The recent consecrations of three new bishops for England and Scotland/Europe and a forthcoming one for Wales mark the coming of age of the first serious effort to rebuild orthodox Anglicanism in the UK. Faithful clergy and people have up till now either been merely cast adrift or forced into the orbit of largely Catholic ecclesiastical importations from the USA, which grew out of the St. Louis Congress in 1977 and have signally failed to gain traction because of their unwillingness to engage in proper evangelism and their obsession with outdated Roman liturgical practice. Alas, orthodoxy on paper does not always result in orthodoxy in practice!
Hull is telling us something completely different and far more encouraging. The Chief Consecrator was Archbishop Foley Beach, one of the bosses of GAFCON, the global voice of Gospel Anglicanism. Assisting him, among others, were the Archbishops of Rwanda and Nigeria, the last presiding over the biggest membership of any province within the Anglican Communion. These last two remind us forcefully that our finest and most reliable brethren come from countries where believing in Jesus can cost you your life and where food and shelter can never be taken for granted. It is a great blessing that these particular hands were laid upon the three new bishops. No one can doubt that Divine grace flowed through those particular episcopal hands. Thank God there really is such a thing as true Apostolic Succession!
The new bishops each received their shepherd’s crook, reminding them visibly of their primary role as chief shepherds of the people of God. Archbishop Beach also banged the tops of their heads with the Bible, which called them to be always under the Word of God, a novel and equally visible reminder of their new episcopal responsibility and duty. And by and large, the promises they made and the exhortation they heard were in line with those of the 1662 Prayer Book, which never did mince its words.
We can quibble about the fact that the Anglican Network in Europe is composed of two proto-dioceses, but this at least answers the problem that some cannot accept women priests and some are not Conservative Evangelicals, although totally orthodox. As long as Jesus is proclaimed to sinners and the faithful are being built up in their faith, we can tolerate these relatively minor disagreements and allow churches to organise in whichever jurisdiction they are most comfortable. The Evangelical group are proving to be great church planters – they have 24 active congregations, some of them already very large. They have published a list of towns and cities where Jesus must be proclaimed in the absence of good CofE churches. This is the right way to go, although we must hope that they now give priority to planting in major university cities like Liverpool and Manchester, Southampton and Portsmouth, and also in the post-industrial towns of the North, like Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton, Hartlepool, Leeds, Halifax and Huddersfield.
There will be no mass exodus of clergy from the CofE, anxious to join ANE. The huge financial implications involved in abandoning a stipend, free house and pension will be too much for the majority, most of all for men with young families. But here and there will be those who are prepared to trust the living Lord and take the plunge, like Josh Maynard in West Wales. Not surprisingly, he is doing remarkably well. We must support fledgling churches like these with our gifts and prayers, as we must the poverty-stricken and persecution-suffering Anglican provinces and dioceses in Africa, who have so bravely and willingly come to our aid. The situation is going to get worse, much worse for all of us, not just in the UK but right across the world, as we see the devil working overtime to overthrow the Kingdom of God and we observe carefully for the signs of the times, realising that our dear Saviour’s return is not far away. Maranatha – come Lord Jesus!
