Global South Anglican

Source: Church of England Newspaper

EVANGELICALS laid out detailed plans for alternative Episcopal oversight in a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury on Tuesday.

The plans are believed to include proposals for a panel of retired bishops to give oversight to over 50 parishes which are involved in ongoing disputes with their bishops, and for the widespread adoption of capping funds to the diocese and the central Church.

A covenant was released after the meeting with Dr Rowan Williams, which has the backing of many of the most prominent evangelical groups and networks, including Anglican Mainstream, the Church of England Evangelical Council, the New Wine Network and Reform. A number of large flag-ship evangelical parishes are also believed to have signed the covenant.

Talks with the Archbishop were said to be positive and ‘ongoing’ after the meeting on Tuesday. It is believed that further negotiations will be held in January after the meeting of the House of Bishops. Evangelical leaders were this week playing down accusations of creating a schism in the Church of England. They believe that theirs is the only way forward for preventing parishes seeking alternative Episcopal oversight from overseas and splitting the Anglican Communion.

In their ‘Covenant’ they stated that the Church of England was in danger of departing from a common faith. On mission, they said that those who adopt the covenant will increasingly pursue extraterritorial solutions to the Church of England’s decline.

“This means there cannot be any no-go areas for gospel growth and church planting. Best practice will always involve appropriate consultation… “We will support mission-shaped expressions of church through prayer, finance and personnel, even when official permission is unreasonably withheld.”

The Covenant also calls on local congregations to raise up and release new leaders without the need for official approval. “Many parishes have lost confidence in the institutional centre to discern and train suitable ministers, and fund and deploy them in sufficient numbers and appropriate contexts.” They warn that if bishops unreasonably withhold authorisation for new ministers, they will pay, train and commission them without permission and “seek official Anglican recognition for them”.

Under the plans some of the Church of England’s most generous givers could reduce the amount of money they give to ‘heterodox’ dioceses and to the administrative centre. The Covenant suggests that all of the parishes involved will seek to become self-sustaining and “donate a reasonable yet modest amount to support the administrative centre”.

On the issue of alternative oversight, they express impatience with the strained relationship between many evangelical parishes and liberal bishops. “We can, therefore, no longer accept churches being denied such [biblically orthodox] oversight.”

The liberal grouping Inclusive Church released a press statement based on a newspaper report, before the Covenant had even been released, accusing evangelicals of trying to destroy the Church of England and make it into a ‘Puritanical sect’.

A number of liberal bishops will also be unhappy with the plans and even with the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury is discussing alternative Episcopal oversight. His task in the coming months will be to weather a storm from his liberal colleagues who will feel threatened by plans for alternative oversight, while keeping determined evangelicals at the table to agree a ‘compromise’.