Commitment to Christ

Bishop Keith Sinclair opened Church Society’s 2024 Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference in August. His topic? “Commitment to Christ”.

– Listen here. Most encouraging.

What is the JAEC?

“Established by John Richardson in 2011, Church Society has hosted this conference since 2014. It is specifically for those who are ‘junior’, that is anyone considering ministry in the Church of England, lay or ordained, through training, curacy and the first few years of incumbency or the equivalent. The conference aims to help anyone in that category be more effective as an Anglican Evangelical, making the most of every opportunity to reach the lost for Jesus, build up the church through his word, and send workers into God’s harvest field.”

Photo: Church Society.

Gafcon responds to the resignation of Archbishop Welby

A Statement from Gafcon:

“We were saddened by the news of the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the reasons for his decision. While the Gafcon Primates have been critical of the Archbishop’s leadership, the circumstances of his resignation is not an occasion for rejoicing, but for grief and self-reflection.

The presence of child sexual abuse in the church of God is a pernicious evil, which has brought devastating, long-term effects upon survivors and their families. Yet their trauma is only exacerbated by negligence or inaction in pursuing and prosecuting perpetrators for their crimes. Such failures to act also grieve the heart of God and bring shame upon his church.

We appreciate Archbishop Justin’s willingness to resign from his office, as it shows evidence of his desire to take responsibility for his own lack of action in investigating the allegations against John Smyth, which came to light in 2013. While his own admission of regret and remorse is welcome, the past cannot be undone.

Leadership in any sphere of life is challenging, and no less so in the church of God. Christian leaders are called to be shepherds of the flock. Yet, none of us is perfect, as we all make mistakes, but owning our failures is also the mark of good leadership. While some errors of judgment have greater consequences than others, the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, knows our frailty and forgives all who are truly penitent. He also cares for the downcast and broken, as he cares for those who have been abused.

We pray for Archbishop Justin, his wife Caroline, and his family as the days ahead will not be without difficulty. We also pray for all those who have experienced sexual abuse by false shepherds in the church of God. May they know the peace of God that passes understanding and that heals all our infirmities.

The Most Revd. Dr. Laurent Mbanda
Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council
Archbishop & Primate of Rwanda (EAR)
Bishop of Gasabo.”

– Source: Gafcon.

GSFA Pastoral Statement Following the Resignation of Justin Welby

From The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches:

“My dear brothers & sisters,

As many of you will now know, the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned yesterday. This follows criticism in the Makin Report published last week of his failure to respond adequately and effectively to the sustained and uniquely brutal abuse of boys and young men dating back to the late 1970’s.

We should hold in our prayers the many who were scarred by this experience and for whom this dramatic turn of events will stir up traumatic memories and re-visited distress. It is also a time of great personal challenge for the Archbishop himself and his family, who are coming under great strain.  We continue to uphold them in prayer during this difficult time.

The GSFA recognizes the observations, findings and recommendations of the Makin Report, including the danger of a church culture in which what is expedient takes priority over the values for which the Church stands. As we proceed with the Cairo Covenant, our fellowship will hold fast to paramount biblical and spiritual principles, including those of fostering a safe church, implementing oversight over best safeguarding procedures in the interests of all groups, parishioners, stakeholders and vulnerable persons who operate within the Anglican Communion.

There has never been a more challenging time for Global Anglicans to come together, and for senior church leaders to exercise their professional responsibilities to review and upgrade their safeguarding procedures, and to be held accountable for timely oversight and church discipline.

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” 2 Thessalonians 3:5

The Most Rev Dr Justin Badi Arama
Archbishop and Primate of the
Episcopal Church of South Sudan, and
GSFA Chair.”

– Source: The GSFA.

GSFA photo.

Canon Phil Ashey on the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury

If you haven’t been following developments in the UK, this reaction by Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council will help explain things:

John Smyth was a Canadian-born British barrister, actively involved with children in the Anglican Communion through several different ministries. He was the chairman of the Iwerne Trust, which ran the Iwerne camps, where he had access and opportunity to abuse hundreds of children and young men. His abuse was not only sexual but physical, performing sadistic beatings on schoolboys and young men attending these camps, as well as attendees at other Christian groups dedicated to the discipleship of young men. This abuse occurred in England but continued in Africa, when Smyth moved to Zimbabwe in the early 80s and continued to run children’s camps. He moved to South Africa in 2001.

