Rico: ‘I was naïve about current culture in the CofE’

Well-known evangelist Rico Tice has recently left the Church of England and now worships at the International Presbyterian Church (IPC), Ealing.

In an exclusive interview with Evangelicals Now, he explains why he made the switch, and what his advice is to evangelicals themselves wrestling with leaving.

en: Rico, what prompted this decision?

RT: Last October I was one of six evangelical leaders of parachurch organisations with connections to the Church of England who wrote to Justin Welby and all the bishops explaining our deep ‘heaviness of heart, soul and mind’ about the church’s onward trajectory toward affirming same-sex marriage, specifically the new Prayers of Love and Faith. We called upon the archbishop to resist the influence of cultural values when they are in opposition to those of the Bible, and did this because it was harming our ability to work with orthodox people from other denominations – how could they trust us? We received no substantive response from him, and that was a key moment in my decision to leave.