It’s hard to know exactly what will emerge from the receipt of the GAFCON Jerusalem Statement. It could just be another of those rousing rallying cries that falls on deaf ears. I hope not. But evangelicalism is pretty broad in the Church of England. And, regrettably it’s pretty soft. Like a dozing man when the alarm clock goes off many will just hit the snooze button and return to their slumbers. We’re better at concession and compromise than confessing and contending. But I’m hopeful for more. I suspect that the persecution of evangelicals like Professor J.I. Packer in the Diocese of New Westminster has woken some to the dangers that lie ahead. I think it was Os Guinness who at GAFCON used the illustration of a nuclear explosion having taken place and the fallout from which is heading our way. He applied it to the influence of western secularism but he could have easily applied it to its religious form, liberal revisionism. Dr Packer’s treatment highlights what happens to faithful, godly men when they stand up to the liberal agenda. The liberals have the power and they’ll wield it when they’re threatened. And we’ve seen that in our own Diocese.

The meeting at All Souls last Tuesday will be instrumental in Evangelical Anglicans deciding what to do. This was attended by nearly 800 Church leaders in the day and a similar number of lay leaders in the evening. Many of the Evangelical ‘tribes’ were represented. They need to unite together, take counsel and prayerfully consider what action to take in the light of GAFCON.

Whilst there is an unpredictability about how the some things than be predicted with unwavering confidence.

1.     We’re going to get a pasting in the secular media

It’s naive to think it will play any other way. With very few exceptions the western secular media will mock the statement, vilify the proponents and give a disproportionate amount of airtime to the revisionists. The argument will be presented as the bigoted ranting of schismatic homophobic militants at the lunatic fringe of mainstream Christianity. I may be wrong, but I suspect not. Those may not be their words but those will be the categories they think of. This is not going to play out well in the press. But why would we expect it to? That‘s hopelessly naive. On the presenting issue of unrepentant homosexual sex and on the underlying issue of biblical authority, Christians disagree with the world’s thinking. But we need to listen to the Lord and stand firm on His word. That’s what believers do. We’re not free to reinvent what we find there because we it’s out of kilter with prevailing social opinion. 

2.     We’re going to be opposed by the church authorities

It may well be that at some stage down the line we’ll be opposed by the same church authorities that are supposed to be resourcing our gospel ministry. At the moment the worst it gets is angry letters and hostile meetings. But this will probably end up in court. Faithful Anglican leaders and their congregations will probably get thrown out of their buildings, have their licences revoked, their wages withdrawn and their pensions frozen, but so what. We’re there already! And we’ve not lost the gospel and the Lord has not deserted us. Though we may not feel very significant, our little church is proof that there’s life in Anglicanism outside the structures! 

But what we face will be nothing compared to what the leaders of our theological constituency will face. The wives and children often feel it worst. We should pray for them and offer them our unwavering support.

3.     We’re going to realise who our friends are

Not everyone will be with us. Evangelicals will be divided. Already the Bishop of Durham, a self professed evangelical leader, has lambasted the statement on the BBC. Some will disapprove of the mechanisms and tactics employed to bring the church back to the Bible and they won’t back us. It was said that after the Co-Mission irregular ordination three years ago we were more hated than we’d ever been but more loved than we’d ever been. It was a divisive move. It forced people to choose. In that sense it was polarising. It wasn’t meant to be. We just thought it was the right thing to do in the circumstances. It was intended to be an act of principled disobedience given that we were in temporarily impaired communion with our Diocesan Bishop. But people were forced to choose one side or the other. We received vitriolic letters but also overwhelming support. True friends really stuck with us through thick and thin. Some didn’t feel able to support us and that was a great shame.

Throughout the continual process of reforming the Church of England God will provide us with friends who stand with us and contend as one man for the faith of the gospel. We have to decide which side of the argument we stand on. And we’ll look around at others who stand with us. They’ll need us and we’ll need them. In the kindness of God, we may experience a quality of fellowship that we’ve never previously known.

Conclusion

I don’t know what will happen on the ground as a result of GAFCON. I’m not in the room where it gets decided. I pray that the leaders of our constituency decide to act. As one young delegate said at a meeting in Jerusalem, ‘I’m not that bothered what you decide to do, I just want you to do something!’ Surely we can’t let the current situation persist for another decade as the liberals gleefully watch our appetite for contention wane and the biblical gospel pass into history.