Faith healing

Although I am certain that there is no simple answer to all Britain's current woes, I am of the opinion that at the heart of the problem is the moral breakdown that has occurred since the emergence of the post-Christian society which we now inhabit.

I've gone over the reasons why I believe it was a disaster to abandon our Christian values and submit to moral relativity before - so I won't bore you with those again - but I don't think I mentioned previously that the Church of England was a willing participant in its own decline.

The CofE surrendered to the liberal agenda on all sorts of issues without ever having a good reason for doing so., but the crucial thing for people of faith is that they must BELIEVE in that faith - otherwise what is the point?

The CofE was so quick to abandon so many of its core principles in a rush to be seen as "tolerant" it forgot that the underlying message of such an abandonment was bound to be "believe whatever you want" - and if a church stops believing then it is inevitable that its followers will either stop believing too or look elsewhere.

It is time for the CofE to stop trying to be all things to all people and start putting the majority of its constituents above all others. They should start by getting rid of the awful, happy clappy services and restore some gravitas to Sunday mornings - I really don't want to be hugging all and sundry or clapping along to the limp strains of a guitar. I don't want to be listening to endless sermons about how we must all do our bit for "climate change" (trust in God, he'll take care of it) or having more guilt shoved on my shoulders over Burmese cyclones or Chinese earthquakes (yes, they are awful and I do what I can, but I have other priorities).

I want to listen to the grand anthemic hymns with the church reverberating to the church organ (our local church has a fine organ though you'd hardly know it as it gets so little use). I want to hear solemn sermons of Christian morality not wishy washy apologetic moralising.

The decline of the CofE has not been halted by their surrender to the liberal agenda - it has been accelerated by it. No one will follow a weak faith - they want a church to be confident and serious. As long as the CofE remains in the grip of the liberal bishops this isn't going to happen - and as long as they stay that way they will continue to leech followers to other branches of Christianity as well as other faiths - notably Islam.

Anglicanism is in need of some serious faith healing.