The philosophical positing of the necessity of God implies that there is a responsibility placed upon the Church to remind all humankind of our contingency and to speak of God’s presence especially in times of national and international crisis. Recent experience has exposed a certain silence from the Churches and notably from their leadership – notable examples would be the Covid-19 pandemic and the possible perils of continuing conflicts. How does theology prosper an appropriate sense of development and response to changes in culture – both through individuals and wider movements? How can it be made clear that theology is far from being an obsolete discipline in contemporary culture?

Starting with the laying to rest of George Tyrrell's body in an Anglican grave, outside the bounds of the Catholic Church, this article considers how Tyrrell could yet understand himself to be within the Church, within the body of Christ. Tyrrell developed a distinction between the visible and invisible Church in such a way that a person like himself could be included within the latter. In this, Tyrrell's theology anticipated later ideas of the anonymous Christian and the Church as sacrament, his thinking incorporated within the body of more orthodox, conciliar theology.