Independent investigations revealed that Smyth inflicted sexual, emotional, spiritual, and physical abuse on at least 100 people. The greatest display of hypocrisy within the Church that Smyth participated in was his role as a lawyer representing morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse, prosecuting those accused of blasphemy and immorality. While living in South Africa, he ran the Justice Alliance of South Africa, an organization dedicated to upholding high moral standards in society. He also unsuccessfully opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage in South Africa, claiming that such activity would result in “violence to mind and spirit”. The irony of all this can’t be overstated.

Smyth died before he could be brought to trial.

This past year, the independent review called the Makin Report was commissioned by the Church of England and published this last week, revealing the details on what church authorities knew about the abuse and how they intentionally covered it up or ignored it. Smyth moved to different locations and was allowed to take up posts where he had close contact with young men, even though church leaders knew what was going on. One of those leaders was Archbishop Justin Welby who, in 2013, was informed of Smyth’s abuse but took no action against him. His level of culpability remains to be seen, but he resigned today as Archbishop of Canterbury in a shocking statement.

Though he claimed to take responsibility, much of the statement reads as if he was not so culpable, with hardly an apology but with a pledge to continue entrusting the Church and himself to Jesus Christ. It makes one wonder why this hadn’t happened sooner, when he continued to harbor and abet leaders who destroyed the fabric of Christian morality in the very Christian Church itself. The Smyth case was one horrific example of a leadership style that buries rather than resurrects; hides rather than clarifies; and, frankly, misrepresents rather than speaks the whole truth. This moral failure with regards to Anglicans in England and Africa completely compromises all his leadership and previous pledges from the Canterbury communion towards the majority of the Global South.

Again, the way Abp. Welby dealt with these allegations shows not just an issue with a particular scandal but a recurring practice of burying hard truth and hoping it will go away. It never goes away; truth always comes back to haunt you. That’s the case with the Makin Review and that’s the case with the “Living in Love and Faith” prayers for the blessing of same sex unions in the Church of England– a debacle throughout, in which Welby tried to play both sides and cover up the painful truth that there is no compromise. It’s this desire to stay neutral that, in the end, isn’t neutrality at all. He did nothing when he heard about what Smyth was doing, just like he did nothing to bring discipline to wayward churches and leaders in the Anglican Communion.

The larger debate on human sexuality within the Church of England and increasingly elsewhere in the Anglican Communion is certainly not a case of individual abuse. But with regards to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s “spiritual leadership” of the Anglican Communion, it is spiritual abuse at a corporate level that is damaging countless souls under his care; he has refused to deal with it. In his statement today, he wrote, “It is my duty to honour my Constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed.” But where was his duty to honor and defend the Faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3), including the Church’s unbroken biblical teaching on marriage, not only as a bishop but as an archbishop and the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion? So now he resigns for this particular scandal, at this time, in the Church of England—but without regard  for the myriad of spiritual scandals he oversaw over his tenure in the See of Canterbury?

Welby’s leaving leaves a lot of questions for the future of the Anglican Communion.

What kind of successor will take his place, and will he or she continue the fracturing or help bring unity based on biblical truth and faithfulness to the unbroken teaching of the Church?

How does this affect Gafcon and the Global South? Does his resignation really matter to them? And what does the See of Canterbury mean for the identity of global Anglicanism, when its highest leader utterly compromised his spiritual and temporal leadership of the Mother Church by aiding and abetting the worst serial abuser in the history of the Anglican Church?

Is this the final nail in the coffin of Canterbury’s post-colonial domination of the Communion?

Isn’t now the time, at this moment, for the Global South and GAFCON to rally the rest of the Communion around repentance? What better moment to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations and draw other national and regional Anglican churches into the covenantal structures of the Cairo Covenant, ratified in June in Egypt, to carry on the Anglican Communion under biblically-faithful commitments?

Archbishop Welby’s resignation has been a long time coming. What a sad and tragic end to what had been a much hoped for beginning of a return to biblical-faithfulness in the Mother Church. Please pray for the victims of this horrific abuse, and for Anglicans to walk everywhere in the light (I John 1:7-9) as we move forward.

