Article by Daniel Inman in “The Critic”.

Excerpts:

Here still lies the unique responsibility and opportunity of the Church of England. Informed by the post-liberalism that has shaped so much of public life in the past thirty years, the Church has too often been colluded with those who would reduce the nation to a set of “communities” — religious and secular — who share only fragments of a common moral language. It can hardly be surprising, then, that the evidence of young people returning to church suggests they come not for the softened rhetoric of progressive piety, but to encounter a mysterium tremendum — something deeper and more enduring than a wellness talk or the bureaucratic activism of the lanyard class. They are drawn when the Church dares to draw upon its liturgical, symbolic and aesthetic depths, animated by the countenance of God, pointing each of us beyond politics and markets to that “Fatherhood” which can bind us together and which alone can sustain civilisation.

[. . .]

Here are salient lessons for both Church, Crown and Parliament. If a new archbishop of Canterbury continues the Church of England’s enthusiasm for self-flagellation and ignorance of its own traditions of political theology, it may miss its final opportunity to hold not only itself together, but also the nation. And while our present Sovereign understands the power of symbol and religion to bind the nation together, will this be true of the next generation? Or will the forces of the day conspire to further disenchant the nation until what remains of us is a common enthusiasm for mental-health programmes and the national football team?