Evangelicals Must Move Fast To Save Anglican Communion

Dr John Coulter ✍ Evangelical Christians within the Church of Ireland (CoI) now have a moral and spiritual obligation to play their part in saving the world-wide Anglican Communion in the wake of Justin Welby quitting as Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Church of England is haemorrhaging members at such an alarming rate that there is the real danger that it will become a minority faith in England, playing second fiddle to Islam.

Likewise, there is the equal pitfall for the Church of Ireland on this island, generally viewed as one of the largest Protestant denominations in Ireland geographically, that it could go the same way as its English counterpart in terms of numbers in the pews.

With mainstream Irish Presbyterianism discussing the possibility of merging congregations to combat its own fall in numbers, the Church of Ireland may well have to seriously consider the same rationalisation strategy.

However, the ultimate problem for the Church of England - and the Church of Ireland, and ultimately the global Anglican Communion - is not one of organisation, but one of theology.

Put bluntly, the wider Anglican Communion is straying away from Biblical values, especially on the issues of marriage, sexuality and gender identity.

The Church of England has adopted a very liberal view of what constitutes marriage, with some churches adopting same-sex blessings and ordaining openly gay clergy. Evangelicals who remain within the Church of England often feel that the hierarchy is ripping out sections of the Bible.

Liberal elements of the Church of England seem to want to ‘go with the flow’ in society in developing the concept of the nominal Christian - someone who adheres to the tradition of calling themselves a Christian, but ignores the socially conservative teachings in Scripture.

The evangelical lobby within the Church of Ireland would obviously be more influential and vocal than its counterpart in the Church of England.

This can be attributed to the Church of Ireland’s unofficial links - especially in rural areas of Northern Ireland - with overtly evangelical organisations, such as the Faith Mission and Christian Workers’ Union.

What evangelicals within the CoI now have to do to maintain numbers is to openly adopt a Salvationist theological stance on social issues, otherwise the CoI will gain the reputation of being nothing more than a pensioners’ club.

Indeed even in 2024, the Faith Mission and Christian Workers’ Union themselves can no longer claim to have the influence on mainstream Protestant denominations which they enjoyed in the Seventies and Eighties.

In those decades especially, it was common for adults on Sundays after evening church worship to head off to mission halls for another strongly evangelical meeting hosted mainly by the Faith Mission in rural areas and the Christian Workers’ Union in urban regions.

During my primary school days in the Sixties, I recall travelling to my grandparents’ home county of Tyrone for Faith Mission meetings in halls. My late grandparents on my dad’s side were staunch evangelicals as well as CoI members.

The CoI, like its English counterpart, may also have to examine the content of its Sunday worship if it is to remain a relevant part of Irish society.

There’s a heavy emphasis on liturgy and strict traditional formality within CoI worship leading to accusations that CoI Sunday services can become repetitive and boring.

This is in stark contrast to the so-called ‘happy clappy’ expressive worship found in Pentecostal churches across Ireland, such as Elim denomination, the Vineyard movement, Whitewell Tabernacle on Belfast’s Shore Road, and Green Pastures in Ballymena.

Many of these Pentecostal places of worship seem to be attracting a younger audience and have a particularly strong appeal among teenagers and folk in their twenties and thirties.

So the strategy to save the Anglican Communion is simple. Theologically, the churches making up that Communion must become more socially conservative in their preaching rather than simply trying to appeal to the latest popular trends in society.

Structurally, whilst maintaining some traditions, such as prayer time and praise, the church services need to become more lively in their worship expression in the same way as African churches in the Anglican Communion have gone.

For generations until after the end of the Second World War, the CoI and its English counterpart had an impressive record of sending Christian missionaries to Africa. Those missionaries did sterling work in establishing the Anglican Communion in that continent as being strongly evangelical.

However, as both the CoI and its English counterpart seem to becoming more liberal to ‘fit in’ with secular trends in society, are we reaching a stage in Christian outreach that evangelicals from Africa will become missionaries to the UK?

Put bluntly, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the UK sent missionaries to evangelise Africa; in the 21st century it is the Africans who are coming to the UK to evangelise us!

Perhaps there are those within both the CoI and Church of England who know what the solutions are, but think they can only progress at a snail’s pace in terms of theological and structural reform.

However, time is not on the side of such evangelicals within the Anglican Communion. They need to act as a matter of urgency. Replacing Welby with an overtly evangelical and socially conservative Archbishop of Canterbury would be an excellent first step.

In 1924, Islam was only a fringe faith in mainland Britain with the Anglican Church as the dominant religion. A century later, with many Anglican churches struggling to maintain numbers in the pew the opposite case is becoming a religious reality.

Perhaps the CoI and Church of England could learn lessons from Islam; how are the mosques able to maintain their numbers and spiritual discipline whilst the Anglican Communion continues to slide towards numerical oblivion?

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM.