Sir, —
The recent opinion piece by The Reverend Mr John Deane-O’Keeffe, whilst undoubtedly earnest, suffers from a notable ecclesiological weakness. To evaluate the legitimacy of any Christian body, one must return to the Patristic understanding of unity, specifically the vital distinction between an involuntary excommunication and a voluntary rupture.
It was St John Chrysostom who famously warned that causing a schism is a sin worse than heresy. St Augustine similarly condemned the practice, viewing the visible unity of the Church Catholic as the very locus of Christian charity, outside of which sacraments lose their life-giving grace. To this, we must add the wisdom of Saint Jerome, who noted that ‘there is no schism which does not invent some heresy for itself to justify its departure from the Church.’
The common denominator in the Patristic witness is that schism is a willful, voluntary act of abandonment. When we apply this metric to history, a stark contrast emerges. Neither Dr Martin Luther nor King Henry VIII voluntarily schismed from the Church; rather, they sought internal reform or the assertion of ancient provincial autonomy. It was the Roman See that forced them out — firstly through the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem against Luther, and later via Regnans in Excelsis, which severed communion with the English Crown.
This history of enforced exile forms the fundamental difference between the historic, national expressions of Catholic continuity — The Church of Ireland, The Church of England, The Church in Wales, and The Scottish Episcopal Church — and the plethora of modern dissenting groups. The former maintained the historic episcopate and the ancient creeds under the pressure of external exclusion. Conversely, bodies such as the Free Church of England and the Reformed Episcopal Church enacted a conscious, voluntary departure from their established provinces to erect parallel jurisdictions.
By prioritising institutional exit over the gruelling work of internal witness, such groups chose the path of voluntary separation. In doing so, they took upon themselves the very guilt of schism that the Fathers so heavily censured.
Yours, etc.,
Cregagh
(by email)
