So is the appointment of Stephen Cottrell as Archbishop of York checkmate – or merely check?
It is certainly a game changer for Anglican evangelicals. But does this put them in the unrecoverable position which many have been predicting for years – or still not quite yet?
The announcement of his appointment is certainly grim. When the liberal catholic trumpet that is the Church Times reports that the news is met with an ‘outpouring of celebration’ (yeah, right) you know things are bad.
Why so? After all, Justin Welby has described Cottrell as ‘someone who radiates the joy and love of Jesus, making his hearers want to meet and know Christ better’. He is also a man with a testimony – coming to faith as a 12-year-old from an unchurched family watching the film Jesus of Nazareth.
But he is also a man on record as saying: ‘Let me be loud and clear on this issue: whether you believe there should be same-sex marriage or the blessing of same-sex unions or whether you do not, you are still a faithful Anglican.’ He has also said: ‘Our ambivalence and opposition to faithful and permanent same-sex relationships can legitimise homophobia in others … I am not sure the church has ever before had to face the challenge of being seen as immoral by the culture in which it is set.’ As Matt Kennedy observed on the Christian Today website: ‘These are astounding words. That … his words are published so widely and he is still embraced so warmly without any apparent sense that something is amiss, what does it mean? Is the indictment more damning to him or to the ecclesial prelates or to the Church of England as a whole?’
Melvin Tinker, on the Conservative Woman website, wrote: ‘Cottrell combines the worst of two theological worlds, the authoritarianism of Catholicism and the subjectivism of Liberalism.’
Andrew Carey, writing in the Church of England Newspaper, declared: ‘It’s a sign that the theological battle over human sexuality … is all but over.’
Cottrell’s track record with evangelicals in Chelmsford Diocese, where he is currently bishop, has not been good. There are 30 clergy there who were reportedly told by him that if they disagree with the approach being taken there on matters of human sexuality they ‘should follow their consciences and leave,’ according to a Church Society statement earlier this year. Cottrell denies this. The clashing accounts are impossible to reconcile.
So what next?
The President of GAFCON UK, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, has said: ‘I am very concerned that someone who has openly argued and worked for a change in the Church’s teaching on human sexuality should have been nominated to such a senior position. I urge Bishop Stephen to publicly affirm the teaching of the Bible [and] the universal teaching of the Church … Without this, orthodox believers in the CofE will have to ask what place there is in this church for them.’ Also, Church Society has issued a brief statement implicitly criticising the appointment. But I’m not aware of any other statements from other evangelical organisations or evangelical bishops, though would be delighted to hear of any.
Without wishing to sound unduly bleak, many of us weary foot troops in the parishes continue to long for some sense of direction about where we are all going as Anglican evangelicals in relation to these things. Some days it seems as though all we hear is the howling wind of the storm amid the darkening night, and the creaking of a ship starting to grind upon the rocks.