– Received by e-mail. Now also posted on the American Anglican Council website.

Archbishop of Canterbury resigns

Early this morning, Eastern Australian Time, Archbishop Justin Welby resigned, releasing a statement –

“Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Makin Review has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.

When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.

It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.

It is my duty to honour my Constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.

I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer church. As I step down I do so in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse.

The last few days have renewed my long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England. For nearly twelve years I have struggled to introduce improvements. It is for others to judge what has been done.

In the meantime, I will follow through on my commitment to meet victims. I will delegate all my other current responsibilities for safeguarding until the necessary risk assessment process is complete.

I ask everyone to keep my wife Caroline and my children in their prayers. They have been my most important support throughout my ministry, and I am eternally grateful for their sacrifice. Caroline led the spouses’ programme during the Lambeth Conference and has travelled tirelessly in areas of conflict supporting the most vulnerable, the women, and those who care for them locally.

I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honoured to serve. I pray that this decision points us back towards the love that Jesus Christ has for every one of us.

For above all else, my deepest commitment is to the person of Jesus Christ, my saviour and my God; the bearer of the sins and burdens of the world, and the hope of every person.”

– Source, The Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.

An open letter to Justin Welby from Church Society

An Open Letter released by Church Society:

11 November 2024

Dear Justin,

It was with heavy hearts that we read the long-awaited Makin report at the end of last week. It was, as it must be for anyone reading it, a painful experience, as horror after horror was exposed. For many of those directly involved in the events of the 1970s and 80s, those horrors have already ended at their death, to be subject to the endless mercy – and eternal justice – of the Lord.

For many of those, including John Smyth himself, that death came after 2013.

In 2013, by your own acknowledgement, you were aware of the horrific abuse perpetrated by John Smyth. You described this as ‘disclosable’, meaning, we assume, that the police should be informed. And yet you did not inform the police, nor ensure that anyone else had informed them. That is a serious failure of safeguarding, which in this instance ensured that prosecutions which might have taken place did not, and now, cannot.

More than this, in 2017, you offered publicly to meet with the victims of John Smyth, to hear their stories and understand their needs. Failure to follow up on this caused further pain and trauma to these people who had already suffered and continue to suffer so much. This is another failure of safeguarding, in which the needs of victims must be prioritised.

In addition to this, it is our understanding that another failure of safeguarding occurred while you were Dean of Liverpool Cathedral, in which a retired priest who was a convicted sex offender, continued to minister while the complainant was barred from the cathedral.

These failures of safeguarding would be sufficient for ANY ordained person to be suspended and investigated. If they were proved to be true, we would expect the person to be immediately removed from their post. If the person had safeguarding responsibilities in that post, those must of course be transferred to someone else with immediate effect.

In the absence of any authority with the power to suspend you, we can only urge you to submit yourself to the equivalent. That is, remove yourself from duties with immediate effect, undergo an investigation, and act on the outcome. With immediate effect, somebody else must also take over your responsibility for safeguarding within the whole Church of England.

Or alternatively, you should resign.

The Church of England is, quite rightly, being judged by the world because of this case. It is horrific that such abuse could ever have been committed by a church officer. It is horrific that it was not reported to the police by other church officers who knew about it more than 40 years ago. And it is unconscionable that the most senior cleric in the church today, with official responsibility for safeguarding, knew about the abuse over ten years ago and failed to report it then.

You are now, personally, bringing the Church of England into utter disrepute. You can no longer continue to represent the Church in the public sphere or the political sphere. Your words can no longer be trusted and your moral standpoint is hollow.

A year ago, we both indicated (when asked by you in a meeting with a number of others) that we thought you should resign because of your failure of leadership with respect to the Prayers of Love and Faith. Your recent public acknowledgment that you no longer believe the Church’s teaching on sex and marriage makes that failure all the more serious. We still think that this issue alone is sufficient to require your resignation. But we wish to be clear that, no matter what your views or ours happen to be on sex and marriage, the safeguarding issues listed above are more than serious enough to call for your resignation on that matter alone.

Resignation of this post is, we acknowledge, a hard thing to do, but to resign now may be your greatest act of service to Christ and his church.

