Browsing through an autobiography of authoress P.D. James, I was surprised to discover she is something of an Anglican traditionalist. She writes,

“The Church of England in my childhood was the national church in a very special sense, the visible symbol of the country’s moral and religious aspirations, a country which, despite great differences of class, wealth and privilege, was unified by generally accepted values and by a common tradition, history and culture, just as the Church was unified by Cranmer’s magnificent liturgy.”

As you might expect, she does not approve of recent developments within the C of E. She declares,

“I have inherited a love of and devotion to the Church of England which is still strong, although I sometimes find it difficult today to recognize the church into which I was baptized. Much of its former dignity, scholarly tolerance, beauty and order, have not been so much lost as wantonly thrown away.”

She also touches obliquely on the vastly different gender relations of her young womanhood when discussing this topic. She remembers that,

“Occasionally our current boyfriends from the Perse or the boys’ grammar school (the word “followers” would be a more appropriate description as we never encouraged them) would attend the morning service in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with us and we would spend much time during the sermon throwing them discouraging and disapproving looks.”

What a difference fifty or sixty years makes! Back then young men were willing to go to church to impress women, and a woman could afford to play things in return very self-respectably.

What a contrast to the situation today in which a lot of young women probably spend Sunday mornings watching American music videos in which badly dressed rap artists demand sexual favours from their “hos”.