https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/ded7bc31-ca30-41ea-941b-c7782dfee2bf

Very interesting article. I thought the Anglican angle was interesting here (if a little concerning, at least from my perspective—others may disagree). A sort of Holy Trinity Brompton meets JD Vance/Viktor Orban/Reform UK. Either way, it seems like religion (and more specifically a particular brand of Anglican Christianity) is about to enter UK politics.

“Over the next six weeks, Orr was presented with further signals of God’s existence which he found too compelling to ignore. At home in London, he began to shun many of his old habits, losing the desire to smoke or drink. He became obsessed with the New Testament and the quest for the historical Jesus. He found his way to the evangelistic Alpha course at Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in a wealthy part of west London, and quit his career in corporate law to study theology. “I’d stumbled on a deep truth about the human condition and about the reality of the divine,” he later said on Surprising Rebirth, a podcast about faith.

Two decades on from that revelation, the impact of what Orr calls his “private experiential journey” has propelled him to the highest levels of academia and politics. Orr is now an associate professor at Cambridge and has risen to prominence in Reform UK, the nationalist party led by Nigel Farage whose groundswell of support has shattered the two main parties’ hold on British politics. He has ties to influential political figures, from the far-right Hungarian politician Viktor Orbán to the US vice-president JD Vance, who has referred to Orr as his “British sherpa”. He is a close associate of tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

This February, he was appointed Reform’s head of policy. His religious sensibilities, such as the idea that married parents should be given priority access to social housing, are firmly imprinted in Reform’s policies: a blueprint for a new British right.”

Rowan Williams’s view:

“Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, warned against such a co-option of Christianity into politics. “I worry . . . that the Christian ‘brand’ becomes compromised if it’s seen, as so often in the US, as allied to political agendas and ambitions,” he said. “It concerns me greatly that bits of the British right reach for this transatlantic rhetoric and repertoire of Christian nationalist ideas so as to ally themselves with some sort of global movement, even if they don’t fully sign up to the American version.”

Williams, who was master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and supervised divinity students, also expressed discomfort at politics infiltrating the academic environment. “I’m always concerned if vulnerable young scholars get the message that they need to line up with a specific ideological approach — of any kind — in order to secure their future.”

Hey, i am interested in Anglicanism, but had a question. Are there high church Anglicans that aren’t Anglo-catholic? I like the “mass” and its very reverent worship, the vestments etc but I am not sure i fully align with some of the common beliefs of anglo-catholics.

Am i still able to find that kind of high church worship without the doctrine of mary and the saints? Thanks in advance

Hi! I wanted to ask what the anglo-catholic position is on the efficacy of the general confession at mass. I myself am an anglo-catholic and so am confronted by the roman/traditional teaching that one must attend private confession in order to have the forgiveness of sin. Does the general confession and absolution at mass have the same efficacy as individual confession and absolution?

Is this more a spiritual question of my own reception of the general absolution perhaps? I'd be eager to hear the thoughts of people here. Thank you and God bless you all.

I do not normally care for Anglican Ink's editorializing--I think they became more and more reactionary conservative over the last 10 years, but I appreciate this piece by Fr George Conger, I think it is one of the most reasonable takes I have seen.

Prayers with Bishop Edgar and this whole mess.

Catechesis, which I will begin next month, is the next big step in my journey to becoming Anglican, and I can’t wait to start. I feel so blessed to attend the church I do, as I finally feel like I can worship authentically. My question is: since I am the only catechumen this cycle, making this a one-on-one endeavor with my pastor, how should I approach it—given that my previous theological education took place in a classroom setting with multiple students?

The Anglican Church has historically been the vanguard of Christian Zionism worldwide, so why has the situation changed?

Thomas Brightman, Anglican Bishop, wrote in 1607:

"The kings of the East (the Jews) will begin their journey and rise from their dispersion before the darkness is completely lifted from them. Their return to their land will be first, accompanied by great disturbances and upheavals of kingdoms. From the midst of this distress and war, their faith will be revealed, they will accept their Christ , and the thousand-year happy period for the Church and Israel together will begin." (From the book: Apocalypsis Apocalypseos)

Sir Henry Finch, in 1621, is considered one of the most precise proponents of this idea, articulated in strict legal and theological language in his book "The Great Restoration of the World": "When the prophets speak of Israel and Jacob, and by them they mean a nation, they do not mean the Gentile Church, but the physical descendants of Jacob." They (the Jews) will return to their land, they will live in their ancient homeland, and Jerusalem will be rebuilt. They will not return as scattered individuals, but as a sovereign nation, and the surrounding kingdoms will submit to them, and the promises of the land will be fulfilled literally for the true descendants of Abraham.

They will return as a nation and the surrounding kingdoms will submit to them. Joseph Mead, Anglican bishop (d. mid-17th century), in his famous interpretations of the prophecies of the Book of Revelation and the Book of Daniel, the "Father of English Eschatology," wrote, affirming that the Jewish diaspora does not negate their chosen destiny: "The Jewish nation's continued distinctiveness in its diaspora is a divine mystery; the Lord has not rejected his people as a final inheritance. Their geographical return to the land of Canaan is the cornerstone upon which the prophecies of the last days are built. They will first gather in their land while still in their spiritual dispersion, and from there, amidst great political upheavals, the Christ will proclaim his glory and they will be transformed, to begin a true earthly millennium of peace from Jerusalem."

Others, such as Anglican bishops Thomas Newton, Thomas Drax, William Weston, and John Owen, also held this view.

Finally, I conclude with the words of the great Bishop William Hechler, a friend of Herzl, who said, "Thanks to the Zionist movement, we have reached the Christ Age of Israel." If the thousand years are meant literally and Israel must be supported, why did the position change? The situation of Anglicans has changed recently, in the last fifty years.