Church of England to Divide?

The Bishop of Durham, The Rt. Rev. Dr. N. T. Wright has come out blasting a Covenant drawn up by a coalition of Church of England Evangelicals who have said they will break with bishops who do not proclaim a clear unequivocal gospel and they will train a new generation of ministers and clerics committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They also said they will also no longer give financially to the Church of England to support structures antithetical to the gospel and support only self sustaining centers. They also believe that the Church of England has now become two churches - one which is focused around the gospel, the other that gives priority to human reason over Scripture, and because of it they can no longer support the present structures in the Church of England.

The signers include such illustrious figures as evangelical patriarch the Rev. Dr. John R. W. Stott, Bishop Wallace Benn, President of the Church of England Evangelical Council, The Rev. Dick Lucas, The Rev. David Phillips, (Director of Church Society and the leadership of Church Society), The Rev. Simon Vibert (St Luke’s Wimbledon Park, Diocese of Southwark and Chair of the Fellowship of Word and Spirit) and The Rev. David Petersen, (Principal of Oak Hill College) to name but a few. They are the crème de la crème of British evangelicalism.

But this apparently was a red rag to Bishop Wright who ripped the Covenant from top to bottom, and in a scathing rebuttal accused the signers of not being truly representative of evangelicals in England, of ignoring a large swathe of evangelical opinion within the Church of England that include such organizations as Anvil, Alpha, AWESOME, Fulcrum and Grove. (Bishop Wright published his paper on Fulcrum’s website).

. . .

What happened in England this past week might be the worst of all possible things to have occurred. It shows disunity at precisely the moment unity was called for. It ultimately means that schism is now almost inevitable (along perhaps with a long overdue disestablishment of the C of E) and the wholesale break up of the Anglican Communion.

Read the full report.

HT: Euangelion

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