Writer AN Wilson was on the Today programme this morning

Writer AN Wilson was on the Today programme this morning talking about Downton Abbey (a soap-opera spin-off from the Altman film Gosford Park). 

On the whole I don't rate AN Wilson as a writer - his style is precious, his outlook pessimistic, his conclusions (as an historian) often batty.

But a recent article he did for Churches magazine (official publication of the Churches Trust) is very fine, and one I have reread several times.

He also implies, in his last paragraph, something I have suspected for a long while now - that there are forces in the current hierarchy in the Anglican church that are deliberately killing off (through neglect) parishes where there are High Church incumbants and congregations that do not conform to the new ideologies being pushed through the Church of England. 

For instance, the parish of Keddington in the Diocese of Lincoln.  This had a thriving High Church congregation, but because of parish mergers this church was no longer controlled by its own churchwardens.  Therefore when the High Anglican priest moved on the "Group" parish was able to withdraw resources and close the place down and this beautiful medieval building is now due to become a private house.

In nearby Louth the church and congregation of St Michael and All Angels is (apparently) under siege.  Again they no longer have their own churchwardens and so can be out-manouvred by a well-organised and well-supported clique within the "Group".  You only have to go to Holy Trinity Louth to see what possible fate awaits.

Of course I am commenting as an outsider.  I have no right to tell Anglicans in the Louth area how they should order their churches and arrange their services.  Possibly the other faction in the Group might have a different story to tell.

But I am concerned that the High Anglican tradition within the Church of England is being "cleansed" out of existence.

I wish we could hear High Anglicans on Thought For The Day.  Someone from Walsingham (it's a National Shrine after all) or Pusey House or perhaps John Keble Church in Mill Hill (where my mother as a girl helped embroider the altar frontals).  It would make a change from being lectured by Dr Giles Fraser about things we havn't done.