Are the Prayers of Love and Faith 'killing' CofE mission and ministry?

For evangelicals in the Church of England there is one key question in the current crisis about blessings for same sex couples: How do I stay faithful to God in mission and ministry in the local parish church as the majority of the House of Bishops continues to reject the Bible’s teaching, contradict the foundational doctrine of the denomination and abuse power?

We are united on the importance of that question, but we not united on the answer. That is not a criticism, because there are a variety of answers depending on context, calling and conscience.

Anglicans are episcopal and we have an ordered structure of fellowship between local churches, which is the reason we have bishops in the first place. In the early church, bishops were elevated to oversee good order in inter-church fellowship. Following the pattern of the New Testament, they should be guardians of doctrine (1 Timothy 1:3) and administer financial support to ministry beyond the local church, like the apostles did with the Jerusalem collection and other such initiatives.

The impact on finances

Church polity is intended for the benefit of the church, it is not the essence of our faith. Nevertheless, the fellowship we express is founded on the doctrine we believe. Koinonia, the Greek word often translated ‘fellowship’, links our unity in the church with our unity in Christ. It is also translated as ‘sharing’, and particularly with reference to sharing our financial giving. We cannot express koinonia with those who claim to be Christians if they have rejected the clear teaching of the New Testament. That is why, as well as expressing impaired communion verbally, evangelicals rightly seek to put restrictions on their financial contributions to diocesan finances. It is not powerplay or using leverage to push an agenda (or it shouldn’t be); it is an expression of faithfulness in fellowship.

The Alliance - a broad coalition of leaders of networks across different traditions - is supported by over 2,000 clergy. There are many more who may not quite align with the political or the pragmatic stance of the Alliance, but who object to the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF). Both the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) and The Alliance radiate a sense of frustration about getting revisionist bishops to recognise the scale of the objection to their proposals. I think that the bishops supporting the PLF, which is the majority, are more than aware; but at best debilitatingly conflicted and at worst wilfully indifferent.

The impact on mission

I attended a Zoom meeting with a group of evangelical leaders from churches that are growing and planting within the Church of England. During the course of discussions, it became apparent that several church planting projects had been stalled because of the uncertainty caused by PLF, and that new church plants, particularly those with global majority heritage congregations, no longer wanted to be part of the Church of England because of PLF. My initial, cynical, reaction was that PLF is killing mission. But we can’t kill mission – the mission is God’s, not ours. I strongly suspect that the bishops are aware of these terrible indictments on their innovations, and yet still they press on.

In his book The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt mentioned something called ‘the hive switch’ – a shared commitment that cannot be shaken because it’s part of a group identity. He is not a Christian, but his book is about religious observance. Our ‘hive switch’ should be Biblical faith and gospel mission. Has the bishops’ hive switch now become ‘get PLF done no matter what’? It’s hard to say, because there is evident dysfunction and disunity in the house. It is a travesty, however, that those who should be calling churches to account are seeking to lead churches astray.