Anglican spokesmen (and they have consistently been spokesmen) have adopted the strange habit of talking down the future of Anglicanism. They have stressed its provisional nature and spoken of its need to find itself assimilated into the wider Church. They seem to have difficulty in finding a rationale for the existence of Anglicanism. The tendency is not confined to the Church of England. The US bishop Stephen Bayne, the first executive officer of the Anglican Communion,