[Archbishop of Canterbury William] Laud's interference in the affairs of the Church of Ireland, aided by [King]Charles [I]'s high-handed Lord Deputy in Ireland, Thomas Wentworth, Lord Strafford, likewise angered the Irish primate, James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh. Ussher was a rare figure as a member of an old Irish family which had become firmly Protestant, for the established Church had failed to carry more than a minority of the people of Ireland with it away from Catholicism. He is now unfairly remembered only for the misguided humanist historical precision of his calculation that God created the world on the night preceding 23 October 4004 BCE, but he was a formidable scholar who wanted to defend the independence of his Protestant Church. Ussher knew the Irish Church's weakness was the result of a badly funded and badly administered Reformation, in a country in which English colonial interference produced a state of permanent crisis, but nevertheless he saw it as a potential vehicle of proper Reformation in Ireland. He was very consciously part of an international Reformed Protestant world, but in his discreet efforts to maintain his position against Archbishop Laud, Ussher might also be seen as the first senior churchman to have a vision of episcopally governed sister Churches which might cooperate in a common identity across national boundaries, without any single leader to tell them what to do. Without knowing the later phrase, he was envisioning the worldwide Anglican Communion. (My emphasis)Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch, p. 651.
I must say that I was pretty excited when I read the paragraph above. Archbishop Ussher was a true visionary way back in the 18th century. At present, we're still fighting the battle to resist the Archbishop of Canterbury's attempt to force the centralization of power on the churches in the communion with the Anglican Covenant.
Image from Wikipedia Commons.
Being mostly Irish by heritage I am proud to read this, but after visiting Ireland, and discovering Anglican Church of Ireland houses of worship in the smallest towns and villages I see how strong that church still is there. I don't have to agree with their stand on the LGBT issue, but I appreciate who they are on this stand!
ReplyDeleteCiss, perhaps the Irish church will come around before too long on the LGBT matter. I hope so.
ReplyDeleteI was absolutely amazed at the parallel to the situation today. The Church of England still operates under the colonial mentality. Perhaps the Episcopal Church was the first to make the reality, if not the name, of the Anglican Communion come to be, but MacCulloch makes an excellent argument for the primate of the Anglican Church of Ireland as the first to have the vision of the Anglican Communion at its best.
Mimi, if you're going to bracket additional information, then I'd appreciate:
ReplyDeleteUssher was a rare figure as a member of an old Irish family which had become firmly Protestant, for the established Church had failed to carry more than a minority of the people of Ireland with it away from [Roman] Catholicism.
Even if Archbishop Ussher considered himself Protestant, it doesn't mean he didn't consider himself part of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church!
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The Irish (as well as Scots and Welsh---not to mention Yank!) parts of me get my dander up, at Pommie imperialism...
...then the English part of me thinks they probably needed a lil' oversight. ;-)
JCF, all Christians are part of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, no matter what anyone says. After the original rebellion from Roman control of the entire Christian church, the Scots, Irish, and Welsh had to make their way through oppression by the English church.
ReplyDeleteIn the previous paragraph to the quote in the post, MacCulloch says:
Taking a lead from more cautious and tactful moves by the late King James, he [Archbishop Laud] increasingly cast himself as a patriarch for an archipelago-wide British Church.