Posted on 12/14/2006 4:36:36 PM PST by sionnsar
The Church of England was plunged into a fresh crisis yesterday after evangelical leaders representing 2,000 churches told the Archbishop of Canterbury to allow them to bypass liberal bishops or face widespread anarchy. the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury
The group, whose supporters include the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, warned Dr Rowan Williams that the crisis over issues such as gay clerics was escalating fast and could descend into schism.
At a confidential meeting at Lambeth Palace on Tuesday, they urged Dr Williams to create a parallel structure to free them from the interference of liberal bishops or risk a revolt against his authority.
The group, an unprecedented coalition of evangelical organisations and networks, is powerful because it represents about a fifth of all the Church of England's churches.
As many of these are large and thriving, according to some estimates they account for almost a third of its active membership and up to 40 per cent of its money, a significant weapon given the parlous state of Church finances.
The evangelical intervention comes with the worldwide Anglican Church on the brink of schism and will further complicate Dr Williams's efforts to keep the Church of England from disintegrating as well. Additionally, traditionalist Anglo-Catholics who oppose female ordination are threatening similar action if they are not provided with sufficient protection when women are consecrated as bishops.
Lambeth Palace confirmed last night that the Archbishop had held a "preliminary" discussion with the evangelical group and was taking the issues seriously. It is understood that he is urgently contacting all his fellow bishops to seek advice.
But liberals were dismayed, saying that evangelical attempts to split the Church over homosexuality would undermine its traditional tolerance, damaging not only the Church but also the nation.
The group of evangelicals who met the Archbishop is thought to have included the Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Rev Wallace Benn, who is the president of the Church of England's Evangelical Council, a broadly representative national network.
Others believed to be involved were the Rev Paul Perkin, a member of the General Synod and of Reform, the conservative evangelical organisation, and Canon Christopher Sugden, the executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream.
Group members presented Dr Williams with a covenant" making clear they would not accept the authority of liberal bishops regarded as having abandoned Biblical teaching by accepting gay priests or blocking evangelical growth.
The covenant makes clear that the whole group will support individual members who break their ties with their bishops, refuse to allow them into their churches, or who cut their quotas, the "taxes" they voluntarily pay into central Church funds.
As part of a growing resistance movement, retired or foreign bishops from abroad could be parachuted into evangelical parishes in defiance of the diocesan bishops.
The evangelicals believe Dr Williams has only a few months to create a "flying bishops" structure because the clash could worsen significantly after a summit in February in Africa of all the primates, the leaders of the 38 self-governing provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The meeting is expected to decide on the fate of the liberal Americans who precipitated the crisis by consecrating Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop in 2003.
Mr Perkin, the priest in charge of St Peter and St Paul in Battersea, south London, said: "The sleeping giant is waking. We have to be taken account of now."
Bishop Nazir-Ali, who was a leading rival to Dr Williams for the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, threw his weight behind the evangelical initiative last night, saying it demonstrated "the depth of feeling" within the Church.
But the Rev Giles Fraser, the president of the liberal pressure group Inclusive Church, said: "These rebel churches want to destroy the traditional breadth of the Church of England and turn it into a puritan sect. They must not be allowed to succeed."
http://tinyurl.com/ybu7cr
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Presbyterian sympathetic bump...
Wow, the sky is falling down all around him. Whatever happened to the "Not on my watch" mentality?
prayers up for the ABC ping
Anglicans everywhere are communicating one message loud and clear: We want our church back, and we will do whatever it takes to get it back!
That comment reminds me of this stirring 17th Century hymn, written by the first Lutheran pastor to be Ordained in North America:
"Rise, Ye Children of Salvation"
by Justus Falckner, 1672-1723
Translated by Emma R. Bevan, 1827-1909
1. Rise, ye children of salvation,
All who cleave to Christ, the Head.
Wake, arise, O mighty nation,
Ere the Foe on Zion tread.
He draws nigh and would defy
All the hosts of God Most High.
2. Saints and heroes long before us
Firmly o this ground have stood;
See their banner waving o'er us,
Conquerors through the Savior's blood.
Ground we hold whereon of old
Fought the faithful and the bold.
3. Fighting, we shall be victorious
By the blood of Christ, our Lord;
On our foreheads, bright and glorious,
Shines the witness of His Word;
Spear and shield on battle-field,
His great name we cannot yield.
4. When His servants stand before Him,
Each receiving his reward;
When His saints in light adore Him,
Giving glory to the Lord,
"Victory!" our songs shall be
Like the thunder of the sea.
The Lutheran Hymnal:
Hymn #472
Text: Jude 3
Author: Justus Falckner, 1697, cento
Translated by: Emma R. Bevan, 1858
Titled: "Auf, ihr Christen, Christi Glieder"
Composer: Joachim Neander, 1680
Tune: "Neander"
I'm very encouraged that 1/3 of church goers in England are some sort of evangelical...AND that they are finally standing up for the truth of the Gospel against the revisionists. (Of course something like 95% of England are not church-goers, but that's another matter). Still it's exciting that things are happening.
We need to pray (hard) for divine courage for Rowan Williams!
Add in the other side of the theological coin - the Anglo Catholics, who should have common cause with the Evangelicals on this issue.
Why the Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals remain part of the same church has never made any sense to me.
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