For such a time as this: FCA
There are various voices which claim that all is essentially well in terms of Anglican orthodoxy within the Church of England. The line has held: church doctrine on core Anglican essentials has not shifted, been adulterated, silenced or forfeit. We still enjoy religious liberty, after all! Another movement is just that — unnecessary, enervating, potentially divisive and damaging to the church’s life. Most of the committed core are not concerned about what appears to drive the ideological engines of FCA. Why do they need to be?
Sadly, the ‘facts on the ground’ are unable to support this sanguine interpretation of church liberty, vitality and moral well-being, and reveal a distressing lack of awareness. One has only to think of what is actually happening in many of the leading churches of the land, not to mention out there in the ‘real’ world where growing numbers of Christians in the UK are being punished for holding the ‘wrong’ ethical view and then having the audacity to mention it at their place of work. The current legislation — the Coroners and Justice Bill and the Equality Bill — is but the most recent example of how ‘gay’ rights are trumping all others and silencing opposition, including that of orthodox Anglicans.
It may be that considerable numbers of conservative Anglicans are still managing to retain their orthodox sexual beliefs in private. Given the culturally-mandatory LGBT dogma in the air we all now breathe, however, it is foolish to assume that such is the case. And even if some managed to hold on to their convictions in private, have you listened to the views of the new breed of evangelical Anglicans recently? The posts are most definitely in the process of being moved, and ‘gay’-friendly evangelicals realise it is only a matter of time.
Given the orthodox — say, the evangelical bishops in the House of Lords — are now always on the defensive (when they say anything at all), and LGBT-affirmation is on the offensive, all that is needed is for the fuddy-duddy old guard to retire. Naively assuming all is well plays right into the ‘gay’ activist hand, and is precisely what it is after, for it keeps the facade reasurringly intact while radically changing the reality of what people actually believe and how they operate their sexual lives. FCA is about challenging this slow but insidious slippage, and doing it openly, positively, and publicly. It is hard to confront denial, but it must be done.
Are things truly satisfactory? Well, then, what about the fates of people like Lillian Ladele, Gary McPherson, David Booker, Kwabena Peat, Theresa Davies (for a start)? What about the Roman Catholic adoption agencies in the UK who have either had to compromise their view that children need and deserve both a mother and a father (if at all possible) or throw in the towel? And where are the CoE ‘equivalents’? CoE parishioners say that they have not been open with their views at their places of employment because they know that their churches and dioceses would not stand with them as they faced the metaphorical firing line. Who will stand with them, then? FCA will.
One final point needs to be made. FCA is also standing publicly with the persecuted orthodox in the US, those who have been personally targeted, slandered, sued, defrocked and deposed by a ‘loving’, ‘tolerant’ TEC. Where is concern shown for these victims who have lost their parsonages, churches etc. which they paid for and maintained, not their diocese? Where is the concern for those who have lost everything, including their pensions? At this point TEC is spending over six million dollars on law suits which they are pursuing through the civil courts against orthodox groups who refuse to go along with the new mandatory GLBT-affirming church agenda. Around 120 clergy and three bishops have been deposed, with another six bishops essentially deposed. See http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=11499#more-11499 for the details. Is this satisfactory? If not, why are we not hearing that justice be done? FCA is publicly standing with these oppressed sisters and brothers. Will you do the same?
Dr Lisa Severine Nolland
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