Is + Tom Wright about to join the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans? Will The Episcopal Church at their General Convention ignore ++ Rowan Williams and give the green light to gay blessings? Will the Church of England General Synod recognise the new Anglican Church of North America (ACNA)? Will + Gene Robinson perform a gay blessing at Greenbelt? Only two of these four moves will be needed to finally 'chess mate' the long running charade of global Anglican unity.
Jonathan Wynne Jones, writing in the Telegraph claims:
"The Rt Rev Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, said that the Church of England was considering recognising the new group, in a move could provoke fury among liberal clergy in this country."
While to be greatly welcomed, that is something of an understatement. Read more here.
Over at Fulcrum, trying desperately to hold on to a diminishing piece of the evangelical 'centre' - (the proverbial liberal 'middle of the road'), having failed to kill off the FCA at birth, they are now getting defensive over being accused of being only 'moderately faithful' by Charles Raven.
Yet their own website offers plenty of evidence that liberalism is alive and well at Fulcrum.
In an article by a good friend Tim Dean entitled, 'Christology, Messianism and Jewish-Christian relations' he appears to reject the position of the Scriptures (John 14:6; Acts 4:12) and historic Church that "there is no salvation apart from personal faith in Christ, and every person must declare a personal faith allegiance in Jesus the Messiah, with no exception for Jews." (the confessional position + Katherine Jefferts Schori declared heresy this week)
Instead Tim favours the view that Jesus is the Messiah of both Christians and Jews.
"Paul’s affirmation ‘All Israel will be saved’ applies to all faithful Jews in every age – those who in their lifetime believe that Jesus was their Messiah, as well as those who for the reasons outlined above, do not. This is not about two covenants in parallel operation, but rather one covenant with two expressions."
Tim claims that "Significantly, no-where in Romans does Paul call for the evangelisation of Jews." How about Romans 1:16-17? "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." (see also Romans 10:14-17).
Don't be distracted. This is not a gentleman's debate about whether Fulcrum or the FCA is more or less faithful than the other, or indeed whether Anglican unity (and diversity) trumps orthodoxy. The ultimate question is "are we ashamed of the gospel?"
"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
