Co-published, with permission, with the Church of England Newspaper 21st July 2011
In June of this year I succeeded Elaine Storkey as Chair of Fulcrum. Elaine moved to become our President in succession to Tom Wright following his move to St Andrews University. As incoming chair I thought it would be helpful to explain something of the background to my involvement with Fulcrum, my reflections on the most important things that Fulcrum has achieved since its establishment in 2003 and some thoughts about both the present challenges that Fulcrum faces and its future direction.
My involvement with Fulcrum goes back to 2003 and its launch at the fourth National Evangelical Anglican Congress at Blackpool (NEAC4). Ordained just a few months before, my hopes were that NEAC4 would follow the spirit of the earlier NEACs at Keele (1967), Nottingham (1977) and Caister (1988), particularly in their commitment to working positively within the structures of the Church of England and addressing weaknesses within the evangelical Anglican tradition. On both counts, however, the Congress was disappointing with a far more reactionary agenda being evident. Few of the fresh developments in evangelical theology that had been established over the previous decade and a half were reflected at Blackpool and the attitude displayed by its organisers towards the recently elected Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, contributed to an atmosphere that was far from the positive vision for evangelical Anglicans for which I had hoped. Both the endorsement of Anglican Mainstream and the nature of many of the addresses given at NEAC4 pointed instead to the increasingly separatist direction in which evangelical Anglicanism appeared to be heading. Having just begun my curacy, I faced the strong temptation to abandon my hopes that the structures of evangelical Anglicanism would be renewed and simply get stuck into my parish or ‘non-political’ networks. This was the path that seemed to be being taken by most other non-conservative evangelicals I knew with the energy of groups such as New Wine directed productively towards the renewal of worship and ministry within evangelical churches but less inclined to place any priority upon the renewal of the church’s political structures.
There was, however, one aspect of NEAC4 that made me think again. Expressing my disappointment with the nature of the Congress, I was informed that a group was being formed with the aim of renewing ‘the evangelical centre of the Church of England’. Intrigued, I went along to its first meeting in the Galleon Bar to hear Tom Wright (who had been noticeably excluded from the platform at the Congress itself) setting out some of the exciting vision for the renewal of evangelical Anglicanism for which I had hoped. The group was Fulcrum, so named because of its desire to be a point of balance and therefore influence within both evangelical Anglicanism and the Church of England. Reaction to the formation of the group during NEAC4 ranged from enthusiasm from those coming to its increasingly well attended evening meetings to a good deal of anger from the congress organisers who had wanted NEAC4 to present a uniformly conservative face for evangelicalism. An interesting response also came from some of those who were positioned near the evangelical centre but who were nervous about the existence of a group that would present any sort of challenge to conservative evangelicalism. ‘Why do we need another group?’ was the comment of one of my friends, seemingly anxious about the waves he knew Fulcrum would cause. My response was to argue that without such a group the only voice likely to be heard from evangelicalism were those strident and unrepresentative ones some distance from where the most evangelicals were located. Signing up to join Fulcrum with some enthusiasm, I was fairly soon invited to join its leadership team as Administrator.
It is now eight years since the launch of Fulcrum. Much of its impact has been through the means of its website which includes the provision of a newswatch service (with 2158 web news stories posted in 2010), an online journal providing regular articles on a variety of subjects (81 of these in 2010), an index to facilitate access to these articles and opportunities for dialogue through its discussion forums. We have also held a number of conferences on a variety of themes with speakers including Tom Wright, Rowan Williams, John Sentamu, Jane Williams, Elaine Storkey and David Ford. All of these conferences have sought to set a positive agenda for renewing the evangelical centre of the Church of England. Perhaps the most significant role that Fulcrum has had during this time, however, is that of challenging the drift towards evangelical separatism and negativity about the Church of England which formed the background to its original establishment. Two contentious issues have particularly contributed to the context of this debate – the ordination of women and the church’s response to homosexual practice.
