"The Church of England depends, for its existence, almost entirely on the solidarity and conservatism of the English ruling class. Its strength is not in anything supernatural, but in the strong social and racial instincts which bind the members of this caste together; and the English cling to their Church the way they cling to their King and to their old schools: because of a big, vague, sweet complex of subjective dispositions regarding the English countryside, old castles and cottages, games of cricket in the long summer afternoons, tea-parties on the Thames, croquet, roast-beef, pipe-smoking, the Christmas panto, Punch and the London Times and all those other things the mere thought of which produces a kind of warm and inexpressible ache in the English heart."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), p. 72
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Church_of_England
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Church of England
14 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Church of England →
Related Quotes
"I must tell you that I Abhor the principles of the Church of Rome as much as it is possible for any to do, and I as m…"
"The principles of submission and obedience to lawful authority, are as inseparable from a sound, genuine member of th…"
"Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles, it is manifestly declared and expressed that this real…"
"A wise Government, allying itself with religion, would, as it were, consecrate society and sanctify the State. But ho…"
"The concept of our established Church is occasionally misunderstood and, I believe, commonly under-appreciated. Its r…"
"English Churchmen are often unduly apologetic for their Church. With our national habit of self-depreciation they see…"
"[T]he Anglican Church...was at the heart of England's – and so Britain's – separation from the Roman Catholic, supran…"
"Then I remember, we went on over to Westminster Abbey. And I thought about several things when we went into this grea…"
"I thought of many things. I thought of the fact that the British Empire exploited India. Think about it! A nation wit…"
"Having myself been a priest of the Church of England, and knowing... the disputes as to whether that Church really ha…"