Predecessor | |
---|---|
Formation | 1950 |
Type | Evangelical Anglican charity |
Headquarters | Dean Wace House, Watford, England |
Key people | J. C. Ryle, William Griffith Thomas, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Gerald Bray, Wallace Benn |
Website | www |
Church Society is a conservative, evangelical Anglican organisation and registered charity [1] formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglican Church Association (founded 1865) and National Church League (founded 1906 by amalgamation of two earlier bodies). [2] [3] [4] In May 2018, Church Society merged with two other evangelical Anglican organisations, Reform and the Fellowship of Word and Spirit to provide a united voice for conservative evangelicals within the Church of England. [5]
The journal of Church Society is The Global Anglican , formerly Churchman (established 1879 [6] ). Editors have included Henry Wace, Philip Edgecumbe Hughes and Gerald Bray. The current editor is Peter Jensen. [7]
Anglicans associated with the society include J. C. Ryle, J. T. Tomlinson, W. H. Griffith-Thomas, Henry Wace, William Joynson-Hicks (Home Secretary), Geoffrey Bromiley, Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, J. I. Packer, Alan Stibbs, John Stott, Alec Motyer, Wallace Benn, and Rod Thomas.
The original forebear of the Church Society was the Protestant Association (founded 1835). The forebears of the society were established in the 19th century to oppose the introduction of Anglo-Catholic doctrine into the Church of England through bodies such as the Oxford Movement and The Church Union.
The Church Association, founded in 1865 by Richard P. Blakeney stated in its first annual report [8] that the objectives of the Association were:
To uphold the principles and order of the United Church of England and Ireland, and to counteract the efforts now being made to assimilate her services to those of the Church of Rome.
As well as publishing information (including its Church Association Tracts [9] ) and holding public meetings, controversially, this also involved instigating legal action against Anglo-Catholics. According to the Association this was intended to clarify the law. [10] However, the ritualists refusal to comply with the courts' verdicts, coupled with the bishops' unwillingness to act, eventually led to such legal action not being pursued. [10]
In 1928 the National Church League, led by its treasurer William Joynson-Hicks, was successful in Parliament in resisting what were seen as attempted Anglo-Catholic doctrinal changes in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. [11]
The society (and its forebears) have published theological literature since the 19th century, including the Church Association Tracts [12] (several of which were written by J. C. Ryle), and its journal, Churchman . Most of the society's 20th-century titles, including works by W. H. Griffith Thomas, (pictured right) were produced under its publishing arm, Church Book Room Press (CBRP), and from 1976, Vine Books Ltd. [13] [14]
In 1950 the Church Association and the National Church League merged to form Church Society.
At the AGM in 2018 a new Council was elected to include leaders from Reform and the Fellowship of Word and Spirit, to work together to complete the agreed merger of the three organisations. The merged body continued to be known as Church Society. [15]
According to its website, Church Society is a fellowship contending to reform and renew the Church of England in biblical faith. These objectives are accomplished through campaigning, networking, patronage, publishing, conferences and partnership with other organisations, as well as the administration of charitable trusts and properties. [16] According to its memorandum of association [17] the main objective of Church Society is:
To maintain the doctrine and worship of the Church of England as set forth in the 39 Articles of Religion, and the Book of Common Prayer, as reviewed and adopted in 1662, and to uphold the supreme and exclusive sufficiency and authority of Holy Scripture as containing all things necessary for salvation.
The society's interpretation of its declared objectives include opposing homosexuality and the ordination of women.
The society issues occasional press releases on its views which its website says seek to present 'a clear biblical perspective on issues affecting both the Church of England and the nation' The society has been active in opposing women's ordination as priests (it failed in its legal attempt to overturn the 1992 decision to ordain women) and consecration as bishops, [18] [19] which included in November 2012 setting up the campaign group Together 4ward. [20] [21] [22]
It has also taken a position against homosexuality [23] which led to it opposing the appointment of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, [24] [25] and also the appointment of Jeffrey John as Dean of St Albans. [26] [27] In 2012 the society, in conjunction with other organisations, campaigned against Government plans to implement same-sex marriage legislation. [28] [29]
The society has critiqued inter-denominational theological movements including theological liberalism [30] and some aspects of the charismatic movement. [31]
Through its patronage body Church Society Trust [32] (prior to 1950, Church Association Trust [33] ) the society is involved in the appointment of evangelical clergy in approximately 130 Anglican churches, including St John the Baptist, Hartford [34] Cheshire (pictured), and Christ Church (Düsseldorf) [35] [36]
The society today publishes its journal Global Anglican (formerly Churchman), [37] edited by Peter Jensen; members' magazine Crossway;, [38] and a number of books and booklets such as An English Prayer Book [39] (a contemporary Anglican liturgy in the tradition of the Book of Common Prayer); and a range of books on contemporary evangelical Anglicanism, such as Fight Valiantly. [40] In 2010 the society established the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Library (REAL) [41] – a project to re-publish evangelical Anglican texts (including the sermons of George Whitefield, [42] [43] as well as producing a weekly podcast, [44] and regular videos introducing the lectionary readings. Other audio-visual and downloadable resources produced by Church Society are also on their website. [45]
The society administers a number of charitable trusts and properties.
