Anglican Mainstream has posted a recent article (one that appeared in the Church of England Newspaper last week) that reports on the growing unrest amongst Anglican Evangelicals about the trajectory of the Diocese of Southwark. You can find it here. It’s all about the fallout as a result of a meeting of the Diocesan Evangelical Union with Bishop Christopher (the Bishop of Southwark).
I meant to attend the meeting but got caught up in the chaos that has become my life. But it sounds, from the report and from friends who made it, as though it was lively.
The essence of the growing unrest is the Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun has divided the Diocese with his senior appointments. The last seven of these have gone to liberal catholics. To be fair, I think he inherited a divided Diocese. He’s not dividing it. He’s just made appointments that show which side of the divide his theological preferences lie. He’s acting with conviction. They’re not convictions that I share. But at least he’s being consistent! Of course I disagree with him. I think he should only ever appoint evangelicals. But I don’t expect that he (or any of his successors) will. He’s not an evangelical. He doesn’t agree with evangelical theology. He’s not going to put evangelicalism at the heart of the Diocese. And Reform and Fulcrum seem to be surprised by that! Surely not. What did you expect? I mean, seriously. Did you really expect that the new Bishop of Southwark would suddenly start giving preference to that ‘wing’ Church of England that the establishment want to see removed?
There’ll be more to follow, of that I’m sure. I’m already getting word of parish quota being withheld.
