Open Evangelicalism, NEAC 2008 and the future of the Church of England
The Church of England Evangelical Council website is now advertising ‘NEAC 2008’ – a consultation in continuity with the previous ‘National Evangelical Anglican Consultations’. Meanwhile, on the Fulcrum website, there are rumblings about whether this is going to be truly ‘representative’ of the current state of Anglican Evangelicalism in England. …
Fulcrum was founded in reaction to the direction being taken during the organizing of the last residential NEAC, at Blackpool in 2003. … Since then, Fulcrum has claimed the ‘Evangelical Centre’ and, simultaneously, has steadfastly opposed more Conservative groupings such as Reform, and initiatives such as GAFCON. In effect, therefore, it has formalized the divisions in Evangelicalism between its Conservative and Open strands.
Thus Evangelical unity in the Church of England is probably at an all-time low since the end of the Second World War. …
– John Richardson provides an insight into the state of ‘evangelicalism’ in the Church of England at The Ugley Vicar.
What seems like an age ago (1993), we published this article by John on the then state of UK Evangelicalism – in the ACL’s newsletter.
Who needs church?
Two recent broadcasts from ‘The White Horse Inn’ may be of interest to our readers –
1.) Who Needs Church? – “In his recent book Revolution, George Barna suggests that Christians no longer need to join churches, but rather should simply look for life-coaches, and helpful information for spiritual growth via the internet.”
2.) Calling the Sheep to Become “Self-Feeders”? – “A recent study conducted by Willow Creek Community Church discovered that the most committed among their church members were the most vocal about the lack of theological depth, and were among the the most dissatisfied with the worship.”
Both broadcasts look at contemporary attacks on the biblical doctrine of the church.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…