Class and the evangelical church in England
“I have been asked to write some observations on class in the evangelical church in England.
Those who asked me apparently think that my Australian background gives me an advantage; I am not embedded in the British class system myself, so can be more objective. I’m not sure that this is all that much an advantage: class in Britain is a very complicated and deeply-entrenched matter, not at all easy to understand. It still surprises me that even after 17 years living and working in Britain, I find certain aspects of the class system entirely foreign. Reading and researching on class issues has demonstrated that there is a lot that even now I had never realised, in particular the how powerful are the emotions and attitudes involved. The classes are different, in significant ways, and it really matters to people.
What has struck me most, and what will be the main point of this series of articles, is that running middle-class churches will not reach the working classes. …”
– Kirsten Birkett begins a series of articles at Church Society.
William Taylor: The Bishops have chosen to walk apart – but others stand with us
William Taylor, Rector of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, has made an important announcement – and he speaks with the support of Anglican bishops worldwide including
Kanishka Raffel, Archbishop of Sydney;
Foley Beach, Primate of North America and GAFCON Primates Council Chairman;
Jay Behan, Bishop of the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa New Zealand;
Glenn Lyons, Presiding Bishop of REACH South Africa.
– See William Taylor’s announcement and the messages of support from these Anglican leaders.
Where to now for the Australian Christian Lobby? updated
You may have heard the news yesterday that Martin Isles, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, is moving on.
His e-mail to supporters began:
“I write with significant news that will provoke mixed reactions.
After five incredible years as managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, my employment has been terminated by the Board.
I hasten to add that there is no question of misconduct. Rather, the Board has reviewed ACL’s strategic direction and decided I am not the right person to lead the revised strategy, which focuses more primarily on political tactics, less on the gospel. Having heard this articulated, I absolutely agree with them that I am not the right person for that vision. I have always been a preacher first, a politician second (or third……).
Please pray for the Board as ACL passes through this process, that their decisions would advance God’s will.
Although I think the strategy isn’t the right one, I leave without bitterness. God’s providence works through all things, including our own disappointments. …”
– At Culture Watch, Bill Muehlenberg shares his reaction:
“I too have long been involved in political lobbying and the like, and I know of its importance. But the more I have done this, the more I have come to believe that unless there is a strong gospel feature, unless there is a strong Christian connection, it will be all rather limited in its effectiveness and long-term success. …”
(We should add, as sometimes there can be confusion: The Anglican Church League and the Australian Christian Lobby are not the same – we just share the same initials.)
Update, 27 February 2023 from Jim Wallace, Chairman of the Board – Read more
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet — 2023 State Election Faith Groups Town Hall
The NSW Premier, Dominic Perrottet, was a guest at the 2023 State Election Faith Groups Town Hall in Parramatta on Wednesday night (22nd February 2023).
You can watch the meeting as the Premier responded to questions in the run up to the State election.
In response to a question on ‘conversion therapy’, he said,
“There is no place for harmful practices in our state. Since this issue was raised, people have raised with me examples of food deprivation, electroshock therapy. Well, those practices are wrong, and we will move to outlaw them…
At the same time, we will not ban prayer, we will not ban preaching. That is fundamental to freedom of religion in this state and in this country. We can do both. We can ban harmful practices and we can protect freedom of religion in our state…
It’s not one or the other, it’s respecting everyone’s perspectives in relation to this and having a balanced approach.”
A similar event with the State Opposition Leader, Chris Minns, is planned for next week. We’ll aim to post a link to that event as well.
– Watch here. Thanks to Freedom for Faith for the video link and for the quote from the Premier.
‘Catastrophic” — Dr Lee Gatiss on the Global South’s rebuke of the Church of England
Church Society Director Lee Gatiss is interviewed by Dave Piper for Trans World Radio about the Global South’s rejection of the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“Lee argues this has left the majority of Anglicans worldwide aghast.
He says vicars will essentially be left to decide doctrine themselves – and could get it in the neck if they go against society’s views on marriage and sexual relationships. And he warns some parishes and dioceses could break away and seek oversight from outside of the UK.”
Whose conscience deserves protection in Australia?
Yesterday, Associate Professor Neil Foster presented a short paper at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney – as part of a panel on “The Importance of Conscience”.
He’s made it available for download at Law and Religions Australia.
(Photo from a Sydney Diocese training day.)
Praying for Nigeria
GAFCON’s prayer focus for today –
“Let us join with Christians in Nigeria praying for the elections on February 25.