The society holds an annual day conference, an annual residential conference (formerly the Fellowship of Word and Spirit conference), is a partner in the annual ReNew conference, and hosts the annual Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference. [46] [47] Church Society also runs an online training course for women, the Priscilla Programme [48] in partnership with Union School of Theology, led by the Associate Director.
The society is run by an elected council [49] (voted for by its members annually). As of 2019 [update] the President of the society was Bishop Roderick Thomas, and the Director was Revd Lee Gatiss. [50] After previously being located in central London, the society's headquarters moved to Dean Wace House, Watford, UK.
From 2017 Church Society has also employed an Associate Director, Ros Clarke. In 2019, two part-time Regional Directors were appointed.
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Formally founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The traditional origins of Anglican doctrine are summarised in the Thirty-nine Articles (1571). The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, recognised as primus inter pares, but does not exercise authority in Anglican provinces outside of the Church of England. Most, but not all, member churches of the communion are the historic national or regional Anglican churches.
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2001.
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasize the Catholic heritage and identity of the Church of England and various churches within the Anglican Communion. Anglo-Catholics are primarily concerned with restoring the liturgical and devotional expression of the Christian faith in the life of the Anglican Church.
Ecumenism – also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalism – is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjective ecumenical is thus applied to any non-denominational initiative that encourages greater cooperation and union among Christian denominations and churches.
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
The Free Church of England (FCE) is an Episcopal Church based in England. The church was founded when a number of congregations separated from the established Church of England in the middle of the 19th century.
The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955. It is an Anglican church and it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine.
The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican Church. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, a former bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The Church of England (Continuing) is part of the Continuing Anglican Movement. Although the church was widely discussed in Anglican circles at the time of its founding in 1994, it has not achieved significant growth since that time.
Reform was a conservative evangelical organisation within Evangelical Anglicanism, active in the Church of England and the Church of Ireland.
The Society of St John the Evangelist (SSJE) is an Anglican religious order for men. The members live under a rule of life and, at profession, make monastic vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience.
Anglican doctrine is the body of Christian teachings used to guide the religious and moral practices of Anglicanism.
Conservative evangelicalism is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe a theological movement found within evangelical Protestantism. Sometimes, the term is simply synonymous with evangelical within the United Kingdom. The term is used more often in the first sense, but conservative evangelicals themselves tend to use it in the second. Conservative evangelicals are sometimes called fundamentalists, but typically reject that label and are keen to maintain their distinct identity, which is more Reformed. Reformed fundamentalism shares many of the characteristics of conservative evangelicalism. In this sense, conservative evangelicalism can be thought of as distinct from liberal evangelicalism, open evangelicalism, and charismatic evangelicalism. Some conservative evangelical groups oppose women ministers or women preachers in mixed congregations.
The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship (APF) is a body of people within the Anglican Communion who reject war as a means of solving international disputes, and believe that peace and justice should be sought through nonviolent means.
The 1928 Book of Common Prayer, sometimes known as the Deposited Book, is a liturgical book which was proposed as a revised version of the Church of England's 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Opposing what they saw as an Anglo-Catholic revision that would align the Church of England with the Catholic Church—particularly through expanding the practice of the reserved sacrament—Protestant evangelicals and nonconformists in Parliament put up significant resistance, driving what became known as the Prayer Book Crisis.
Churchman is an evangelical Anglican academic journal published by the Church Society. It was formerly known as The Churchman and started in 1880 as a monthly periodical before moving to quarterly publication in 1920. The name change to "Churchman" came in 1977. The editor-in-chief is Peter Jensen. In September 2020 the journal was re-named The Global Anglican.
The Latimer Trust is a conservative evangelical Christian think tank in the United Kingdom.
Evangelical Anglicanism, Evangelical Episcopalianism or Reformed Anglicanism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism" identified by historian David Bebbington as central to evangelical identity. The emergence of evangelical churchmanship can be traced back to the First Great Awakening in America and the Evangelical Revival in Britain in the 18th century. In the 20th century, prominent figures have included John Stott and J. I. Packer.
The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) is an association of mainly conservative evangelical Anglican members of the Church of England. It self-describes as the collective voice of the "vast majority" of evangelicals within the Church of England, and states its aim "to promote and maintain orthodox evangelical theology and ethics at the heart of the Church of England". It has been described as theologically conservative. It was founded in 1960 by the Anglican clergyman John Stott. It is a registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales: amongst its stated activities is the "promotion of consultation between evangelical Anglican leaders" and "to encourage and interact with evangelicals within the Church of England".
Frank Colquhoun was a British Church of England priest and author.