RITE & REASON:ONE OF the key characteristics of the Church of Ireland, indeed of the Anglican Communion, is that we recognise no overarching centralised teaching authority or magisterium.
We hold in deep reverence the authority of scripture and our ancient formularies, butcentralised authority, with the capacity and responsibility to pronounce upon doctrine and life, is approached with a reserve that occasionally verges on hostility.
The autonomy we exercise as individual provinces of a single family of churches – pioneered by the Church of Ireland as a result of the Irish Church Act (1869) – has not been and will not readily be surrendered. These characteristics of our history, polity and temper as a church have particular implications when considering aspects of doctrine, liturgy and life.
I think it is important, therefore, to understand the extent to which the Church of Ireland recognises and embraces the status and role of the laity in the life of the church.
That is why, in the House of Representatives, two-thirds of the membership is allocated to the lay people of the church. It is also why we can never be wholly insulated from societal and attitudinal change.
This does not mean, however, that we fall into the trap of endorsing the ancient Latin tag, Vox populi, vox dei – “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
The church is not a democracy in that sense. Alcuin, writing to Charlemagne more than 14 centuries ago (in AD 798) declared: “Those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.”
(Having said that, we do, nevertheless, esteem highly the collective wisdom of faithful laity and clergy.)
The nature of Christianity is that it is founded in divine revelation to which the church bears witness.
The visible church is the contemporary guardian of tradition, recognising that there is a greater cloud of witnesses by which we are surrounded than merely those who currently constitute the visible church.
GK Chesterton put it well when he said: “Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors.” Chesterton did not, however, imply that contemporary perspectives might never be entertained; indeed he said: “Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion.”
Thus, contemporary opinion deserves respect but requires to be weighed against established tradition as a test of its relative significance. So our reverence for the voice of the laity is not about some form of democracy.
The church does not neglect, but neither does it unthinkingly glorify, the contemporary opinions of good men and women.
Rather, we seek, in the church and specifically in the meetings of the general synod, to hear from faithful people and to find, if possible, even in matters controversial, common ground for agreement.
Let me, therefore, say again: the role of those charged with the service of leadership in such circumstances is not to impose a determination in authoritarian fashion, but to guide and assist the church in finding a common mind through the operation of the Holy Spirit.
Archbishop Alan Harper is primate of the Church of Ireland. This is an extract from his presidential address to the church’s general synod in Dublin last week