Anglicans are better organised!

Despite the reputation of clergy being unable to organise a 5 star party in a beer factory the above quote was heard when one cleric was asked why they were Anglican, and it isn't the only time that I have heard similar sentiments expressed.  (To be fair there are those with whom I might not agree who have very good reasons for being Anglican - for example Vic).

I sometimes wonder why organisations who think that the CofE needs a Covenant, when we have managed very well for a few hundred years without one, are so keen to be Anglicans.  Sometimes it almost feels as though as a church we are going through similar troubles to those the Labour Party had with Militant Tendency in the 70s and 80s.  And the effect seems to be the same.  How many people are put off the church by the hard line approach of some members of the CofE?  I don't mind them having those hard line views, but I do mind them describing them as Anglican.

So why don't they set themselves up independently?  I suppose it might be the money; once appointed to the freehold of a parish the central church will pay you until you resign or retire - regardless of whether your parish pay any money into the centre.  Then of course there is the access that the CofE has as the Established Church.  Of course the requirement to marry, baptize or bury all who present themselves tends not to be so popular with the reformers, but there seem to be ways around it.

The CofE was created as both 'catholic and reformed', if people want a fully reformed church (there are lots - I lost the will to live when counting them) then they should set one up or join one of the many that already exist rather than trying to change the CofE into something that it was never intended to be.

Leave us alone with our "woolly" theology and tolerance of difference and lack of clarity about who is in and out.