We are called to be prophetic – not just pragmatic

A dark cloud looms obstinately over evangelicals in the Church of England, neither advancing nor diminishing.

Its ominous presence weighs on the minds of clergy, aggravates committed church members, and repels potential candidates for ministry training. At stake is the future of Biblically faithful ministry in a denomination that is home to by far the largest number of evangelical churches in the country and reaches many parts that others do not.

Blessings for same-sex couples – Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF) – remain on the agenda, but progress is stalled. Martyn Snow, the Bishop of Leicester, who is leading the process, succeeded in setting a more gracious tone at General Synod in February. But there is no change in the House of Bishops’ commitment to the trajectory set a year ago. After the vote to ‘move to next business’, Bishop Martyn now must scramble together a substantially different proposal for the July session, which is unlikely to be well-developed and unlikely to achieve a change in the stalemate. So far, he has indicated an approach that looks strikingly similar to the one that was abandoned last year.

Along with Anglo-Catholics, evangelicals are acknowledged as those who cannot in conscience accept the PLF proposals. There is an unanswered question concerning the kind of provision that would allow us to remain within the Church of England with our consciences protected. Thanks to the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), those with revisionist bishops can seek informal spiritual oversight, and giving can be restricted to support orthodox churches through the Ephesian Fund. But these are only intended to be temporary measures.

I wish to contend that evangelical objection to PLF is more than a private matter of conscience. Such invites only a privatised solution – an exclusive society, an enclave set aside and cut off from the wider church, which has no future other than to continue to exist for the sake of its members.

I believe that an evangelical response to PLF must be rooted in ecclesial integrity, not simply private conscience. We have a more complex picture to consider. An independent church affiliated to other independent churches through a mutually beneficial network could simply break the connection and make another one. But that is not what the Church of England is. Our polity is episcopal, so the connection between churches is organic, and bishops hold it together. When the bishops fail in their spiritual oversight, it’s not like we are in a burning house, it is like we have an injured body. We can continue to function, in pain, limping. And we may have to for some time. It is not ideal, but it is the situation we are in. We can’t live in denial; we need to learn to live with injury.

We could simply operate as independent churches and ignore the structures. It’s quite easy to do that, because, for the most part, our church families are blissfully unaware of the machinations of synodical government. Sadly, that is what many of us have been doing for too long, and now, with all this talk of structures, it’s like learning a new language. We are misunderstanding what is being said and losing the sense of things.

We are too concerned with being pragmatic – doing what works. God’s calling on people of His word has always been to be prophetic – to proclaim what matters.

We are too concerned about politics – playing the game well. In our service to Him, Christ is more concerned about our posture – playing our part well. As a man with an active life now in middle age, I have spent many hours in physiotherapy. I have realised too late that good posture prevents unnecessary injury. But I have learned that good posture is also restorative. And I think that good spiritual posture – conduct in a manner worthy of the gospel – is both preventative and restorative.

We must aim at the future of faithful Biblical ministry in the Church of England, and that means urgently securing a vocations pathway and maintaining opportunity and support for church revitalisation. Limping and in pain, we look to God’s strength in our weakness.