In Depth:  Alan Bartley

Dear Sir,

In the November en ‘Anglican Update’, David Baker denies that Evangelical Anglicans are tolerating heresy, but this begs the question, by what standard is heresy recognised? More particularly, are women presbyters and bishops something permitted, rejected or something indifferent and therefore allowed?

Sir,

In considering the four options that are before Evangelical Anglicans seeking to resist and rebuild in the face of the global meltdown of Anglicanism, David Baker again repeats the glaring oversight of those recommending ‘Remain and resist’ in claiming that ‘previous breakaways… are miniscule’ (Anglican Update, July en ).

Dear Sir,

It always surprises me that our historians and politicians see Churchill’s 1946 speech on a European Federation out of its historic context (Robert Coulson’s letter headed ‘Churchill on Europe,’ en November 2016) and therefore are unaware of the implied limitations. John W. Wheeler-Bennett had access to the Royal Archives when he wrote King George VI - His life and reign (MacMillan 1958) and discloses three relevant facts.

Dear Sir,

I was disappointed at CARE’s Gareth Davies’s wholly secular analysis of the issues at stake in the coming EU Referendum (en, April). More helpful was Jim Sayer’s ‘What is a nation’ in the same issue.

Dear Sir,

You are right to highlight on the November en front page the consequence of Extremism Disruption Orders and the serious possibility of the Government using the Charity Commission to remove the trustees of Christian charities. You mentioned schools, but it will also include any church whose pastor, teachers, or trustees are judged extremists for opposing the Cameron-con of ‘so called’ British Values: be they the promotion of Darwinianism, destruction of God’s marriage, godly sexuality, or even our Protestant monarchy.

Dear Sir,

In the October Anglican Update Susie Leafe, Director of Reform, refers to Article 19 of The Thirty-Nine Articles (‘of the Church’) which she paraphrases to refer to ‘the local congregation in which the pure Word of God is preached ....’ There is no ‘local congregation’ in the original.

Dear Sir,

In the ‘Anglican Update’ column of the April issue of EN, Susie Leafe of Reform reports that she was unfairly associated with the Arian heretics in the diocesan debates over raising women to the Episcopate.