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Why I am an Anglican Contributions from 12 of today’s evangelical leaders We commissioned Why I am an Anglican out of a concern that some us who feel the privilege of belonging to our denomination also lament the loss of a sense of historical and theological attachment to the Church of England. As the contributors to this volume were working on their essays the book, Why I am Still an Anglican, was published by Continuum Books, edited by Caroline Chartres. Clearly great minds think alike! Could we still justify our little contribution to the debate? I think so. First, whilst the essay by John Stott, ‘Pursuing Truth and Unity,’ is worth the price of the book alone, not all the authors hold evangelical convictions. This Orthos is concerned to help persuade evangelicals that the Church of England is worth our ongoing loyalty and commitment. Secondly, Why I am an Anglican is shorter, essays range between one thousand and two thousand words, and thus is easier to read and digest. Thirdly, our audience is primarily younger ordinands and newly ordained men. We hope that the collective wisdom of our contributors will persuade and encourage them to persist in their attachment to the denomination, and incite a fresh desire to reform the Church under the Word of God, not least through a recommitment to the historical formularies which make up its foundation. We are aware that there are unprecedented attacks on the doctrinal and moral foundations of Anglicanism. However, I get the sense that evangelicals have tended to respond by saying ‘the denomination belongs to us; we have the canons, Thirty-Nine Articles, BCP and Homilies as clear evangelical foundations’. In other words, we continue to stay in the denomination because we believe that at its heart it is biblical, reformed and evangelical. I write as a convinced ‘Anglican evangelical’. Much has been made of the order of those two words. Many of us would want to say that the gospel of Jesus Christ demands that we are evangelical first because of our commitment to the evangel and our desire to work with gospel-minded people across all denominations. There are others who would want to reverse that word order, arguing that the Church of England, as the national denomination, is our first commitment, and only secondarily are we evangelical. However, the following contributions share my conviction that ‘Anglican evangelical’ is the historically and biblically appropriate word order, and if there ever was a better boat to fish from, I could well be tempted to jump ship! If one’s attachment, however, is to the denomination only because it is ‘best boat to fish from’ then you might say that this argument has some holes in it! The concern which motivated this publication is what seems to be an increasingly pragmatic approach to membership of the denomination, even among evangelicals. Among some newly ordained colleagues we note: first, there is little awareness of the history associated with Anglican evangelicalism; and, secondly, there is an emerging expediency which means that ties to the denomination are only thought useful as long as they serve the particular agenda at the time. Of course, I do not wish to be misheard here. We do have a huge challenge on our hands if we are going to reach an un-churched generation with the evangel. This means, along with many of the good things associated with a mission-shaped Church, we need to be innovative and energetic in reaching the lost and building local congregations which teach and nurture people in the faith. It is for this reason that we have invited twelve people to help encourage today’s gospel ministers to have a whole-hearted commitment to the godly reform of the denomination to which we belong. Each of the contributors has been asked to speak briefly about their own sense of call and attachment to the denomination. We feel it is useful to hear their call to ministry, their wrestling with doctrinal and practical issues associated with their Anglican ministry, and how they think it is still possible to be Anglican and evangelical in the current times. We hope that these contributions from some of today’s Anglican evangelical leaders will help others to have confidence in the denomination of which they are members. Moreover, please God, may it be that as a result, the Church of England is reformed and revived so we may be faithful to the vision of our founding fathers! Simon Vibert, Chairman Fellowship of Word and Spirit October 2006 Contributors : Donald Allister, Simon Austen, David Banting, Wallace Benn, Mark Burkill, Jonathan Fletcher, Clare Hendry, Gavin McGrath, Rob Munro, Jim Rushton, Mike Smith, and Richard Turnbull If you want to order the full text of this publication, click here
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