Dean’s Bulletin Board 1.19.2017: A statement from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation
I do lament the divisions in the Church, but let us not think that the separation was unnecessary. The early 20th Century bishop of Durham, Handley Moule, made the observation:
Notes on Our Prayer Book by Moule.
‘Now was felt a great movement of minds and souls in almost every part of Europe, England included. We know it as the Reformation. It was sadly defaced by mixtures of evil. Worldly men used it for their own ambition and greed, grasping at the Church property. Wild, foolish men took occasion to throw over all authority in the Church. Civil wars in Germany, fierce disturbances in England, and often alas, disputes among various groups of Reformers themselves, stained the course of the Reformation. But the movement itself, in its depths, was of God. It meant that multitudes of men were awakening to the need of spiritual reality in religion. They craved for real peace with God in Christ, a real approach to God in pure worship, a real listening to God in His holy written Word.’ (emphasis mine)
H.C.G. Moule, Our Prayer Book, Seeley and Company, London, 1898, pages 13-14.
– Andrew
