Thursday, May 12, 2005 AD
I [heart] Anglican Evangelicals
To balance my previous post, I should point out that I still have a lot of time for Anglican Evangelicalism, particularly in its Sydney-style conservative evangelical version. That is the tradition in which I returned to the Christian faith eleven years ago, and I wouldn't be where I am now - to be precise, I would still be dead in my sins, and quite possibly in a more literal way too, the way things were heading - had it not been for that sort of conservative evangelicalism.
In fact, I'm spending Saturday at the London Men's Convention, an event modelled on similar conventions in the Diocese of Sydney, and now established as one of the key events in the conservative evangelical calendar. (As well as the details on the website, there is a short Powerpoint presentation [1.1 Mb] advertising the event - y'see, Tom R, I've nothing against it in its place ;-).)
Last year's convention was a good illustration of what I still find very congenial in conservative evangelicalism: in particular, a 95%-superb piece of Law & Gospel preaching by SydAng minister Simon Manchester on how the cross of Christ brings us freedom from fear, and a very good seminar on the cross and marriage.
Unfortunately, it also included some equally vivid illustrations of what I find most aggravating in contemporary evangelicalism: an irritating (and FAR TOO LOUD) praise band, complete with bassist wearing a JCUK t-shirt (and you thought Chris Idle was making it up), and one talk that was a 100% Law-based harangue - Simon Manchester comforted us with the cross, and then [name omitted] proceeded to hit us over the head with it for an hour. As one person from my old church, a fairly recent convert (but of a sufficiently sturdy temperament to withstand the onslaught), put it: "He certainly got his point across, didn't he?".
I hadn't been planning to go this year, until the publicity materials arrived and I saw that the keynote speaker was none other than the godfather of post-war conservative evangelicalism himself, John Stott. Believe it or not, while I've read many of his books, I have never seen Stott in action, so I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. I'll report back on how it went after Saturday.
In fact, I'm spending Saturday at the London Men's Convention, an event modelled on similar conventions in the Diocese of Sydney, and now established as one of the key events in the conservative evangelical calendar. (As well as the details on the website, there is a short Powerpoint presentation [1.1 Mb] advertising the event - y'see, Tom R, I've nothing against it in its place ;-).)
Last year's convention was a good illustration of what I still find very congenial in conservative evangelicalism: in particular, a 95%-superb piece of Law & Gospel preaching by SydAng minister Simon Manchester on how the cross of Christ brings us freedom from fear, and a very good seminar on the cross and marriage.
Unfortunately, it also included some equally vivid illustrations of what I find most aggravating in contemporary evangelicalism: an irritating (and FAR TOO LOUD) praise band, complete with bassist wearing a JCUK t-shirt (and you thought Chris Idle was making it up), and one talk that was a 100% Law-based harangue - Simon Manchester comforted us with the cross, and then [name omitted] proceeded to hit us over the head with it for an hour. As one person from my old church, a fairly recent convert (but of a sufficiently sturdy temperament to withstand the onslaught), put it: "He certainly got his point across, didn't he?".
I hadn't been planning to go this year, until the publicity materials arrived and I saw that the keynote speaker was none other than the godfather of post-war conservative evangelicalism himself, John Stott. Believe it or not, while I've read many of his books, I have never seen Stott in action, so I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. I'll report back on how it went after Saturday.
