Anglican Mainstream

The article I posted last Sunday about decline in the Church of England generated quite a lot of interest from readers. As I was on holiday (hooray!) I was avoiding posting any replies to comments, but now that I’m back (are you supposed to boo on returning to the joys of parish life?) I want to pick up some of the issues raised.

— to which one can only respond with a pantomime shout of “Oh no it doesn’t!” Read more

From Pew Forum

The evangelical Christian movement historically has been defined by its members' distinctive doctrinal standards and practices. Yet in recent years many Americans have come to understand evangelicals more by their political, rather than religious, identity.

The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life invited Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., to discuss how this political association has affected the evangelical movement, what evangelicals' most important concerns are today, and how the movement is evolving. Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," hosted a presidential candidate forum at his church during the 2008 campaign. Several months later he delivered the inaugural prayer at President Barack Obama's swearing-in.

Speaker:
Rick Warren, Pastor, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif.
Moderator:
Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics and Public Policy Center

In the following excerpt, ellipses have been omitted to facilitate reading. Find the full transcript at pewforum.org. Read the rest of this entry »

by Sarah Hey for StandFirmInFaith

In the past, I’ve pointed out a number of great resources for Christians, including Steve Brown, Mars Hill Audio, Veritas Forum and now RC Sproul’s radio broadcasts. Although, yes, a PCA Presbyterian, Sproul is sympathetic to the Anglican ethos [ahem -- a friend who visited his church came back prattling about the great liturgy, and further suspicious questioning revealed that that liturgy had been taken right from our BCP!]. And his section in his philosophy series on Thomas Aquinas is incredibly wise, respectful, and sympathetic to Aquinas and his ideas — something that might be surprising to those who aren’t familiar with Sproul’s ideas. His short Renewing Your Mind radio broadcasts are a fantastic — and free — resource.

For those in the US, you can find a radio station in most states that carries the broadcasts.

There are also,  the archived audio broadcasts as well.

Posted on: October 16, 2009

The retired Bishop of Rochester (Church of England), speaking at The Falls Church on Oct. 10, described evangelism in both individual and communal terms.
 
The Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali said his understanding of evangelism is “in opposition to” that of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, noting that at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in July, Bishop Jefferts Schori referred to the notion of individual salvation as a “great Western heresy.”
 
“The spiritual journey, at least in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is about holy living in community,” she wrote in a subsequent column for Episcopal Life. “When Jesus was asked to summarize the Torah, he said, ‘love God and love your neighbor as yourself.’ That means our task is to be in relationship with God and with our neighbors. If salvation is understood only as ‘getting right with God’ without considering ‘getting right with (all) our neighbors,’ then we’ve got a heresy (an unorthodox belief) on our hands.”
 
Bishop Nazir-Ali called personal evangelism essential. Although communities are important and Christians are to serve one another, people respond to the gospel on an individual basis, he said.
 
Asked whether divisions within the Church create a problem for evangelism, Bishop Nazir-Ali said he lamented fragmentation in the Anglican Communion, and that he is only an Anglican because “through [Anglicanism] … I came to the faith of the Apostles.” Read the rest of this entry »

By John Plunkett, Guardian

Listen to ad and read here

By Adam Rutherford, Guardian

Adam Rutherford: Ok, would you mind stating your name and who you are, so we have it on record.

Nicky Gumbel: I’m Nicky Gumbel and I’m the vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton.

AR: The Reverend Nicky Gumbel and the founder, well not the founder, but the architect of the Alpha course … Would you say that was accurate?

NG: Well, some might say the pioneer of Alpha … that’s how they sometimes describe me. I didn’t start it. It started in 1977. Charles Marnham was the Curate. It started in the flat just over there, and they had six people on it and it grew from there. Lots and lots of people have been involved in the evolution of Alpha over the years.

AR: I appreciate that. Ok, just to get some background, tell me about the origins of Alpha in the 70s first, but also your role in taking over its running.

NG: Well I was involved gently in the 70s because I was a member of the congregation here from 1976. It started in 1977 in a flat here. It was a six week course for people who were already Christians. And then, in 1981, it was taken on by someone called John Irvine, who was a Curate here, and he developed it into a ten week course with a weekend, and that really changed the nature of the course quite a lot, and it started to grow quite rapidly. Then John Irvine ran it from ‘81 to ‘85 and Nicky Lee took it on from ‘85 to 1990, and I took it on in 1990. It was already a thriving course, and I did very little to it really except to make it slightly more aimed at people outside the Church, so that was when it really began, numbers wise, to grow.

