Special to virtueonline
www. virtueonline.org
February 1, 2012
"Should I stay or should I go?" was the 1981 song by the English punk rock band The Clash. It is the question looming over conservative evangelical members of Reform in the shadow of next week's meeting of the Church of England's General Synod in London.
The General Synod elections of September 2010 did see gains for traditionalists but with 42 out of 44 English dioceses having voted for women bishops since then, the bus is now unstoppable.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York would like to supply traditionalists with their own stream of bishops, and that is due to be a major bone of contention at the upcoming Synod.
It is possible the Archbishops will get their way over 'co-ordinate jurisdiction', but the current momentum does not favour institutional generosity towards traditionalist opponents of women bishops. The Archbishops need the backing of the House of Bishops at their next meeting in May to change the Draft Measure agreed by the Synod in July 2010, when Canterbury and York saw their last attempt to introduce co-ordinate jurisdiction sunk.
With fears that changing the Draft Measure would mean it would have to go out for consultation to dioceses all over again, thus delaying the advent of women bishops, the Archbishops are likely to struggle to gain the support of their episcopal colleagues.
Conservative evangelicals would therefore be ill advised to bank on a posse of authorised traditionalist bishops riding to the rescue.
Anglo-Catholics have a hide-out in the form of the Ordinariate provided by the Roman Catholic Church. All they have to do is to cross a river to get there.
But conservative evangelical caravans are encircled on the wild plain of an ecclesiastical institution dominated by dogmatic, politically-correct liberals who have rejected the clear teaching of Holy Scripture that leading churches, whether as a bishop or as a presbyter, is a man's job. The appointment of women bishops means Bible-flouting ungodliness becomes institutionally entrenched in the Church of England.
The conservative evangelical congregation and minister in a diocese is set to be left facing the choice as to whether to accept the ungodly oversight of a person the Lord God Almighty has forbidden to exercise pastoral oversight over the precious flock of his Son Jesus Christ or to leave the institutional Church of England.
Our conservative evangelical churches are often net-givers to dioceses in terms of parish share; they often have young people in them, bucking the ageing trend of the denomination; they are often pro-active in biblical evangelism and church planting.
But overwhelmingly they meet in buildings that are owned by the institutional Church of England.
Leaving the Church of England therefore will mean congregations leaving their buildings and clergy leaving their vicarages.
Conservative evangelicals who are able to leave the institution and form a Reformed Anglican connection in England under the oversight of orthodox Bible-believing bishops may well find the experience liberating after getting over the initial inconvenience and disruption. They would be shot of having to negotiate with liberals on ministry issues.
But the challenge for a new Reformed Anglican connection would be to ensure that our churches are well represented in inner cities and deprived areas. Being in the institutional Church of England has given conservative evangelicals platforms to proclaim Christ's gospel in urban priority areas. The openings are there. In some of the worst areas of the UK, the Anglican Church is often the last voluntary organisation to pull out.
God willing, a Reformed Anglican connection would not be confined to an affluent, book-cultured ghetto but would preach Christ to all anywhere and everywhere in the UK, to God's praise and glory.
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Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire - www.oughtibridgechurch.org.uk. He is also an occasional columnist for the Church of England Newspaper
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