Should I stay or should I go? A Church of England vicar’s dilemma.

I am a Church of England vicar. The latest theological, pastoral and political crisis is causing me, and many others, serious cause for concern about our future in this denomination. My question is, should I stay or should I go? My response has been to read and re-read John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christisn Religion book 4.

Calvin’s theology of the unity of the one true church and the dynamics of schism have given me serious pause for thought before abandoning ship.

What follows is a condensed version of the opening two chapters of book 4 of the Institutes.  Here Calvin establishes the doctrine of the church and the right attitude of her members before exploring the dynamics of schism.

Summary of Calvin book 4

Bk4 ch1-2.4

Calvin believed in the one church, visible, whose members are to work for her communion under her head, Christ, by the proclamation of true doctrine and the right administration of the sacraments.  He worked towards this end, but was accused of heresy and cast out of the church.  Having ‘withdrawn’, i.e. run for his life, he was content to leave his accusers to judge him as a schismatic, but his own conscience was clear before Christ.

Point by point summary.

There is one church, our mother.

The church is visible and invisible.

The invisible Church is known only to God.

The visible church consists of the elect and the wicked.

Even when the church is full of people of bad manners and false doctrine it is still called the church.

The church is our mother, where the elect are born and nurtured and matured and taught, through all kinds of trials, internal and external.

Believers are to remain members of the one church until God is finished his work in us and divests us of mortal flesh.

Believers are to work FOR the communion of the church under Christ as head.

The church is true church when she proclaims the truth of God’s word and duly administers the sacraments

The church is the false church when her ministers invent vain customs from their own imagination.

Bk4.2.5

Calvin was accused of heresy, which he refutes

The Roman authorities accuse him of heresy for preaching a different doctrine

Church members are to consent to the will of Christ and be united in good will in Christ.

The church is founded on the word of God i.e. the prophets and apostles.

But the ungodly reject Christ’s word.

Bk4.2.6

In this section, Calvin outlines the dynamics of schism, where the ungodly cast out the godly, by anathema, curses (threats) and so he withdrew, against his doctrine of the one church but, given the nature of the judgements against him (with accompanying threats), for his own safety and communion with Christ:

There is one church in a multitude of locations, like there is one sun with a multitude of rays or one tree root and trunk with a multitude of branches.

Cut off a branch and it dies

The light of Christ pervades his church across the globe

Believers are united to the head, Christ

False doctrine cuts men off from the head and that church dies.

LET them call us heretics for withdrawing from THEIR church.

They cannot tolerate a pure profession of the truth.

I say nothing of their having expelled us by anathema and curses.

To call us schismatic, they would have to call the apostles schismatic, who were cast out of synogogues, and whose cause we uphold.

Seeking it is CERTAIN we were CAST OUT and we are prepared to show this was done for the cause of Christ.

The cause should be ascertained BEFORE any decision is given for or against us

I am willing, however, to leave it to them to decide.  It is enough for me to say I have withdrawn from them to draw near to Christ. (i.e. there is not point in arguing with them about who caused the schism, but it was them, for certain).

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So, as a Church of England vicar, should I stay or should I go?  This is my thinking so far, following Calvin.

There is only one true church.

I am a member of a visible church; local, denominational and in the world.

God is teaching and maturing me in the church.

I am to work for her communion under Christ, by the proclamation of the true word and right administration of the sacraments. 

I do this locally and, by engaging in synods and meetings, regionally and nationally, and also by writing.

The House of Bishops and Genetal Synod have erred on a point of first order doctrine.

I face no accusations, yet, of heresy.

I am not being cast out, yet.

The church which cuts itself off from Christ will die. [Question: Does this mean the whole Church of England will die, or just local churches which continue to proclaim false doctrine? Is this for me to make a decision to leave or for Christ to decide, in his time? I know I am called to be a faithful servant and church member working for the true communion of the church.  I also know a righteous branch will emerge from the stump, in God’s time. I am not being cast out, yet.]

In Calvin’s scheme on the dynamics of schism, i am to work for reform until the false teachers cast me out.  [Question regarding being cast out: False teachers today do not hold the threat of the death penalty, rather, they patiently discriminate against their enemies, choosing not to appoint those who hold to true doctrine until the whole church is cut off and dies.  I am not qualified to know what God has in mind for the Church of England in the future.  Who knows what might change! Reform or death? I can only really content myself by focusing on today, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own, until the day I am clearly being cast out.]