Anglican Mainstream

by Chris Sugden in Evangelicals Now January 2009.

We must keep the difficulties at NEAC5 in proportion.  The aim was to give members of the Evangelical Anglican movement opportunity to reflect on the international Anglican conferences at both Jerusalem (GAFCON) and Lambeth.

Over 750 people had attended a meeting convened by senior evangelical rectors on July 1 for Archbishops Orombi, Venables and Jensen to give a briefing on GAFCON.  Lambeth and its findings were well reported in the press.  So a meeting five months after Jerusalem attracted less than half the attendance of July 1.

The Church of England Evangelical Council who organized NEAC5 have admitted to an error of judgment in failing to give adequate notice of a motion of support for GAFCON.   As a result people who would have supported it, agreed that such a motion "be not put" on the grounds of poor procedure. Many were also disturbed that in the afternoon session, some, while concerned for proper procedure in giving notice of a motion, in turn failed to observe good manners in public debate.

CEEC has published a revised motion in response to GAFCON proposed by Bishops Pete Broadbent and Wallace Benn as follows:

‘The Council met on 4th December – its first meeting since the NEAC5 Consultation meeting at All Souls Langham Place on 15th November 2008.  The following statement summarises our deliberations concerning the Consultation.
CEEC apologises for the fact that we failed to circulate the proposed resolutions prior to the Consultation day.  We acknowledge that this was a serious mistake which understandably caused not a little consternation on the day.
We appreciate the fact that, following 15th November, many people availed themselves of the opportunity to make their views known by e-mail to comments@ceec.info.  We have heard a summary of what was said by this means.
We understand that what happened at the Consultation together with associated press reports has undermined the credibility of the Council.  Though we are sensitive to the accusation that CEEC is not properly representative of evangelicals, over half the membership is elected and all those who subscribe to the Council’s Basis of Faith are eligible to stand for election.
We resolve to do all we can to fulfill our stated purpose of taking counsel together about matters of particular concern to evangelical Anglicans.
The Council, having listened to all that was said on 15th November, has adopted the following Resolution:
"CEEC affirms and rejoices that the Church of England professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and its historic formularies (the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons) and set out in Canon A5 and the Declaration of Assent.
Further we affirm (1) the CEEC’s own Basis of Belief, (2) Resolution 3.5 of Lambeth 1998 (concerning the authority of Holy Scriptures), (3) Resolution 1.10 of Lambeth 1998 (concerning human sexuality), and (4) the Jerusalem Declaration, and, as members of the Anglican Communion, we acknowledge our obligation to stand in prayerful solidarity with faithful Anglicans across the globe.
We recognize that evangelical Anglicans will pursue a variety of strategies for dealing with the current crisis in the Communion, and we support those who are seeking to work through the existing Anglican Communion structures, those who are working within the framework set out in the GAFCON Statement, and those supporting both.
We call on the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates to recognize the urgency of the situation as it affects parishes and clergy, particularly in the USA, Canada and Brazil, and to give immediate and serious consideration to granting recognition to the new Province in the USA."

The minutes of the December 4th meeting also record that "the Executive Officer of the Church of England Evangelical Council informed the meeting that Dr Richard Turnbull had tendered a letter of resignation as chairman.  The letter was read to the meeting and was received with great surprise and regret.

Richard has contributed significantly to the life of CEEC, for thirteen years as a member and for the last three of those years as its chair.   The Council is very grateful to him for all he has done over these years; and records that it is not the Council’s wish that he should discontinue as its chairman.
Having due regard to Richard’s priorities for home, for family and for his responsibilities as principal of Wycliffe Hall, it was resolved that his resignation be accepted with great regret; and that Richard be invited to continue as a member of the Council."

Some at NEAC5 said they supported the motion supporting the Jerusalem Declaration and Statement, but voted that it be not put out of concern for evangelical unity. Vinay Samuel points out that evangelical unity is a by product of biblical faithfulness and deepening orthodoxy. It is not a pre-condition of orthodoxy.

Some evangelicals who are making evangelical unity central to their concerns and indeed prior to orthodoxy appear to be using evangelical unity for political ends. They are welcome to do so if they admit it.

Their primary concern is to show they have not broken fellowship with those who have flouted orthodox faith. They use commitment to evangelical unity as a means to tie other evangelicals in to this stance.  Such evangelicals are comfortable with appearing on platforms with "inclusive" groups, but not so comfortable in gatherings with conservative evangelicals.

They seem to prefer to criticize conservative evangelicals, whom they call to unity, rather than the heterodox and revisionists who are causing the problems.  They cannot believe dialogue is possible except on the premise of inclusion and acceptance of "the other" as the precondition for dialogue. They believe therefore that those whose position publicly rejects the position of "the other" cannot take part in dialogue. This position would make any dialogue for instance between Islam and Christianity impossible. Yet Islam respects those who hold their views firmly and are still willing to dialogue and seek progress towards a common journey.

There is also difference between those content to work within whatever space the liberal establishment in society and the church allows, and those who have worked hard to create space for evangelicals and orthodox to minister in good conscience in the Church of England.  Those content to work within space given to them gain promotion in the system. The system is content for them to be personally orthodox, but the price is their silence in public and their refrain from any opposition to the revisionist agenda. However, such will find in time that the space allowed to them is squeezed ever tighter. This has already happened in the USA and Canada, and directly led to the formation of the Common Cause Province, and the promulgation of its constitution on December 3rd.

Presentations given at NEAC 5 can be viewed here
 

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