A prominent evangelical leader in the Church of England (C of E) says Justin Welby should resign.
Lee Gatiss, Director of conservative evangelical grouping Church Society, was among about 25 leaders who met with the Archbishop and his staff at Lambeth Palace Library to discuss the direction of the C of E and the situation in relation to same-sex issues. Gatiss said he was asked at the meeting ‘what we thought about some clergy teaching a view which we considered to be a threat to people’s salvation and condemning them to hell’.
He told en that he responded: ‘They ought to leave and they ought to be disciplined by the bishops who promised to banish error at their consecration services.
‘That’s not rocket science. What has been proposed is a heresy. I don’t use the word lightly. It’s a heresy against the teaching of the Scriptures, the early church fathers, and the formularies of the Church of England.
‘The church has authority in controversies of faith, but it cannot ordain anything contrary to God’s Word written. That’s what our Articles say, Article 20. So bishops who are not disciplining those who are teaching in error, in accordance with our formularies and Scripture, are in contravention of their own consecration oaths, and they ought to repent as well. Whatever their personal opinion might be on the issue, they need to repent of not disciplining those who are in serious, soul-destroying error.’
He added that when asked ‘if we had confidence in his [Justin Welby’s] leadership or whether he ought to resign prior to his planned retirement in 2 years, both I and Ros [Clarke, Associate Director of Church Society] raised our hands to say he should resign’.
Milla Ling-Davies adds: The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) has met in Cairo with orthodox leaders from across the communion. Nicky Gumbel, founder of the Alpha Course, attended – one of 10 invited guests from the Church of England there to observe.
The GFSA is a group of Anglican Provinces who speak for an estimated 75% of Anglicans around the world and they firmly oppose the C of E’s decision to allow same-sex blessings, no longer recognising the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as the leader of the global communion.
Nicky Gumbel has been a friend of Justin Welby’s since their time together in high school nearly 40 years ago. Evangelical minister Richard Moy was also present at the GFSA meeting in Cairo. In a blog on the event, he shared that the ‘optimistic’ Nicky was ‘passionately arguing that we can turn this around’. He added: ‘For Nicky, it’s all about having everyone around the same table.’