AR: So, in its first inception in the 70s, you say it was for people who were already Christians. What’s the goal if people are already Christians?

NG: It was the basics of Christianity really; it was designed for people who had become Christians. It was only six weeks … I don’t know what the talks were. I have seen the original syllabus, but it was probably something about the Bible and something about prayer, and something about the Church. They had a different course for people who were enquiring in those days.

AR: And when you took over in 1990…

NG: It was October 1990. I did the talks when Nicky was leaving, but I actually took over the leadership of it in 1990.

AR: And how did the agenda change when you took over?

NG: It didn’t change a huge amount. What I found was we were getting a lot of people coming who were not Christians, and I realised then that it could be adapted a bit for them, because they had rather different questions from the people who were already Christians. So, we started to adapt it, but we didn’t do too much to it, so we left it pretty well as it was, because it seemed to be working – that was the point. It wasn’t what you would have designed as a course for people who weren’t Christians. I mean, there’s no way you’d have put those talks in that were in there. The kind of courses we had for people who weren’t Christians were, ‘Why does God allow suffering?’, ‘Are all religions the same?’, ‘Is there evidence for the resurrection?’ … so, we had this course that was designed for Christians, that seemed to work for people who weren’t. So it was that which surprised us.

Read here

By Andrew Alderson, Telegraph.co.uk

A street preacher is at the centre of a row over freedom of speech after police threatened to arrest him for reading the Bible in public.

Lawyers acting for Miguel Hayworth, 29, have demanded an explanation over the alleged intimidation and abuse of power by three officers.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, the director of the Christian Legal Centre, has written to Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, over the incident.

She claims that Mr Hayworth and his father, John, 55, were unlawfully and unfairly treated as they preached Christianity in the city at the end of July.

"They were clearly told that reading the Bible and preaching can be offensive and that they could be arrested," she wrote.

"Furthermore, they were subjected to abuse and intimidation. They were told that they were being monitored and filmed," she wrote.

Critics claimed that a Muslim preaching his religion in the street would not have been treated in such a way by police.

Mr Hayworth, a voluntary worker who is married with two children, has been a street preacher in the Manchester area for five years and he is often accompanied by his father.

He said that he and his father had decided to preach from 11am at St Ann’s Square in Manchester instead of their usual place on nearby Market Street.

He was reading passages from the Old and New Testaments while his father distributed leaflets containing the message of the gospel.

"At 2pm, I was approached on more than one occasion by several police officers who falsely accused me, stating that I was inciting hatred with homophobic and racial comments," he said.

"One plain-clothed officer, who was with the other two uniformed officers, said: ‘It is against the law to preach and hand out tracts: preaching causes offence and handing out tracts is harassment and could result in an arrest.’"

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrea Minichiello Williams, CLC

A HOMELESSNESS Prevention officer with Wandsworth Council has been suspended from work for nearly two months for encouraging a homeless woman with an incurable medical condition to look to God for help, after doctors told her they’d given up hope.

Duke Amachree, aged 53 who has worked for the local authority for almost 18 years was suspended on 28 January 2009 for discussing his faith with a client, and was told in an investigatory interview on 17 March that he should not raise the issue of religion at work.  Not only was Mr Amachree told it was inappropriate to ‘ever talk about God’, he was also told that he may not even say ‘God bless’.

Mr Amachree, a member of the UK World Evangelism Church in London, was summoned to an interview as a result of a complaint made against him by a member of the public. 

Mr Michael Phillips, a solicitor working with the Christian Legal Centre, which was consulted by the worker, said: “On 26 January, Mr Amachree met a client who was due to be moved out of her home because her landlord wished to sell the property.  Doctors had told the client that she had an incurable illness and, as such, could only work part time.  In general conversation, Mr Amachree asked the lady why she believed her condition was incurable,  and in encouragement, commented that sometimes doctors do not have all the answers.  So concerned was he that the lady was in despair and without hope, he suggested she put her faith in God. The lady, however, explained that she had tried religion and because she did not have any faith she was satisfied with what the doctors had told her and was able to move on.  She smiled, thanked Mr Amachree and left.”

Two days later Mr Amachree was handed a letter informing him that a service user (the lady) had made serious allegations against him and he was therefore suspended. 

