Which way for Anglicans?

Peter Jensen is the evangelical Archbishop of Sydney. He flies into Britain in January to take a series of meetings under the title, Anglicanism past, present and future - what is the future for the Church of England?

Though these meetings were planned many months ago they have taken on new significance since Dr. Rowan Williams has been named as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bible-believing Christians are up in arms about Dr. Williams's stance on many areas of life and doctrine, particularly his pronouncements concerning sexual ethics. Many feel that the Church of England is at a cross-roads and are looking to Peter Jensen's meetings to give biblical direction at this crucial time.

There are numerous separate meetings in different venues all over England, from Carlisle in the north to Exeter in the south, including Sheffield, London, Oxford and Cambridge. William Taylor of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate has been a prime mover in the organisation.

Peter came to know Christ himself during the Billy Graham Crusade in Australia in 1959. It was at the same crusade that he was first challenged to think about the ordained ministry. The two largest Anglican theological colleges in Australia are conservative evangelical - Ridley in Melbourne and Moore in Sydney. He went to Moore College in 1966 and was ordained in 1969. After a doctorate at Oxford on Reformation theology Peter Jensen became the Principal of Moore College in 1985 and filled this role until he was elected Archbishop of Sydney in 2001.

EN managed to contact Archbishop Jensen prior to his arrival in this country and put some questions to him.

Present state of Anglicanism

EN: How do you see the present state of Anglicanism worldwide, and what is your estimate of the effect of Rowan Williams being the next Archbishop of Canterbury?

PJ: The Anglican communion is experiencing the inevitable results of a church trying to come to terms with post-modernity in a global context. What seems so obvious to the liberals of the West is abhorrent to the many Anglicans whose church is derived from the great missionary movements of the 19th century, and also to Western conservative evangelicals who continue to believe in the unity, clarity and trustworthiness of the Bible.

Symptomatic of this struggle is the position of the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

For one, I was prepared on his appointment to wait to see whether his views on homosexual practice would be brought into line with Scripture, especially as he became aware of the strength of feeling around the world on this issue. It seems, however, from recent media statements that Dr. Williams is hoping that the church will moderate its views towards his own.

This suggests that he will use his teaching office - and his considerable personal gifts - to endorse unscriptural views. My initial concern has begun to turn to anxiety about what this may portend, but, we must also remember that Archbishops do not constitute the church, or even run denominations and communions.

Evangelicalism

EN: How would you define an evangelical, and what should evangelicals within the CofE be concentrating their efforts on at this time?

PJ: Evangelicalism has a coherent theology which arises from the preaching of the biblical gospel. It is not possible to take parts of it away and still retain the integrity of the whole.

Evangelicals are those whose high doctrine of the sovereignty of God lead them to assert his initiative and authority in creation, revelation and salvation. This leads them to confess the five great alones: Christ alone, faith alone, scripture alone, grace alone, to the glory of God alone. It thus manifests itself in the typical evangelical emphases on preaching, conversion, justification by faith, the centrality of the death of Jesus as a penal substitution, the fellowship of the Spirit, and the supreme authority of Scripture.

Anglican evangelical agenda

EN: What should evangelicals within the CofE be concentrating their efforts on at this time?

PJ: First, evangelicals should not be rendered timid by the name-calling of those who do not like their theology. In particular, there is no need to be fearful of those who call us 'fundamentalists' and/or claim that we lack a doctrine of the church. What they mean is that we do not share their doctrine of the church.

Second, we must be consistent with our own theology: In the present context this means the priority of preaching (especially expository preaching), commitment to evangelism and to the creation of excellent local churches.

Third, evangelicals need to support and be supported by evangelicals in other denominations so that we can benefit from the strength of numbers: our rule should be 'evangelicals first, Anglicans second'.

Fourth, we should be willing to be involved in the politics of their denomination in order to create space for biblical Christianity to flourish.

Fifth, they need to develop and be committed to excellent theological training, especially for ordinands. Training suitable for catholic and liberal ministries is not the same thing as training suitable for a preaching ministry which is the first priority of the evangelical minister. But this may need to be paid for other than from the centre.

EN: are you in favour of some breakaway evangelical grouping within British Anglicanism? Would you be prepared to ordain clergy in Britain?

PJ: Not as far as I can see on either count.

Free Church concerns

EN: Some Free Church evangelicals standing on the sidelines have watched the growing malaise within the CofE with increasing alarm, and would like to see a breakaway. What is your reaction to this?

PJ: It is worth thinking of the following. First, the Anglican communion is far larger than the church in England, and we must not abandon the whole because of the part. Evangelical Anglican leadership from England still means a great deal in other parts of the world. Second, all denominational groupings have their problems. many similar to those in the Church of England. Third, this is still a Church of the Reformation and the martyrs of the Reformation. We should not quickly abandon it. Fourth, there remains health at the local level, and the possibility of doing what evangelicals do best, ie growing good local churches.

EN: could you tell us how you are mobilising the church in Sydney for the future?

We have made evangelism our top priority. This has been possible because of the faithful teaching in our churches over many years, so that people are used to the idea of evangelism and many are trained already. As well, the growing numbers of students at Moore suggest that this is the moment when we should give ourselves to such a priority.

Our chosen aim is to have 10% of Sydney people attending Bible-teaching churches within ten years. We chose this goal for three reasons: first the size of the task reminds us that this will have to be God's work, not ours. Second because 10% would be an excellent first stage (humanly speaking) to reach out to the 100% which is our real goal. Third, because 10% unlocks the doors of the imagination and forces us to rethink all we are doing.

We have developed a fundamental strategy, namely to multiply fellowships, congregations and churches.

We have developed four strategies. First, listening to God's word so that we may be moved to prayer and to sacrificial and godly living. Second, the emphasis on the parish church as the chief locus of mission, accompanied by mission in the natural networks that people move in: work, family etc. We don't want to be hindered by parish boundaries: in today's city, the professional or relational network is just as important as the neighbourhood. Third, the recruitment, selection, training and deployment of Christian workers, paid and unpaid, in large numbers. Fourth, the alignment of all our structures (including our budget) to the Mission.