Tradition has it that St Peter fleeing from Rome at the time of the persecution of Nero met the ascended Lord coming into the city and asked him ‘Domine quo vadis’ (Lord, where you are going?). The question ‘Where are you going’ is one that Christians frequently need to ask themselves. Are they going to their God-given destiny, or are they pleasing themselves? Do they serve Christ or personal whim?
This series of essays written by traditionalist members of the State Churches of Northern Europe seeks to ask this question of those Churches, at a time when orthodox Christians are no longer in unity with the majority, and when many of their assertions are taken to be falsehoods. This has the effect of driving traditionalists to the fringes of the Church they have loved. There is an irony in the fact that they are the most unhappy of people. They suffer at the hands of the Church, yet for them the Church is both an instrument of the kingdom and a part of Christ’s plan for the salvation of mankind.
How should orthodox Christians respond, utterly committed as they are to the restoration of the universal in the lives of their local Churches? How are they to survive in a community which is at times faithless, at other times apostate, and acts in a way that often deliberately excludes orthodox belief and practise?
The Editor: John Broadhurst is the Suffragan Bishop of Fulham, before which he was Team Rector in Wood Green in North London. He has been a member of the General Synod, the General Synod Standing Committee, and the Anglican Consultative Council. He has been the Chairman of Forward in Faith since 1992.
