FULCRUM: True Spirituality of Unity Ill-Served By Spin

Via VirtueOnline:

By Julian Mann
www.cranmercurate.blogspot.com
May 19, 2009

Fulcrum, the liberal-leaning Evangelical group in the Church of England, is clearly feeling triumphant after its Spirituality of Unity conference in London on Saturday but the main question regarding the basis for Anglican unity remains loudly unanswered.

Dr Graham Kings, Fulcrum's theological secretary and bishop-designate of Sherborne, reports on the group's website that the conference at Christ Church New Malden in south London was 'very encouraging'.

Which of course begs the question: encouraging for whom? For the platform speakers? For those liberal Evangelicals who turned up? The reality is, Anglican Evangelicals who support the Jerusalem Declaration have little cause for encouragement from Spirituality of Unity in particular or from Fulcrum in general.

The closest Evangelicals have received to an explanation of Fulcrum's opposition to Jerusalem was from the Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd Peter Broadbent, at the ill-fated NEAC5 consultation in November 2008. This meeting at All Souls' Langham Place in London, where Anglican Evangelical statesman Dr John Stott ministered for four decades, was convened by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC).

Unfortunately, NEAC5 ended in acrimony after liberal Evangelicals objected to the proposal by CEEC chairman Dr Richard Turnbull, principal of Oxford's Wycliffe Hall, that the Jerusalem Declaration be adopted. Dr Turnbull subsequently resigned as CEEC chairman.

Bishop Peter Broadbent was quoted in the Church Times' report of NEAC5: 'GAFCON is asking the right questions - about what holds us together - but the theological and ecclesial answers it provides are not adequate to secure acceptance on the part of all Evangelical Anglicans.'

He continued: 'Can we hold off from associating CEEC with one particular strand in the continuing Anglican Communion debate? I personally don't want us to do anything that ties us in to one approach to these matters, which is what voting in favour of the Jerusalem Declaration would do.'

Nothing that has emerged from Spirituality of Unity suggests that Fulcrum has moved away from this urge not to be tied to 'one particular strand in the continuing Anglican Communion debate'.

But this 'one particular strand' happens to be supported by the overwhelming majority of orthodox, Bible-believing Anglicans across the globe. Furthermore, Jerusalem, with its commitment to the theology of the 39 Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal, succinctly reflects the biblical doctrine of the Church of England's Canon A5, which all clergy including bishops are supposed to uphold.

The fundamental question Fulcrum has yet to answer is whether Anglican unity is essentially confessional or institutional.

Confessional says Jerusalem is a rallying point because it's faithful; institutional says it can't be a rallying point because it wasn't made at Lambeth.

Until Fulcrum gives a satisfactory answer to this pressing question about the fundamental basis of Anglican unity, its conference will have achieved nothing whatsoever of substance for true unity. In fact, on Fulcrum's lips Spirituality of Unity is just a fancy-sounding ecclesiastical name for spin.


----Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge in South Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom www.oughtibridgechurch.org.uk His weblog is cranmercurate.blogspot.com