These elections are for the President and Vice-President, and to the National Assembly.
Pray for peaceful balloting and for the election of a leader who can work effectively for the good of the whole country.”
Related:
What the Church of Nigeria expects of political parties and candidates.
Source: Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion.
What are we unable to stop speaking about?
“Every time I read Acts 4:20 I am struck by how the message about Jesus should work. As the book of Acts begins, what Peter makes clear in each of his first Christian sermons is that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah.
For example, Acts chapter 2 and the coming of the Holy Spirit is much more about God declaring Jesus as Lord and Messiah then it is about the coming of the Holy Spirit on God’s people (though it is about that too!).
It’s the fact that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah that means the Holy Spirit now comes (Acts 2:32-36).
Or, take the healing event of chapter 3 with the lame man. It is by the name and power of Jesus, who is both Lord and Messiah, that this man is now healed. …”
– At The Australian Church Record, Mike Leite has encouragement to speak the best news of all.
Discipling
“Making disciples is the central direction of the great commission of Matthew 28.
I have lived long enough to see this endeavour go through some name changes. …
Many Christians of my vintage can testify to the value of the Navigator’s 2:7 course and to the Navigator’s emphasis on Scripture memorisation. …
I am not sure what it is being called today but I notice a growing emphasis for those in ministry to make ourselves more accountable by having a mentor.”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook writes to encourage ministers to take advantage of several opportunities for discipling / mentoring / help in preaching.
Ordinations in Armidale — February 2023
From The Diocese of Armidale:
“Some good news for your encouragement.
On Saturday 18th February, ordinations were held at St Peter’s Cathedral, Armidale. Matthew Hearne, Angus Martin and Jeremy Lin were made Deacons; Matthew Stones, David Thompson and Philip van’t Spyker were made Presbyters.
This is the largest group ordained for some years and is a wonderful blessing for our Diocese. It was also great to see so many clergy and lay people from around our Diocese come to support and encourage the six men.
Give thanks to God for those he has called to be shepherds of His church and that the clergy team in our Diocese is growing. Pray also for the ministry of each of the men who were ordained.”
(Click the image for a larger version.)
The Life of Faith — by Peter Jensen
New from Matthias Media, The Life of Faith by Peter Jensen.
“An introductory-level systematic theology from one of the evangelical world’s most influential theologians, perfect for the keen layperson but with enough depth and stimulation to be relevant and interesting for full-time gospel workers.
The Life of Faith sits within the tradition of books like In Understanding Be Men by TC Hammond and Concise Theology by JI Packer, written for today’s audience.”
We’re sure there’ll be much more said about this book which will be launched at Moore College on Tuesday 14th March, but is available to order now.
See the Matthias Media website for all the details.
Also see the Recommendations, including this one from William Taylor, Rector of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in, London –
“This is a magnificent book. There is gold on every page. For those who benefitted from the blessing of being taught by Peter Jensen at Moore College it will be a must-have – if only to remind of privileges once enjoyed. Those who missed such riches now can play catch up. Knowledge of God is the beautiful theme – through the Scriptures, in salvation, as Lord and by faith.
This is no dry textbook. Every page drives towards practical knowledge of the living God. It will fill your mind, delight your soul and, above all, enrich your relationship with God.”
Even Vladimir Putin noticed the C of E’s General Synod
Even Vladimir Putin has commented on the Church of England’s General Synod. (Not that we’re endorsing other comments in his speech.)
Church of England departs historic Christian faith – with Archbishop Justin Badi
From The Pastor’s Heart:
“12 Primates of the Global South Provinces have issued a statement saying ‘The Church of England has departed from the historic faith, passed down from the Apostles.’
The Primates – who are all national leaders within the denomination – say that the Church of England has disqualified herself from leading the Anglican Communion.
They say the Church of England has chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith.
The Chair of Global South, Archbishop Justin Badi of South Sudan, says they are withdrawing support for Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who has led his House of Bishops to make recommendations that run contrary to the faith & order of the orthodox provinces in the communion.”
Grieving the Anglican Communion: English Primacy and the Anglican Consultative Council
“After the high drama of the Church of England’s General Synod, we had one day to wash and repack before flying to Ghana for the eighteenth plenary meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-18), hosted by the Province of West Africa.
