In Depth:  The Alliance

Seven Church of England churches have commissioned seven new Christian leaders across four dioceses for ministry in Church of England churches.

At a service on Wednesday evening, led by Bishop Rod Thomas, and attended by members of CEEC and the Alliance, seven men were commissioned. The individuals were commissioned as public leaders and for public ministry in training posts in Church of England churches. All of them have been selected through experienced selection panels, trained through recognised training courses and completed necessary Safeguarding training and checks for this ministry. They will be deployed differently in different contexts.

The slow but inexorable realignment of global Anglicanism, including the Church of England, is gathering pace following the C of E’s latest Synod.

At All Souls Langham Place, London, a group of 20 ‘overseers’ have now been commissioned by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) to provide ‘informal oversight to clergy and [church councils] who feel a loss of confidence in the spiritual leadership of their bishops’.

John Dunnett

The decision to approve the bishops’ proposals at July’s General Synod meeting has kicked off the launch of the de facto parallel province, as warned of by the Alliance (a coalition of groups within the Church of England who are committed to upholding the existing biblical and historic doctrine of marriage and sexual ethics). CEEC will now work with our partners in the Alliance to make this a reality.

Following the Synod decision, standalone services of blessing for same sex couples will now happen in the very near future in a church near you. The timetable has also been set for the removing of discipline and rules around clergy marrying their same sex partners. It is dismaying that the leaders of the Church of England seem intent on leading the church away from the Biblical teaching and doctrine passed down through the centuries and shared by millions of Christians in the Anglican Communion today.