Thus says the LORD: “Stand at the crossroad and see, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” – Jeremiah 6:16

In Canterbury there are traffic circles at a few different intersections, where underground tunnels were built to allow pedestrians to cross unharmed. Especially at night, by fluorescent lights illuminating their entrance, they look foreboding. Light slowly dips into darkness, almost daring the lonely pedestrian to come in and leave the safety of the familiar hustle and bustle above. Over each tunnel entrance is a sign that reads, “THIS WAY FOR A SAFER JOURNEY.” The cheerful welcome doesn’t match the dark and dripping passage interior. It does save walkers from being hit by a car or bus, but what of the thief lurking in the darkness, waiting for the next lonely person taking a stroll? The mind comes up with various scenarios.

At the Cathedral down the street from these traffic circles is another sign that says “Welcome to Canterbury Cathedral.” Usually church buildings feel pretty safe and peaceful, much safer than the bustling crowds outside the church doors and the ever-encroaching noise of the world. Churches should feel safe. Canterbury Cathedral does, and it looks safe, too, with an often empty and quiet interior, where any whisper echoes up to vaulted ceilings filled with the memories of choirs past. Grand architecture encircles you, reminding you of saints that came before, who made England a great center of Christianity and a light to the world.

It feels safe, looks safe, but here, at Lambeth 2022, one wonders if it is, in fact, safe. Or is it like those tunnels leading into darkness? The journey through is risky. You might pass through the dark and come out the other side, but you might also never come out again.

There is a new way being preached here, one that is much different from the way traversed by millions of saints over the centuries. The well-trodden path is being forgotten. It’s seen as too dangerous by some, too complicated, too severe. Instead, we’re encouraged to come down into this newer way that cuts through tradition, the Scriptures, and all the unpleasant effort it takes to pursue righteousness. After all, it will get you to the same place: the Kingdom of God. It will cost you less. It will take you less time.

In the United States, the Episcopal Church preached this new way for decades, and they’re farther down the tunnel than most. When they began to walk this path, they renounced its belief in traditional sexual ethics, then traditional marriage, then gender differentiation, the Bible as the Word of God, Jesus as the unique revelation of God, and many other matters. The way they began to walk led them down into darkness, and if they ever emerge they’ll find themselves in a Church that’s hardly recognizable, hardly a church at all; not a Christian one, anyway.

Scotland followed the Episcopal Church, finally embracing same-sex marriage, and then went Brazil. Canada and a few others engage in blessing same-sex unions but haven’t gone all the way. England is also skirting the shadows, at times remembering the people that walk above, the places it used to travel, but wanting this new way just the same. It already allows for practices that, in the past, would never have been tolerated, much less accepted. Same-sex partnered bishops, transgender priests, using liturgies to affirm transgenderism, and leaders that openly deny the uniqueness of Christ or the Word of God. The English Church hesitates to fully jump into the tunnel ahead, but they’re thinking about it. They’re mostly in the shadows anyway, and some of their most prominent leaders, along with other western revisionists, believe there’s a short cut: cheap grace; holiness without effort; scripture without context; glory without suffering; Heaven without Hell; God without judgement.

But this is not the way of our fathers. The fathers of our faith preached a different path, an ancient path, one that is narrow but true, difficult but sure, long but with many stops of refreshment along the way. In some ways none of this should take us by surprise. The Lord warned against these other ways, these other Messiahs claiming to be the ones that will save God’s people, Messiahs that reject the cross and use worldly power and so-called wisdom to fight their battles. St. Paul warned us, through his letter to the Church in Colossae,  that Christians needed warning because other kinds of Christians would come and add to the faith they once received. If being led astray wasn’t possible, the warning would be unnecessary.

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord,” he writes, “so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Now there is a call more worthy than any Lambeth call: hold on to the faith you received, and never let it go. He continues, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” It is, in other words, an exhortation to stay on the path they were shown by the One who will lead them to its glorious end. The sirens singing along the way aren’t worth listening to. Keep your head down. Do what you know is right, and carry on.

Jesus Christ is the Way, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But what of His body, which in Scripture is also called the Way? Does the head remain the same while the body evolves? Certainly what is new isn’t always bad. The Church isn’t a stagnant, unchanged institution, atrophied over centuries. But the faith received should be unchanged, just as the Lord who dwells within her remains unchanged. The road we walk is always the same, though the landscape around it might look different, depending on time and place.

Novel systems of thought around the faith once delivered are as untrustworthy as they are new. They must be sifted through, weighed out and, if found wanting, thrown out. No matter how tempting it is to walk another way, to find a shortcut to a new world of unity, diversity, and happiness apart from the commandments of Jesus Christ, we cannot do it. It will lead only to darkness. There is no other side, no other path but the well-trodden way of the saints before us. Otherwise, there is only a darkness that will surely lead to nowhere.