Church
of St John, Ainsdale
Links
Church
of St John, Ainsdale
Links
The Anglican Church is a worldwide community of churches with provinces throughout the world. (The Anglican Communion on-line). An on-line news service called Anglicans Online is available that forms a very good entry point to the Worldwide Web resources (another kind of worldwide community) that describe the Anglican Church.
The Anglican Church is a reformed, catholic church. This means that it stems from the Reformation of the Fifteenth Century and it is open to all. It is an Episcopalian church as it has bishops who have oversight over the churches within his (or, in some provinces, her) diocese. A diocese is a collection of parish units centred on the Cathedral where the bishop has his seat or "ecclesia". Dioceses are grouped into wider areas, or provinces, with an archbishop to oversee the lot. In the Church of England there are two provinces - Canterbury and York. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the "primus inter pares" - first among equals - and the nominal head of the whole Anglican communion and Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the whole communion. This reflects the fact that the conversion of England from Rome started in Kent and St Augustine founded the Cathedral. Every ten years bishops from every province gather in London for the Lambeth Conference when issues of importance across the world are debated.
Within the British Isles there are four Anglican Churches:
St Johns is part of the Liverpool Diocese of the Church of England.
This is one sort of link that we are involved in. The churches of Ainsdale are also linked through the signing of an ecumenical covenant in which they promised to work together for the Kingdom of Christ in this community. There are seven churches covering a population of around 15000. The denominations covered are Roman Catholic - there are actually two parishes within the village, Methodist, United Reformed Church, Baptist and an independent chapel. They work together in various ways, holding joint healing services for example, delivering a card to every household at Christmas detailing all the services in the village and running a tent of witness at the village fete are some examples.
Ecumenism is a significant development of Twentieth Century Christianity and expresses a desire that the whole Church should be one. In recent years the Anglican Church has had discussion with the Roman Catholic Church through a body called ARCIC (Anglican Roman Catholic International Consultations) that produced a significant report in the mid-eighties. A more conservative Roman hierarchy and the ordination of women by the Anglican Church have prevented further progress. More recently, the Anglican Churches of the British Isles and the Nordic & Baltic Lutheran Churches entered into joint Communion. The details have been published as the Porvoo Declaration
Ecumenism is an especially important development on Merseyside. In the 1960's sectarianism was rife in the city of Liverpool. Various areas were Catholic and others Protestant and there was discrimination in jobs. There are still Orange marches but this are now a day out in Southport rather than an aggressive display of territoriality. Much of the credit for this social reform must go to the remarkable work done by Bishop David Shepherd and Archbishop Derek Warlock in promoting togetherness between the Churches. A body called Marcea (Merseyside and Region Churches Ecumenical Assembly) exists and will carry on the work under Archbishop Kelly and Bishop James Jones.
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