ABSTRACT
The account of churchmanship traditions within the Anglican Church is built into the very story of the English Church. There is a common error, similar to the 'great man' approach to history, which imagines that religion in this country is at the beck and call of the clergy or the monarchs. The Elizabethan Church was no harmonious and agreeable whole, but included disparate groups each wanting to move the Church in their own direction. Most of the Laudian party were neither personal disciples of Laud, nor did they constitute a church party. 'They were High Churchmen who shared the religious viewpoint of Laud, and who were in wholehearted agreement in their method of defending the Church's interests both before and after the Restoration'. When the Church of England House of Bishops published its report Issues in Human Sexuality in 1991, it constituted an attempt to face up to the issues of homosexuality and sexual morality.
