Anglicanism and the reproduction of peoplehood

This article explores contemporary Church of England disagreements over ecclesial recognition of homosexual relationships in dialogue with postcolonial theology and theory. I argue that implicit in these disagreements are competing accounts of what it is to be an Anglican people. More specifically, I claim that reading these disagreements through a postcolonial lens brings to the surface genealogical ways of thinking about Anglican identity that reproduce a sense of English exceptionalism and primacy within the Anglican Communion, and which, in their exclusivist narration of 'true' Anglican identity, create intractable disagreements. I point to a way forward for engagement in Anglican disagreements, in which the messiness of the Church of England's inheritance is more fully acknowledged and in which ongoing contestation is understood as essential to the future of the church.