New evangelical group seeks the middle ground

This article appeared in the Church of England Newspaper on 25 September 2003 and is reproduced here with their permission.

A new grouping for "open" evangelicals disillusioned by last year's avalanche of criticism of the new Archbishop of Canterbury was launched on the eve of the fourth National Evangelical Anglican Congress in Blackpool.

Organisers of NEAC 4 said that the formation of the organisation, Fulcrum, undermined their attempts to build evangelical unity.

But "open evangelical leaders" claimed their organisation was simply an attempt to provide an additional voice for their constituency.

Fulcrum was launched by key evangelical leaders including the principal of Trinity Theological College in Bristol Dr Francis Bridger, Graham Kings, vicar of St Mary's Islington and Church Mission Society head Tim Dakin. Their website (http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk) set out a range or principles and strategies based on what they described as "generous orthodoxy".

They maintained that the divide among evangelicals was not over homosexuality, citing the traditional Lambeth Resolution 1.10 as their guiding point for the debate over gay priests and bishops.

Meeting nightly in a bar near to the Blackpool conference centre one leader estimated that they had signed up about five per cent of the 2,000 strong congress. But organisers of NEAC said there was no consultation about the formation of Fulcrum and argued that it divided the evangelicals at a congress which set out to create unity.

Dr Francis Bridger admitted that Fulcrum was partly a reaction to the chorus of criticism from Reform and Church Society of the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, last year.

He said that the leaders were also concerned about the negative way evangelicalism was portrayed in the media. "There should be voice for the centre ground of evangelical Anglicanism that offers a different kind of tone," he told The Church of England Newspaper.