“I think that once the medieval Catholic mould was broken, there was never going to be an absolute guarantee that there wouldn't be more splits and debates. And so there are. And it is interesting that in our own age, it's sexuality, rather than say the theology of the sacraments or the theology of grace, that has brought about this kind of renewed tension, the renewed threats of a split. And I think the challenge that the Anglican church, and for that matter the other mainstream Protestant churches, face in this century is very much what people like Luther and Calvin faced: in what sense can you go on claiming continuity and universality of some kind for a church – catholic identity for a church – while maintaining this rather restless and self-critical principle within a few. If you give all the ground to the restlessness and self-criticisms, you have endless fracturing. If you give all ground to tradition and continuity, nothing moves and something is lost about the very nature of the religious consciousness which questions itself all the time in God’s presence. So we are not faced I think with a new kind of crisis, but a rather acute version of some of the same problems that were for our ancestors.”
- Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the second episode of The Protestant Revolution by BBC Four.
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