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Why might an Anglican church have closer working relations with evangelical Christians than with others?

I need some enlightenment here. I am a secularist, so I don't have the knowledge to understand a particular situation ....

In a certain small town in England, the local CofE church seems to have a very good relationship with two other local religious institutions;-

1. an independent Baptist church (it is NOT in the Baptist Union of Great Britain)

2. a youth-orientated music & mission organisation.

Both the church and the organisation are members of the Evangelical Alliance. The Anglican church has a link to the Evangelical Alliance on its website.

Those three bodies (Anglican church, Baptist church and music/mission organisation) have had, and continue to have, significant involvement in the local community radio station. This participation seems to be co-ordinated by the vicar. However the other local churches (Roman Catholic, Methodist, United Reform, Friends/Quakers) appear to have been sidelined.

My concern is about what I suspect is undue influence over the (supposedly secular) radio station, but I don't understand the evangelical link here. I have heard that CofE churches can be evangelical - does that mean that they have some degree of autonomy within the Church of England? Is it possible that a local Anglican church can prefer to associate with local evangelical churches, even though (theroretically) it works in partnershiup with all the churches in the community? Does all this make sense, or do I just sound like a paranoid, imagining conspiracies all around me?

Any serious advice will be appreciated.

[Evangelical Alliance http://www.eauk.org/ ]

6 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favourite answer

    The anglican church is a very broad spectrum ranging from churches that are very evangelical and very similar to baptists and some that are very high in sacramental theology and close to the Roman Catholic Church.

    As a broad spectrum it means different churches will have different links in their community depending on whom the priest and the church are more comfortable with.

    You are not seeing conspiracies it just seems in your area the anglican prefer to work with the more evangelical end of the worship spectrum. Where I live the Anglican church works in a broad ecumenical context with both roman catholics, pentecostals and chapels though generally it is slightly easy for the anglicans here to work with the Roman catholics purely because the anglican are not overly evangelical.

    It does seem that the churches have decided that for them mission is important and more opportunely to use the local radio to do so. This is not i suspect a clandestine approach to mission just an opportunity the churches see in reaching people across the area.

    However with anything in the media it is best to listen and consider and if necessary question because ecumenical things work best when there is a mixture of tradition and styles as it encourages all to grow and not to become too narrow in their theology.

    I hope this helps.

  • Raymo
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    The Church of England is indeed a broad and complex field of theology and ritual. If you look at the history of the church, its roots have always been in Catholicism. When Henry VIII broke from Rome, the church remained Catholic. Under the rule of the child king Edward VI, the church was lunged headfirst into the european styled hard line reformation, only to be brought under full authority of Rome under Mary and ended up as a compromise under Elizabeth I as a "middle way" between reformed and Catholic theology. It moved in all directions after that, but since the Oxford Movement in Victorian times, the High Anglo Catholic side of the church came sharply into focus. Depending where you live, one aspect of the church will be more evident than another. When in Brighton I noticed that most of the Anglican Churches were Anglo Catholic. You obviously have the opposite spectrum near you.

  • Kate
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    The Anglican Church has a strong reputation for working with other denominations. Honestly, it usually works with denominations that are closer to it's beliefs, like Lutheran or Catholic. Because of that, I doubt that there is anything going on other than a little bit of co-operation. It might just be that the other churches in the area weren't as interested in working on this project or that the priest and pastors of the co-operating churches got along better. I wouldn't see a really strong evangelical/Anglican connection here. It doesn't seem particularly sinister to me.

    Source(s): Former Anglican.
  • Loosid
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    It depends on who wants to work together in a multi-faith project.

    Depending on funds, time, and other involvements churches get together for different things throughout the years.

    Hope that helps

  • 1 decade ago

    God knows! And the churches mentioned are all, at least nominally, Christian, so it's not a question of religion, it's a question of denomination.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    If you're interested, this is a popular forum for Anglican Christians, you may find more answers here...

    http://christianforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=368

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