In terms of the first of these, Fulcrum is convinced of the biblical basis for the full ministry of women at every level and is therefore completely enthusiastic in its support for women bishops. We are in favour of some concessions being made for those who are opposed to this development but not at the price of creating a situation where the full ministry and authority of women bishops will be compromised. On this basis we favour a statutory code of practice rather than the establishment of legal safeguards for those opposed to women bishops. At the same time Fulcrum is concerned to make it clear that the establishment of women’s full ministry is emphatically not ‘a problem to be solved’ but a tremendously exciting opportunity for the renewal of the Church of England. The Bible supports it and the ministry and mission of the church requires it! In personal terms, I am very influenced here by witnessing the brilliant ministry of my three ordained women colleagues and the effect that they have had on the life of our parish. Preaching, evangelism, pastoral work, decision making and the whole atmosphere of services are transformed when women take their full place in ordained ministry alongside men and the establishment of women bishops will enable this to happen on a much greater scale. It will also have a transforming effect on the nature of the House of Bishops, described to me recently as sometimes unpleasantly full of testosterone!
In terms of the church’s response to homosexual relationships, Fulcrum’s position is that the context for sexual relationships is life-long heterosexual marriage. Two factors are important in our approach here, however. First our belief that dialogue and discussion with those who disagree with this perspective is a crucial means of the church working towards a coherent response to this issue. This has been demonstrated in the ‘Goddard to Goddard’ online conversations through which Andrew Goddard of Fulcrum has engaged in a helpful dialogue with Giles Goddard of Inclusive Church. Second, Fulcrum is resolutely opposed to those who would use the issue of homosexuality as a means of working towards greater separatism from the Church of England. The recent launch of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) is an example of this, and organised by the same conservative evangelicals who initiated the so-called Covenant for the Church of England in 2006, GAFCON in 2008 and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCAUK) in 2009. Each of these has attempted to form structures that will enable any evangelical with a disagreement with their bishop to appeal to their authority and then partially secede from the structures of the Church of England as a means of getting their way. Fulcrum remains convinced that this will cause chaos and work directly counter to the cause of mission and evangelism within this country. We are also convinced that issues as diverse as homosexuality, women bishops, the authorisation of church plants and ordinations must be addressed separately if they are to be handled with integrity. More positively, Fulcrum is fully committed to supporting the Covenant Process proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury as the means by which the Anglican Communion should establish the basis by which we approach our most fundamental differences.
It is both an honour and a responsibility to succeed Elaine Storkey and Francis Bridger (her predecessor) as Chair of Fulcrum. Major challenges lie ahead, not least efforts to work towards reforming the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) so that it can become more credible in its claim to represent evangelicals across the Church of England. Many local Diocesan Evangelical Unions or Fellowships have become similarly moribund, meaning that fresh ways need to be found to enable evangelicals to dialogue and work together to influence and further renew the Church of England. The evangelical bishops also need to be encouraged to take a greater amount of responsibility for renewing evangelical political structures alongside the other duties which they undertake.
Further to this, however, I would like to see Fulcrum doing more over the next few years to provide people with greater access to some of the exciting biblical and theological scholarship around at the moment and, in particular, helping to relate this to the work of churches and other Christian projects ‘on the ground’. My hope is that this will particularly contribute to:
- A renewed vigour for holistic mission theologically driven by a greater grasp of the challenge of Jesus and vision of the Kingdom of God
- A renewed commitment to ecclesiology as the Body of Christ, including the commitment to remain together with others in the Church of England despite our differences and work through the issues upon which we disagree.
- A renewed love for theology and biblical study, not merely repeating the tired and worn out mantras of the past but going back afresh to the Bible to see the things that we have missed (as well as those we have got right) and seeking to communicate this truth in fresh and down to earth ways.
In addition, I am also keen for Fulcrum to become a more supportive network for those who would identify with this ethos and approach, not least in our undiluted support for holistic mission and the full ministry of women. Fulcrum is excited and optimistic about responding to the challenges that the church in this country is currently facing in terms of mission, evangelism and ministry. And it remains convinced that a crucial part of being able to respond to this challenge is a positive and confident evangelicalism remaining right at the centre of the structures of the Church of England.
Stephen Kuhrt is Vicar of Christ Church, New Malden, Chair of Fulcrum and author of the recently published Tom Wright for Everyone: Putting the Theology of N.T. Wright into practice in the local church.
Stephen Kuhrt is Vicar of Christ Church, New Malden.