Challenges we face — 2009 AGM

Posted on July 17, 2009 
Filed under News

Mark ThompsonACL President, Dr Mark Thompson, spoke at last night’s ACL Annual General Meeting —

The clarity which Peter Jensen’s leadership has given us on the priority of evangelism and necessity of directing our resources to this end is something for which we can thank God. As we face the end of his episcopate, the challenge is not only to maintain that priority but to build on the strategies put in place over the last eight years which have given expression to it. We certainly do not want to go back, but we can’t afford to stand still either. We need to press ahead, thinking creatively about how to maximise our opportunities to proclaim Christ in a rapidly changing culture.

Thank you all for coming to this rather truncated edition of the ACL Annual General Meeting. We’ve shortened and streamlined the agenda for this meeting because this year we have added another item to our calendar, the Centenary Dinner on 3rd September.

As you know, on that occasion we will not only have an opportunity to celebrate the ACL’s 100 years of energetic activity for the gospel in this diocese and beyond, but in an after-dinner conversation between our Archbishop, Peter Jensen, and one of the world’s leading authorities on Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation, Ashley Null, we will be given the opportunity to think about the next hundred years and beyond. What is the nature and future of true Anglicanism? Does it have a future? Should it have a future? If you haven’t already done so, you should book your place as soon as possible.

So as a result of this extra commitment in our yearly program, we have had to make some cuts elsewhere and one of the most obvious places for worthwhile cuts is the President’s Address at the Annual General Meeting. In the very brief time I have left to address this meeting, then, I simply want to place on our agenda what I think are five of the key challenges facing the ACL in the next few years, challenges which we need to address alongside and through our monthly business of recommending gospel-minded men and women for responsible positions within our diocese.

The first challenge is to engage more and more people, especially people in their twenties and thirties, and especially, I should say, young women, with the vision of the ACL. In a post-denominational age, it is not immediately apparent to many why we would give our energies to the political processes of the diocese. Institutions in general have an unpleasant odour about them, perhaps religious institutions in particular. Some are arguing that the only future is abandoning the old structures and creating new ones outside of them which will eventually replace them. However, in the structures of this diocese we have an incredible resource for the main business of congregational ministry and the evangelisation of our city. It is in very significant ways a valuable inheritance, given to us by past generations of gospel-minded men and women who were determined to see others come to Christ and brought to maturity in him through a prayerful and Spirit-directed ministry of the word of God. Our task over the next few years in particular will be to convince people that the platform the diocese provides for congregational ministry and evangelism is a useful one, one that is worth preserving, and one which requires deliberate, godly, biblically-informed political activity in order to preserve it. To this end, I am very glad that the task force that Warwick de Jersey has been heading has seen this challenge and has incorporated it into their revision of our mission statement and strategic directions document. Without a conscience effort in this direction, we can bang on all we like about recruitment but are likely only to see our active membership dwindle rather than increase.

The second challenge is one that, quite frankly, I never expected us to face in this diocese. We, along with others, will need to guard our diocese’s long-standing commitment to rigorous theological education as the foundation upon which to build effective long-term gospel ministry. Pragmatism is not entirely evil, of course. There is a place for principled pragmatism. None of us wants to persist with methods or structures which are plainly not working. However, it is precisely the ‘principled’ part of principled pragmatism which is under renewed pressure just at the moment. Some are arguing that we need simply to get on with the work and if that means settling for less theological rigour then that is a price we must be prepared to pay. We can afford to trim the investment we have made in educating our gospel workers as thoroughly as possible. Not that I’m suggesting the way we’ve always done things has been perfect. However, a significant part of the current strength of our diocese is fifty years at least of serious commitment to theologically-driven decision making. I am suggesting that we must guard that commitment and do what we must to resist and help others to resist the current pressure to downplay the necessity of a thorough theological education. Without it we run the risk of undermining theologically-driven decision making in the future.

A third challenge before us is that of helping people, including our own people, to see how we can build upon the advances of the last eight years. The clarity which Peter Jensen’s leadership has given us on the priority of evangelism and necessity of directing our resources to this end is something for which we can thank God. As we face the end of his episcopate, the challenge is not only to maintain that priority but to build on the strategies put in place over the last eight years which have given expression to it. We certainly do not want to go back, but we can’t afford to stand still either. We need to press ahead, thinking creatively about how to maximise our opportunities to proclaim Christ in a rapidly changing culture. For the foreseeable future, constant change will be a feature of the world in which we live as Jesus’ disciples. Maintaining direction while embracing and even initiating change is a challenge we can’t afford to ignore.

The fourth challenge worth noting is the challenge brought to us by the Global Financial Crisis and our diocese’s own substantial losses in that context. While I don’t want to pre-empt the pre-synod meetings which have been organised, I think we can expect some reaction to what has happened in our synod this October. The challenge before us is to help people maintain our focus and not to be distracted from gospel priorities by the realities of tougher financial times. We may need to keep repeating that it is not our theological direction or the diocesan mission or even our Archbishop’s vision which has created this problem. It may be that we should change some of our financial procedures and trim some our expectations for funding from diocesan reserves. However, we can’t allow this to become an excuse for not staying the course.

The final challenge I want to mention is a particularly difficult one. In the last three years we as a diocese have become increasingly involved in the support of our Anglican brothers and sisters who are taking a stand against immorality and apostasy in the Anglican Communion. Our involvement in GAFCON and the establishment of the FCA has been significant and we have made it clear that we recognise and stand alongside men like Jim Packer and David Short in Canada, and the Primates of the Global South. The alliances created between Anglo-Catholics, Charismatics and evangelical Anglicans have been incredibly productive. Real respect and fellowship has been established across these traditional divides. The challenge will be to maintain our ties and involvement over an extended period while remaining unambiguously Protestant, reformed and evangelical. Great differences are submerged beneath our current common cause to support each other in the face of institutionally sanctioned sin and apostasy. We can’t pretend that those differences do not matter and we must resist the temptation to consider them purely secondary issues. The ACL has been one of the guardians of our Protestant and reformed evangelical heritage. We have done that principally through our involvement in the political processes of the diocese but when needed in other ways as well. We may need to gently remind each other from time to time of the differences as well as the common ground that characterises our current association. There is always the danger that our commitment to working together with our Anglo-Catholic and Charismatic brothers will be misunderstood as a loosening of our commitment to those theological perspectives we have always insisted are faithful expressions of the teaching of Scripture.

Five key challenges. There are of course others, some we are aware of, others we are not, at least not yet. Winning and maintaining engagement with our vision, preserving our commitment to a richly theological approach to church ministry and evangelism, building on the advances of the past eight years, responding appropriately to very different financial circumstances, and making the most of our opportunity to take a stand for the gospel in the international arena while remaining firmly committed to Protestant, reformed, evangelical theology — let’s not lose sight of those because they are with us now.

2008–9 has been a good year for the ACL. We are in as strong a position politically as we have ever been. We retain the confidence of the synod in very large measure and the Standing Committee as well. Nigel Fortescue’s leadership of our elections task force has given it a new vitality and effectiveness. Our website continues to be used by people all over the world. Colin Mackellar’s work there has been outstanding. Exciting days lie ahead. The first one hundred years have been full of challenges and by God’s grace the ACL has been able to meet them and be used to keep the focus of the diocese and its structures on the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we face the challenges of the next one hundred years the most important thing for us to remember is our dependence upon God which shows itself in a commitment to pray before, while and after we act.