No chrism and no schism at London service, say Evangelicals

“WE BELONG, and that is our home,” members of the congregation on the Church of England Evangelical Council’s (CEEC) alternative to a chrism eucharist were told on Wednesday evening.

There were about 40 people present on the service in St James the Less, Pimlico, in London. Of them, two-thirds were clergy. The retired Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd Pete Broadbent, the one bishop present, preached.

An extra 70 attended an internet service held on Tuesday, the CEEC says. Last yr, an internet service attracted only about 25 viewers.

Provision was scaled up this yr to satisfy demand, and to further the event of a “de facto parallel province” for opponents of the introduction of church blessings for same-sex couples (News, 20 March).

In her introduction, the Vicar of St James the Less, the Revd Lis Goddard, referred to those attending as “individuals who have felt out within the cold” within the C of E.

“We are very aware that the Church of England is in a sophisticated place. Nothing is settled, and so we not settled,” she said, but she assured the congregation that the C of E “is our home”.

In his address, Bishop Broadbent explained the functions of a chrism eucharist. It was not a practice that many Evangelicals were conversant in, he said, but, previously, he had found it a “very useful service”, each for the affirmation of ordination vows and in fostering a way of kinship among the many clergy.

He was, nevertheless, now not attending the diocese of London’s chrism mass in St Paul’s, he said. “For me, [the decision] comes from a sense of being out of fellowship with the bishops I used to serve with.”

The CEEC service was billed as a “renewal of commitment to ministry with affirmation of ordination vows”. It didn’t contain a eucharist, or the blessing of chrism oils. “If you wish your oils, you’ll be able to get them elsewhere,” Bishop Broadbent joked.

The purpose of reaffirming ordination vows in a bunch setting, he said, was to “hold one another to account”. He warned against complacency, and quoted St Paul’s words to the Corinthians, heard within the reading, about having “renounced shameful and underhand ways”.

“We must confess, we haven’t all the time lived as much as that,” Bishop Broadbent said, referring to the cases of John Smyth and Mike Pilavachi, wherein abuse had been covered up in Evangelical church settings, as examples. Evangelicals needed to beware “our propensity towards becoming Pharisees”.

After the service, the Assistant Curate of St Hugh’s, Lutton Lewsey, within the diocese of St Albans, the Revd Chris Burrows, told the Church Times that Bishop Broadbent’s challenge to the congregation to carry each other accountable was a vital one.

In St Albans diocese, Evangelicals against the introduction of blessings of same-sex couples had decided to proceed to have interaction at deanery and diocesan levels on strategy and other elements of church life. Affirming ordination vows, nevertheless, was different, he said. It felt vital to have “spiritual oversight” from a bishop who shared the identical view.

It was essential to have a “proportionate response” to the changes within the Church of England, and never “commit ecclesiastical suicide” by severing all links, Mr Burrows said.

An extended-serving vicar within the diocese of London, who didn’t need to be named, expressed his hope that a separate structure for opponents of the introduction of blessings for same-sex couples would enable him to stay within the C of E — the Church into which he had been born, and wherein his father had also been a vicar.

“The Church of England is what I feel a part of, and what I now feel robbed of,” he said. “There must be space for everybody to carry their integrity . . . but in the meanwhile it appears like you’ve gotten to be ‘one among us’ [in favour of blessings for same-sex couples] or some other place.”

He said that he had previously attended the diocese of London’s chrism eucharist in St Paul’s, and would still have considered attending this yr, if he hadn’t been on holiday.

The High Church service was “culturally alien” to his parish work, he said, but, like Bishop Broadbent, he had valued the collegiality of the event, and the chance to renew his ordination views.

He regarded himself as “less extreme” than a few of those involved within the work of the CEEC, and said that he was still grappling with exactly how one can reply to the changes caused by the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process.

But he hoped that structural provision could be provided for opponents of the introduction of the blessings, for everybody’s sake. “The anxiety would go away, after which we will begin to work out how one can work together again,” he said.