UK Evangelicals ask conservative Primates to rethink
Posted: 31 Jan 2008 @ 00:00
Re-design: the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Design Group, chaired by the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, are this week preparing a new text of the Anglican Covenant ACNS/ROSENTHAL/PA
Re-design: the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Design Group, chaired by the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, are this week preparing a new text of the Anglican Covenant ACNS/ROSENTHAL/PA
A GROUP of Evangelical bishops in the Church of England have written to conservative Primates urging them to rethink their objections to the Lambeth Conference.
The group, seven diocesan bishops and 13 suffragans, wrote to the Primates of Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Southern Cone of America that they “long to share with you in fellowship and in celebration at Lambeth”. To stay away, they suggest, “would inevitably split apart those who share an equally high regard for scriptures [sic] and for the historic faith of the Church”.
The letter arose from an annual gathering of Evangelical bishops. The signatories are the Bishops of Bradford, Bristol, Carlisle, Durham, Lichfield, Oxford, Southwell, Barking, Bedford, Crediton, Croydon, Doncaster, Dunwich, Lancaster, Lynn, Maidstone, Penrith, Southampton, Swindon, and Tewkesbury.
They write: “We share your increasing sorrow and alarm at the developing situation around the Anglican Communion, and we have prayed and worked for a way forward.”
They say that the Windsor process “has inevitably been tortuous and frustrating”. But “We have no reason to suppose that the process has ground to a halt, or that we should seek to abandon the work you and many others have put into seeking a way forward under God.”
They state: “We shall do all we can to support our Archbishop in his immensely difficult task of developing the life of our Communion in new ways of mutual understanding and support, and we urge you to be present to help us do this.”