Mr Phillips, who was present at the meeting, added: “On 17 March, Mr Amachree’s employers told him that ‘God had to be kept out of the workplace’. He was accused of crossing boundaries. The issue of religion, according to the interviewer, should not be raised in a housing issue.  Mr Phillips, on behalf of Mr Amachree, queried this statement by asking if ‘God bless’ would be an appropriate comment.  He was told that it would not be appropriate and that any complaint would again lead to an investigation.”

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Anglican Heritage Network

This article, originally published in Cross†Way Issue Summer 2003 No. 89, the quarterly journal of the Church Society, accurately describes the state of North American Evangelical Anglicanism today as it did almost six years ago.  

It has often been said that the people of the United States and the United Kingdom (really the British Isles) are a common people, separated by a common language. This aphorism is especially true when one starts discussing ecclesiastical matters. One must always define one’s terms in order to be clear. [Graphics: P & S Hughes  here]

Take for instance the word evangelical. It is a good word, a very biblically derived and descriptive word. It is however, a loaded word, and carries with it all sorts of historical definitions and qualifications. One has to know his audience and how it defines terms if he intends to effectively communicate. 

In the C of E and the C of I traditional evangelical Anglicanism (at least historically speaking) is clearly defined. The Scriptures are the final authority in all matters. The Three Creeds and the XXXIX Articles define the biblically derived summations of precise Christian doctrine. The BCP, ordered after the received theology of the Creeds and Articles, defines matters liturgical. Ceremony and clergy attire is traditionally evangelical, Morning Prayer and monthly communion…no bells or incense…no sacrificial vestments. The XXXIX Articles are more than minimally assented to, they are believed wholeheartedly. In earlier times English and Irish evangelicals would have read Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Ussher, and Ryle, and would unreservedly agree with Dean Litton’s assessment that (quoted by Dean Paul Zahl, in his work ‘The Protestant Face of Anglicanism’), “The Anglican Church, if she is to be judged by the statements of the Articles, must be ranked amongst the Protestant Churches of Europe.” 

Evangelical, Low-Church Anglicanism in North America, whether in Canada or the United States, is in the main, very different than that found in the Church of England or Church of Ireland. In preparation for these articles, I interviewed clergy and laity in varying capacities in both countries. Some were serving in the ECUSA and the ACC, others in Anglican jurisdictions not in official communion with the See of Canterbury. Interestingly, many asked not to be directly quoted. Those that did not mind being quoted for the record were very clear in their understanding. All were in agreement that traditional Evangelical, Low-Church Anglicanism of the English and Irish variety is presently at a low ebb.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Martin Beckford, Telegraph

Christianity is in decline in England because politically correct churches are more interested in accommodatin
g other people’s views than putting forward their own, it is claimed.
 

A minister from a black majority church in London told members of the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, that many Christians appear to see community cohesion as more important that evangelisation.

She warned that Christians must not "walk on eggshells" at a time when followers of other religions are "unrelentingly" spreading their message to the public, and said that everyone should be seen as a potential convert.

The Rev Nezlin Sterling [image: Institute of Theology and Christian Counselling], general secretary of the New Testament Assembly who is an ecumenical representative of the Synod, made her passionate comments during a debate on "the uniqueness of Christ in multi-faith Britain".

She said: "We cannot allow ourselves to be marginalised. This process of marginalisation of Christianity seems to be moving at a rapid rate in our country.

"I am of the belief that we in the church are so anxious to be politically correct that we on occasions forget to reflect on whether our actions are Christ-correct.

"We have positioned ourselves like the disciples did after Christ died, behind closed doors, paralysed with fear of the world recognising that we are Christians and bearers of the good news of salvation.

"It would appear that the church is making a choice between community cohesion and evangelisation, and the former seems to be given priority.

"Why do we complain about the decline or our membership? What meaningful measures are we taking to correct this negative process?

"Why should we as Christians have to walk on eggshells to preserve community cohesion and accommodate everyone else when the world around us is becoming more aggressive to Christians, and the mere mention of the words Jesus Christ is an offence to so many of those whom we are seeking to working relationship with?

"Other faiths are unrelentingly spreading their message and gaining ground that we unwittingly have vacated.

"There is no room for complacency, no room to procrastinate or retreat but like a mighty army of the church we Christians must go forward, spread the Gospel and the good news of salvation. Every person in my mind is a potential convert."

Read the rest of this entry »

By Martin Beckford, Telegraph

Dr Christina Baxter, the chairman of the General Synod’s House of Laity and the Principal of St John’s Theological College in Nottingham, said the postal service had "totally underestimated" public demand for religious stamps.