It was like being evacuated from the battlefield to a temporary sanctuary, where the artillery bombardment is hushed, wounds can be bandaged, and the foot soldiers of rival armies lay down their weapons for mutual refreshment and embrace. Eight days of Anglican bliss, while all around us the Communion implodes. …
The Anglican Communion has been in choppy seas for several decades, but the bishops of the Church of England are now driving it directly towards the rocks. If they do not change course, then what can be salvaged from the imminent wreckage? At the ACC we worked gallantly, with cheerful smiles, trying to believe it was ‘business as normal’, but all the time aware that the epoch-changing statement from the primates of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) would be waiting for us when we returned home.”
– At Psephizo, Andrew Atherstone reflects on the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council last week and the seismic shift taking place in the Anglican Communion.
He points out,
“Global South provinces have now seized the initiative to establish firebreaks between themselves and the Church of England. Emergency action is needed, if the riches of the Anglican Communion are not to be squandered forever.”
Andrew Atherton is Latimer Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and biographer of Justin Welby.
GSFA Primates statement: “the Church of England has… disqualified herself”
This statement has been released today by the Primates of The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches:
Here are some key quotes from the statement –
“…the Church of England has … disqualified herself from leading the Communion as the historic ‘Mother’ Church …
The GSFA is no longer able to recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Hon & Most Revd Justin Welby, as the “first among equals” Leader of the global Communion. …
GSFA Primates will expeditiously meet, consult and work with other orthodox Primates in the Anglican Church across the nations to re-set the Communion on its biblical foundation …
We do not accept the view that we can still ‘walk together’ with the revisionist provinces …”.
Full statement below:
The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches
PRESS STATEMENT
February 20, 2023
STATEMENT OF GSFA PRIMATES ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND’S DECISION REGARDING THE BLESSING OF SAME SEX UNIONS
With great sorrow at the recent decision of the Church of England’s General Synod to legitimise and incorporate into the Church’s liturgy the blessing of same sex unions, ten Primates of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) met virtually on 13 Feb 2023 under the chairmanship of Archbishop Justin Badi (Chairman of GSFA & Primate of South Sudan) to discuss our response.
The panel of Primates agreed on the following resolutions which it now commends to the orthodox provinces and dioceses who are part of her Fellowship for the respective Primate & Province to consider and deliberate on.
1.) As the Church of England has departed from the historic faith passed down from the Apostles by this innovation in the liturgies of the Church and her pastoral practice (contravening her own Canon A5), she has disqualified herself from leading the Communion as the historic “Mother” Church. Indeed, the Church of England has chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith expressed in the Anglican formularies (the 39 Articles, the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal and the Book of Homilies) and applied to the matter of marriage and sexuality in Lambeth Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
2.) As much as the GSFA Primates also want to keep the unity of the visible Church and the fabric of the Anglican Communion, our calling to be ‘a holy remnant’ does not allow us be “in communion” with those provinces that have departed from the historic faith and taken the path of false teaching. This breaks our hearts and we pray for the revisionist provinces to return to ‘the faith once delivered’ (Jude 3) and to us.
3.) The GSFA is no longer able to recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Hon & Most Revd Justin Welby, as the “first among equals” Leader of the global Communion. He has sadly led his House of Bishops to make the recommendations that undergirded the General Synod Motion on ‘Living in Love & Faith,’ knowing that they run contrary to the faith & order of the orthodox provinces in the Communion whose people constitute the majority in the global flock. We pray that our withdrawal of support for him to lead the whole Communion is received by him as an admonishment in love.
4.) With the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury forfeiting their leadership role of the global Communion, GSFA Primates will expeditiously meet, consult and work with other orthodox Primates in the Anglican Church across the nations to re-set the Communion on its biblical foundation. We look forward to collaborating with Primates and bishops in the GAFCON movement and other orthodox Anglican groupings to work out the shape and nature of our common life together and how we are to keep the priority of proclaiming and witnessing to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world foremost in our life as God’s people. Together with other orthodox Primates, we will seek to address the leadership crisis that has arisen because for us, and perhaps by his own reported self-exclusion, the present Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer the ‘leader’ of the Communion and no longer the Chair of the Primates’ Meeting by virtue of his position.
5.) GSFA Primates will carefully work with other orthodox Primates to provide Primatial and episcopal oversight to orthodox dioceses and networks of Anglican churches who indicate their need and who consult with us. This is to ensure that the faithful all across the worldwide Anglican Church but who find themselves in revisionist Provinces receive the pastoral oversight, guidance and care of a global, connectional Church which the Anglican Communion is meant to be.
