Editorial: The success of NEAC

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

Evangelicals are mainstream Anglicans! That seems to be the inference to be drawn from Stephen Bates' Guardian article on the Monday of NEAC, where he claimed to have been sent a leaked copy of the Bishops' revised report on human sexuality. The Church of England 'reinforces gay policy' was the headline over the article, basically 'no change' being the burden of the leaked report. We will all have to wait and see, but this does seem the likely outcome of any representative Anglican deliberation. Evangelicals, after all, are not Talibanic monsters at the edge of the Church of England, but really rather central, notwithstanding the fulminations of deans best known for dressing up as Father Christmas at the festive season.

This conclusion does mean that NEAC has succeeded. From Keele to Nottingham and Caister, evangelical Anglicans have committed themselves to work for the Gospel within the Church of England and defend its historic formularies. While it probably remains true, as Adrian Hastings put it, that the Church of England embodies a relatively conservative laity and relatively liberal episcopate - certainly bureaucracy - the presence and influence of evangelicals has spread. To take what might seem a small example, the notion of a Bible study at an Anglican conference 20 years ago would have seemed an 'evangelical thing', now it is part of Anglican culture generally. Scripture has become central to Anglican life, not just as read in public worship but as used informally across the different shades of church life.

There are always going to be shades of opinion and emphasis in church life and in evangelical life: the polarity of revelation and experience will remain a challenge, or perhaps better put, 'the two horizons' - reminding us, incidentally, of the immense contribution to the study of hermeneutics achieved by Anglican evangelical scholars such as Professor Thiselton whose book bears that title. Evangelicals are indeed 'Bible people', but it is not biblical to stop with the Bible rather than apply its truth to one's culture - it is certainly not biblical to worship the Bible, whose word is both and lively, pointing away from its text to God, Father Son and Holy Spirit and their saving work. The Clapham Sect, instrumental in mission and abolition of the slave trade, were men who met to pray early each morning, prior to engaging with the world. Shaftesbury likewise gave his life in improving inhumane working conditions. These Anglicans were deeply conservative evangelicals, as of course was Wesley before them.

It is not necessary to choose between being 'open' or 'centred' evangelicals: it is vital to embody both caring openness and the non-negotiable truths of Scripture - without which our openness would dissolve into a bland relativism. 'Open evangelicalism' cannot make the mistake of losing touch with the objectivity of Scripture, nor can Reform and friends make the equal and opposite error of freezing the truth so that it becomes a kind of Gnostic thing-in-itself, devoid of contact with 'the world' for whom Christ died. Our differences are those of emphasis, and style, alone.