She claimed customers had been left unable to buy the traditional images of Mary and the infant Jesus because post offices had not been sent enough, and added that in some cases staff were unaware of their existence.

For the first time this year, Royal Mail has issued stamps depicting Christian images as well as secular designs featuring pantomime characters. However there are only two religious stamps compared with six secular ones, and they are only available separately and cannot be used to send letters abroad.

Last week The Daily Telegraph disclosed that church leaders around the country fear the religious stamps could be scrapped altogether because their sales are likely to be worse than those of the rival secular designs.

Letter writers to this newspaper have also complained that postmasters and shop assistants are not stocking the Christian ones, failing to order enough and even refusing to sell them when they are specifically asked for.

Dr Baxter’s intervention in the growing row is significant because she triggered a debate in 2004 that led to the Synod demanding that Royal Mail only issue Christian stamps in future.

Last month she said she was "delighted" that this year’s stamps would include some that recognise Christmas is meant to be about celebrating the birth of Jesus. The religious stamps feature the paintings Madonna of Humility by Lippo di Dalmasio, on the first-class stamp, and Madonna and Child by William Dyce, on the second-class stamp.

However she has since become concerned at the number of reports of people who say they have been unable to buy the religious designs.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Brown, Religious Intelligence

The Anglican Archbishop of York says the Church of England should remember how England was united by Christianity centuries ago so it can once again become a "beacon of hope" for the country in times of financial crisis and climate change.

Dr John Sentamu says the importance of the church was underlined when it helped "dry the nation’s tears" over tragedies such as 9/11, the London bombings, the Soham murders and the death of the Princess of Wales.

The primate makes the strident comments in a collection of essays on Faith and Nation, published this week by the Institute of Public Policy Research, defending the established church in response to calls for its separation from the state.

The archbishop argues that the social and moral life of the country depends as much on Anglican churches, Christian community organisations and individual believers, as it does on constitutional arrangements.

He says: "Whether it be the public tragedies of 9/11, 7/7, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, or the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the public outpouring of grief and shock found their voice in the churches of their communities.

"Perhaps more importantly, the church provides the community for those who are daily bereaved, to grieve alongside, to offer thanksgiving and to offer care. "There is little doubt in my mind that a place exists for an established church serving the nation."

Dr Sentamu declares: "From church schools to funerals, from inter-faith work to state occasions, from speaking out for the marginalised to ministering to the sick, the church plays a vital role in the operation of our nation."

He adds: "The Church of England must once again be a beacon for England by which the people of England can orient themselves in an unknown ocean by offering them the Good News of God in Christ in practical and relevant ways to their daily lives."

By John Richardson, Guardian.co.uk

Ideally, it should be possible to say of evangelical belief what Bishop Stephen Neill once said (perhaps optimistically) of Anglicanism; there are no "special" doctrines, there is no "particular" theology, since evangelicals would claim for themselves what Neill claimed for the Church of England as a whole: "Show us anything clearly set forth in holy scripture that we do not teach and we will teach it. Show us anything in our teaching or practice is clearly contrary to holy scripture, and we will abandon it."

This does, however, raise two obvious questions. What does Scripture clearly set forth? What is clearly contrary to it? It is the difficulty of answering these questions which explains why evangelicals are so often divided (and, indeed, why Anglicanism is not simply evangelical). Yet historically, evangelicals have also been able to recognise and cooperate with one another, both within and across denominational boundaries. Though there have been real differences, there have at the same time been what Neill said truly defined Anglicanism, namely an evangelical "attitude" and an evangelical "atmosphere".

To ask what evangelicals should believe is therefore to ask what might sustain that recognition and cooperation as ongoing realities in the present. Bearing in mind the frequent differences amongst evangelicals themselves, however, the best starting point is perhaps a maxim: "evangelical is as evangelism does." That is to say, the evangelical attitude and atmosphere result from a shared praxis arising from a shared understanding of the evangelistic task. It is in the commitment to and doing of the same kind of evangelism that evangelicalism becomes a movement which transcends both formal denominations and less formal ecclesiastical styles.

Read the rest of this entry »

Embracing a Holistic Gospel: Being the people of God in light of a world in need  EA 

A worldwide commission of evangelical theologians has declared that Christians must not separate social action and evangelism, despite the tragic murder of Gayle Williams ….