6.) Given this action by the Church of England’s General Synod, we believe it is no longer possible to continue in the way the Communion is. We do not accept the view that we can still “walk together” with the revisionist provinces as prescribed by the Anglican Communion Office and in the exploratory way proposed by IASCUFO (Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith & Order) at the recent Anglican Consultative Council (ACC)-18 meeting.
7.) GSFA Primates are joint-stewards together with other orthodox Primates of the Anglican Communion, defined by its Formularies and that has been birthed and sustained by God through the centuries. We are accountable to the whole and to each other for the historic Christian faith and its practice in our autonomous Churches. The Church of England is the “historic first” province, but now that it has departed from the historic faith the responsibility falls to the remaining orthodox Primates. We will not walk away from the Communion that has so richly blessed us and for whose faithfulness to God and His word our forebears have paid a costly price. What has happened in the Church of England has only served to strengthen our resolve to work together to re-set the Communion, and to ensure that the re-set Communion is marked by reform and renewal. Only then will the Anglican Church as a whole be able to be God’s channel of light and transformation in a dark and broken world. Only then will we be able to live out our witness as part of God’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
To this end, GSFA will work humbly, boldly and charitably with other orthodox parts of the global Anglican Church. In our own Provinces, we will repent of the ways in which we ourselves fail to keep the covenant God has given us in Christ Jesus. We will ask God to purify and build up our churches so that we can authentically and passionately take the Gospel out to our respective nations and assigned fields.
And with a renewed and reset Communion, we will be able to join hands in mission and ministry across the nations to be a bright, collective light in the midst of the major challenges of our time.
This is what we in GSFA are looking forward to as we prepare for our first GSFA Assembly under our Covenantal Structure (Cairo, 2019) , which will be from 28th-31st May 2024 in Cairo.
To God be the glory as a new light mercifully dawns on His Church in the midst of the growing darkness. Isaiah 60:1-3.
__________________________________________________________________
This Statement is endorsed by the following GSFA Primates
1. Archbishop Justin Badi (Primate of South Sudan & Chair of GSFA)
2. Archbishop Hector (Tito) Zavala (Primate of Chile & Vice-Chair of GSFA)
3. Archbishop James Wong (Primate of Indian Ocean, GSFA Steering Committee member)
4. Archbishop Titre Ande (Primate of Congo, GSFA Steering Committee member)
5. Archbishop Stephen Than (Primate of Myanmar, GSFA Steering Committee member)
6. Archbishop Foley Beach (Primate of North America, GSFA Steering Committee member)
7. Archbishop Samuel Mankhin (Primate of Bangladesh , GSFA Steering Committee member)
8. Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba (Primate of Uganda)
9. Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo (Primate of Sudan)
10. Archbishop Samy Shehata (Primate of Alexandria)
11. Archbishop Miguel Uchoa Cavalcanti (Primate of Anglican Church in Brazil)
12. Archbishop Leonard Dawea (Primate of Melanesia)
Footnotes:
1 The GSFA is currently composed of 14 Provinces from a larger grouping of 25 Global South provinces. These 14 provinces plus one diocese have either signed on to be members of GSFA via assent to its Covenantal Structure (Cairo, 2019) or given written indication that a process to pursue GSFA membership has begun in their province. (See www.thegsfa.org)
2 ‘Orthodox’ provinces are those which hold to the plain and authoritaIve teaching of holy Scripture as historically understood, and correspondingly their ‘Faith & Order’ is consistent with what the Scriptures as a whole teach.
3 ‘The Church of England’s General Synod has welcomed proposals which would enable same-sex couples to come to church after a civil marriage or civil partnership to give thanks, dedicate their relationship to God and receive God’s blessing.’ (https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-releases/prayers-gods-blessing-same-sex-couples-take-step-forward-after-synod)
4 Canon A5 : ‘The doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the Holy Scriptures, and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-Nine ArIcles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal.’
5 Lambeth Conference 1998 Resolution 1.10 on Human Sexuality states that “while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation …” The ResoluIon also states that the Lambeth Conference “cannot advise the legiImising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.”
6 The ‘holy remnant’ in Scripture refers to that segment among God’s people who remain faithful to God’s covenant against wind and tide by trusting and obeying God’s word and keeping to God’s standard of right and wrong. They do so in spite of secIons of the wider community they belong to conforming to the world around them and disobeying the revealed word of God.
7 ‘Revisionist’ provinces are those who take a liberal view on the interpretation of holy Scripture and introduce new and innovative doctrines that do not agree with the plain teaching of Scripture as historically understood by the Church. In their ‘faith & order,’ revisionist provinces and dioceses move increasingly away from the bounds of Scripture.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…