Rev Dr Lee Gatiss, Director of Church Society

Dr Ros Clarke, Associate Director of Church Society.

– Source.

More calls for the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign — but this time for another reason

From BBC News:

“A Church of England bishop has called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign, calling his position ‘untenable’ after a damning report into a prolific child abuser associated with the Church.

Mr Welby is facing mounting pressure to resign after it emerged last week that he did not follow up rigorously enough on reports of John Smyth QC’s ‘abhorrent’ abuse of more than 100 boys and young men. …”

– Bishop calls on Welby to resign over Church abuse scandal – BBC News.

And Anglican Mainstream has links to a growing number of related articles.

Idolatry and the Church of England

“The Archbishop of Canterbury recently commented about his changing views, admitting that he no longer believes the doctrine of the Church of England on sexuality.…

These comments have rightly been met with a wide backlash from evangelicals in the Church of England. This is an Archbishop leading his people astray. This is an Archbishop saying ‘Enter through the wide gate to destruction’ (Matthew 7:13-14).

But the reality is that Justin Welby and the Bishops have been saying this for years. …

All false religions ultimately destroy us. We are promised salvation by the things in the world, but they will never satisfy, they will never deliver. They will never save.”

– Strong words from Benjamin John, writing at Christian Concern.

Image: Ben John speaking at the Church of England’s General Synod in February 2023.

Gafcon rebukes Archbishop Welby and affirms orthodox Anglicans in England

Here is a Communique from the Gafcon Primates’ Council:

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)

We, the Gafcon Primates, meeting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to celebrate the investiture of Archbishop Steve Wood as the third Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and to welcome him as a Primate of the Anglican Communion, send greetings to the faithful.

We wish we could write to you about our great joy for mission, evangelism, and church planting, but recent statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury require us to yet again address an urgent matter surrounding biblical ethics confronting our beloved Anglican church.

The recent actions of the General Synod of the Church of England, where Archbishop Justin Welby has championed the introduction of same-sex blessings into the life of the Church of England, has galvanised the Gafcon movement in the ongoing reset of the Anglican Communion. However, Archbishop Welby’s recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine in his interview on Britain’s podcast, ‘The Rest is Politics,’ has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance.

In this interview, he publicly states that:

“all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether it’s straight or gay. In other words, we’re not giving up on the idea that sex is within marriage or civil partnership. We’ve put forward a proposal that where people have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage, equal marriage under the 2014 Act, they should be able to come along to their local, to a church, and have a service of prayer and blessing for them in their lives together.”

While he may claim not to have changed the doctrine of marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury has demonstrably changed the doctrine of sin, by promoting the sanctification of sin by means of a divine blessing.

This is in clear breach of Holy Scripture, which unequivocally teaches that the only proper context for sexual intimacy is in the relationship of a man and woman who have been joined together in marriage. All forms of sexual intimacy outside of this context are condemned as immorality and are behaviors from which the people of God are regularly called to repent (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

It is also in clear breach of Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which rejected, “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture,” and which the Archbishop as recently as 2022 declared to be the teaching of the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England.

We are guided by Jesus’ solemn words of warning to the Church of Thyatira, because, “they tolerate the teaching of Jezebel,” which endorses sexual immorality. Only judgment awaits Jezebel and all who follow her, unless they repent (Revelation 2:21-22; 22:15). Any toleration, let alone endorsement, of immorality is liable to God’s judgment.

For this reason, in response to his public comments, we solemnly repeat our call for Archbishop Justin Welby to personally and publicly repent of this denial of his ordination and consecration vows, where he promised to, “teach the doctrine of Christ as the Church of England has received it.”

Gafcon supports all faithful Anglicans, both those who have chosen to leave established provinces where the authority of Scripture has been compromised, as well as those who choose to remain as they seek to reform their province from within.

Therefore, we continue to champion The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) as Gafcon’s authentically-Anglican structural provision for those who cannot by conscience remain within the historic, revisionist structures.

Additionally, we express our support for The Alliance as they seek to stand firm in defense of biblical marriage within the Church of England, and we stand ready to defend, authenticate, and support them.

Finally, we declare afresh to all those in England who, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to all the saints,” that you are not alone.

