Church of England evangelicals are waking up to the fact that they might just have more power than they think so they are beginning to flex their ecclesiastical muscle. This past week about 100 Evangelical clergy and laity from Southwark diocese met the Bishop, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, to protest about the lack of Evangelicals in senior clergy posts. Evangelicals are unhappy that, in the past year, six senior positions have been given to clerics whom they consider to be liberal, particularly on the issue of sexuality: the Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Revd Jonathan Clark; the Bishop of Woolwich, Dr Michael Ipgrave; the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn; the acting Archdeacon of Southwark, Canon Dianna Gwilliams; the Sub-Dean, Canon Bruce Saunders; and the Diocesan Director of Ordinands, Canon Leanne Roberts. Perhaps CofE evangelicals are seeing what has happened to their Anglo-Catholic brethren, many of whom have fled to Rome because of the possibility of women bishops. Those remaining are being squeezed with no place to go, so the evangelicals are asking "Is it our turn next?"
Evangelicals have a number of organizations including REFORM, Church Society and the Anglican Mission in England (AMIE). Recently the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) opened an office in London and so the heat is being turned up on Lambeth Palace and on the institution itself that the old ways of doing business are over.
There is a new order coming. The GAFCON primates are meeting later this month in London. You can be sure that their presence will evoke some anger and outrage from the establishment.
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