Departure from the Truth
The Free Church of England (FCE) is an Episcopalian body which split from the Church of England in 1844 as a result of concern over the growth of Anglo-Catholic views within the English national Church. However, in April this year, an FCE congregation in Exeter left the denomination because “of its departure from the historic Christian faith upon which it was founded”.
That such a departure has taken place is clear from a statement by Rev Calvin Robinson, an FCE deacon (the first step on the ministerial ladder in Anglican Churches). As reported in the Protestant Truth magazine, he claims to be an Anglo-Catholic, stating, “I don’t subscribe to papal infallibility, but I do the rosary daily; I love the Book of Common Prayer, but I go to mass regularly”.
Obviously this man does not swallow the whole of Roman Catholic error, but he seems to believe some critical parts of it. To “do the rosary” involves the worship of Mary. She would have been horrified if worship was addressed to her. Even an angel objected when the Apostle John “fell at his feet to worship him”; he told John: “See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant” (Rev 19:10). And the mass is blasphemous: it involves a mere man claiming to transform a wafer and wine into the body and blood of the Saviour.