Gafcon Primates’ Council.
Reformation Day,
31 October 2024.

– Also published on the GAFCON website.

Justin Welby and the Continued Erosion of the Faith in the Church of England

“The Australian Church Record (ACR) is deeply grieved by the recent remarks made by the Archbishop of Canterbury in ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast episode released on 21 October 2024.

In the context of the current turbulence in the Church of England over matters related to human sexuality, Archbishop Justin Welby stated that ‘All sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether its straight or gay.’ (51:49).

Despite the subsequent Lambeth Palace statement issued on 22 October 2024 which defended this interview as merely Archbishop Welby’s ‘personal view’, this remark represents a serious and public breach of biblical orthodoxy from the most senior representative of world Anglicanism.…”

— Read the full statement just released by The Australian Church Record.

Vaughan Roberts on Justin Welby’s rejection of Church of England teaching on sex

“In a significant interview on the Rest is Politics Podcast England’s Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, has denied the teaching of the Bible, and the teaching of his church.

It is Archbishop Welby’s most public betrayal of his ordination and consecration vow to ‘banish error and to uphold and defend the truth taught in Scripture.’

Archbishop Welby’s comments came on the eve of an important House of Bishops meeting in the UK, which considered a request from a group called The Alliance, consisting of 2360 clergy whose churches represent 42% of the Church of England’s Sunday attendance, and who hold to the Bible’s teaching on sexuality.

They are asking for a separate orthodox province to be created within the Church of England.

Vaughan Roberts is the senior minister of St. Ebbe’s in Oxford, and is one of the signatories of the request from The Alliance.”

– Watch or listen here.

Church of England accused of ‘virtue-signalling’ after laying into small parish for not meeting ‘bureaucratic’ Net Zero demands

“The Church of England has been blasted after it reprimanded a small Newcastle parish for buying gas heaters rather than a Net Zero-compliant boiler.

The Consistory Court of the Diocese of Newcastle said the Holy Cross church in Fenham, in the city’s West End, was ‘embarrassing’ over the eco-fracas – with the CofE pushing for net zero carbon emissions by 2030. …”

– Story from GB News, via Anglican Mainstream.

Related:

Going net zero by 2023 – video from the Church of England. (It would be nice to preach the cross of Christ too.)

Justin Welby claims ‘Gay sex is not sinful’

Justin Welby Credit: Jacqui J. Sze

“The Archbishop of Canterbury has shocked evangelicals in the Church of England by publicly abandoning the Church’s historic teaching on sexual ethics.

While the CofE officially maintains that sexual activity should only take place within marriage, and that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, Justin Welby has now said sexual activity is permissible within ‘committed relationships’, and that the ‘majority’ of bishops are in agreement.

The remark has deepened fractures in an already divided CofE, with some suggesting he is no longer fit to lead it if he is not prepared to uphold its doctrine. …

Lambeth Palace said the Archbishop’s views are his own, and are not the official stance of the Church of England.”

– from The Christian Institute in the UK.

See also:

Welby’s comments on gay sex will only deepen divisions in the Church of England and Anglican Communion – Julian Mann at Christian Today.

Lambeth Palace statement – 22 October 2024.

Photo: Justin Welby, via The Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.  Credit: Jacqui J. Sze

Welby and Wambunya : a Warning for the Alliance

“This week the Alliance published the eighth letter in their campaign to persuade the bishops and General Synod to create a permanent, structural space in the Church of England for orthodox Anglicans.

As this blog sets out, the events of the past few weeks show that despite their best efforts, the Alliance is being undermined and thwarted at every end and turn and some serious rethinking is required. …”

– Anglican Futures has this commentary on the increasingly bleak future for evangelicals in the Church of England.

It would be good to continue to pray for wisdom for all in the Church of England who are committed to ‘contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 1:3)

J. C. Ryle’s Revival Lessons — Andrew Atherstone

From Church Society’s Fellowship of Word and Spirit Conference –

“Andrew Atherstone examines the lessons on revival to be learned from J. C. Ryle’s writings and ministry–  at the 2024 FWS Conference.”

Fascinating, encouraging and well worth hearing as we seek to reach Sydney for Christ.

– Listen here.

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