On a more on topic note, I'd like to add a few details about the Church of England that are absent from Starver's otherwise excellently informative post. Basically, its surprisingly liberal.
Ah, good point. As someone who (areligiously) is
used to the whole CofE thing (Vicar's Tea Parties, Village Fêtes, Jumble Sales, etc) it's something I take for granted. "Liberal"[1] is what I'd assign to the Woodcraft Folk-type of CofE workshippers. You know: guitars, clothing styles from the '60s, as likely to be worshipping in a field surrounded by tents as in any plain[3] stone-church, perhaps a
little bit to the right of that church-bus crowd in the film Convoy, and with more kids running round screaming.
Mind you, on the 'conservative' side of the CofE I'd extend it up to those Little Britain-series 'Women's Institute' members who have an instant emetic reaction to any hint that 'minorities' of various kinds have been preparing their now-consumed food.
I suppose you might well say that it's "a broad church".
I suspect that is both its blessing and its curse. By encompassing a whole range of views (and I'm just talking about CofE here, not the whole worldwide Anglican community, which I cannot even say that I've much experience of all the different aspects), there's likely to be both bible-bashers and willow-weavers in
even the same congregation, until, of course, there's something untenable that can't be resolved, and some New Free Church or other gets formed in order to meet in the church hall, from now on, while the more traditionalist get to go back to singing more of the dirgeful hymns that they 'like'.
But I think the football pundits/fans analogy sounds about right, whoever said that again. Though when pundits
do spat, it's often very public.
[1] Not, by the way, a dirty word in the UK[2], i.e. not "Pinko Commie Marxist Bastard" like some in the US are known to think is an equivalent.
[2] Or wasn't, until the Con-Dem alliance, but that's for the opposite reasons...
[3] Doubtless actually
much decorated, until the time of Cromwell! They're still finding highly decorative mosaics, paintings and carvings under areas of old plaster, in some churches...