What on earth is going on in the CofE and is it an expression of God's will in heaven?

With all the usual caveats about commenting on the affairs of another church (my own church is hardly perfect, what do I know when looking from a distance, that sort of thing) I wonder if some comment is in order about developments in the CofE right now. The reasonable concern from a Down Under perspective being that the CofE is just a tad more important than any other province to the Communion as a whole because the ABC is the Primate of All England AND the Primus Inter Pares among the bishops of the Communion. If England goes ...

This is my potted version of developments:

In recent years the CofE has been discussing and determining that prayers might be offered for same sex partnerships. Arguments back and forth in meetings of the General Synod. Ups and downs re people appointed or resigning from roles in the considered and considerable process of formalising the aforementioned prayers. Statements made by various bodies including conservative evangelical bodies which are both distinct from one another and interconnected which represent a kind of jockeying for position (many would say "power") in whatever may happen as convulsions in the CofE variously look like internal restructuring underway or schism fermenting or something else.

So in recent days a particular development has been not one but two "commissioning services", one in All Souls Langham Place and the other in St Helens Bishopgate (on any reckoning, flagships of the English evangelical fleet), for "overseers" (quasi-bishops, many do think) and seven men to lead, teach, and preside at breaking of bread services which are vowed and declared not to be eucharists, with a further commissioning a year from now (quasi-deacons become quasi-priests, many do think.) (Read more here and then here.)

A formal response from the Diocese of London - issued after some days rather than immediately, so presumably with aforethought and canon lawyer consultation behind and within its words - is here. It has the feel of "nothing much to see here" but that is not what one commentator thinks, the redoubtable Angela Tilby, who writes in the Church Times:

"IN CASE of any doubt, it can now be assumed that the C of E really is in a state of schism. After the commissioning service at All Souls’, Langham Place, on 12 July (Comment, 19 July), a second service took place last week at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, attended by representatives of the Alliance network, which includes New Wine and Holy Trinity, Brompton."

She goes onto argue that Puritanism has reappeared in the CofE:

"The claim to represent the true voice of the C of E in countering doctrinal infidelity is nothing new. It is the voice of the angry Puritanism that has been channelled down from the Reformation, when it was mostly directed at those who were not thought sufficiently anti-Catholic. It is also the contempt of those who habitually mocked liturgy, bishops, and vestments during the reign of Elizabeth I. It is the rage of the Roundheads in the Civil War, and the bitter disappointment of those ejected from their livings with the return of the Prayer Book in 1662."

From one side of the matters unfolding, Colin Coward is clear and convicted.

From another side of the matters unfolding, Martin Davie races ahead to the possibility of a Third Province (after Canterbury and York) being formed. That is, although Martin does not specifically discuss current manoeuvres, to the extent that they are the advancing a new structure of authority within the CofE, then they may in the future be seen as de facto steps in establishing such a province.

From a Communion perspective, perhaps establishing a "Third Province" would settle those voices within the Global South (though possibly not within Gafcon) who are concerned about where the CofE is heading over same-sex partnerships. A significant development which provided an ecclesial structure for those whose views align with the views of Global South/Gafcon could mean that Global South voices (if not also Gafcon) would need a nuanced approach to the CofE because the CofE could not be dismissed as a faithless, unorthodox church. Instead it would need to be treated as a church in which room had been found for all sides on these matters to remain in one entity. I use "entity" deliberately: it would be interesting to see if a Third Province meant it was in communion with the other two provinces or not.

Therein, of course, lies an ecclesiological rub: would the CofE remain a "church" (an expression of the body of Christ) if it had three provinces, only two of which were in communion with each other? Other questions arise, such as whether a "church" is a church when it divides internally/structurally on theological grounds? Or, is it two churches talking as though they are one for the sake of property, assets and civil law, but not one for the sake of Christ?

My own desire is that we would focus less on describing "the other" as "homophobic" or as "faithless, unorthodox" and more on what it might mean to be "in Christ" but not agreed on a matter. Everyone arguing the various positions, in the CofE, in the Communion, is a follower of Christ. That we do not agree on a matter does not make one side some set of bad Christians or sub Christians or whatever disapproving term we wish to use to justify talk of Third Provinces, schism and so forth.

God's will in heaven is for unity in the church on earth because our heavenly future starts now and not at the End.