roman Catholic to review the collection of essays, When will ye be wise?. It is easier for one outside to see the wood. When however Alfred Gilbey (Books, 14 January) speaks of 'the point of departure' from Rome as not being theological, it would be uncharitable not to correct him. It was because the Church in England had adopted unsound doctrines that 'the breach with Rome' as he calls it, or more accurately the Reformation, became necessary.
Reference to the Thirty-Nine Articles will show precisely where the Church of England stands: 'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.' (Article 6)
Alfred Gilbey is however on surer ground when he says 'Worldliness is to be found whenever Christians adopt the criteria of this world.' It is not nostalgia that compels a rejection of the new false liturgies by the essayists, it is that same Holy Ghost which guides men to hold fast to the truth of God incarnate.
By His grace, the Church in England survives; not in the pronouncements of worldly bishops but in the many parishes — not only at Sandringham! — which adhere to the accuracy of the word as unquestionably best translated in the Authorised Version of the Bible and upon which the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer was founded.
Beverley James Pyke
Secretary to The Anglican Campaign, The Gothic House, Bank Lane, Totnes, Devon
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