In light of the murder of Gayle Williams in Afghanistan earlier this week, the commission acknowledged that some parts of the British media have been calling for the disconnection of evangelism from social action. However, they believe as strongly as ever that if evangelical Christians are to be true to their identity as evangelicals, and true to the good news of Jesus Christ as they understand it, then these two aspects of their ministry and service cannot and must not be separated.

David Roldan, Dean of FIET Theological Institute and member of the World Evangelical Alliance Theological Commission said, “Speaking as an Argentinean, I understand the importance of standing up for the right to speak freely about one what believes. Therefore, I think it is important that evangelical Christians continue to proclaim what they believe whatever country they find themselves in while treating people with respect.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Richard Kew, Covenant

(Clip)  I have since I was a theological student and seminarian in the 1960s self-identified as an evangelical, and for a majority of my active ministry the evangelical voice has been very much a minority one in the provinces where I have served. During my ministry evangelical Anglicanism has changed enormously, and in many places it has grown, resulting in a diversity of forms and flavors developing all over the world, While being different in emphasis and temperament from one another these groups at the same time claim adherence to most of the same distinctives. I believe that those of us who are evangelicals are privileged to walk in the footsteps of individuals like Charles Simeon, William Wilberforce, Hannah Moore, Henry Martyn, Handley Moule, John Stott, Janani Luwum, Festo Kivengere, and many, many others, both male and female. Evangelicalism at its best is mission-driven, evangelistic, seeking to bring the transforming power of Christ to the world under the power of the Holy Spirit. At its worst it can be narrow-minded, legalistic, judgmental, intolerant, and not very attractive at all…

…This brings me back to the Diocese of Sydney. My own direct experience of the diocese is limited and many years out of date, but Sydney has always stood out as a significant voice in the evangelical Anglican world. My visit there in the 1980s reinforced for me that there were some really wonderful people in Sydney doing some really wonderful things for the Kingdom. Yet a whole series of incidents pointed up for me that we were coming at our mission and ministry from a somewhat different angle with quite a startlingly different DNA: much of this could probably be put down to history and heritage. However, there has always seemed to have been in their determination to make sure that we do not see the Anglican presbyter as a sacerdotal priest a determination to down play the distinctive roles of presbyters as priests within the Anglican tradition.

The issue of lay eucharistic celebration has been bubbled there in the background for a long time, and it seems to me that the determination to push further down this pathway now when so much tension hangs in the air reflects something of the personality of this Australian mega-diocese, a view that is not necessarily shared by vast numbers of other evangelicals in the wider Anglican world. There is a certain in-your-face-ness about it that is not necessarily the attitude of others among us who think it rather unwise and an inappropriate prod at our more catholic sisters and brothers.

Read article HERE.

A Conversation: Keller, Piper, Carson

Posted on October 13, 2008:  AM Hat tip:   Anglican Church League Sydney
 

A wide-ranging hour-long conversation between Tim Keller, John, Piper, and D.A. Carson was video-recorded at the 2008 leadership meeting of The Gospel Coalition and has been posted on Facebook:

Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6. (hat tip Justin Taylor.)

From The Christian Institute

John Richardson 12 September 2008  Sydney-lack-of-evangelism-down-to ‘Socialism and Britishness’ 

Just came across this online. I don’t know who Mark Driscoll is, but I was fascinated by this, which is part of a critique he was invited to give of ‘Sydney style’ religion:  

"Your culture struggles with a lack of entrepreneurialism, due to the influence of Socialism and Great Britain. Socialism brings the concept that everyone must be taken care of, with resources given to the weakest pastors in the weakest churches rather than pruning. This means you are neglecting to send nourishment to new buds and branches in the name of socialistic equality. The British are not an entrepreneurial people – they play by the rules and operate within existing structures. This has caused Aussie culture to not be very entrepreneurial and new things are not highly embraced." 

Oddly enough, I’ve been making the same point myself recently. I’ve suggested on several occasions that as a result of what is happening in the Church of England, young Conservative Evangelical men will stop putting themselves forward for ordination (and in fact numbers at Oak Hill are significantly down this year, thought this may be a ‘blip’). 

Some people have suggested that they will simply go into pastoring ‘church plants’ or ‘independent’ situations, but my response has been that the UK, unlike America, doesn’t have an ‘entrepreneurial’ culture of church creation – either in the churches or in the wider culture. 

Instead, we treat church like the National Health Service. We may complain about it, but most of us rely on public, not private, medicine, and we are suspicious of ‘independent’ doctors. In the same we, we are comfortable with ‘institutional’ churches, but suspicious of ‘independency’.

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