Anglican Mainstream

One place I do not comment is Anglican Mainstream. I find the attitude on there sour. Subscribing contributors are not mainstream but Conservative Evangelicals, supporters of Akinola of Nigeria and also the Rwandans and the Ugandans with their incursions into the United States. They are deliberately also being entryist regarding Wycliffe theological college (Rev. Chris Sugden, the organiser of Anglican Mainstream giving his full support for Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull's strategy), so that it joins Oak Hill into being exclusivist and Conservative Evangelical.

At the moment everyone is watching 'this space', so to speak, as to what happens on September 30 and after. The likeliest outcome is not very much, nor at Lambeth 2008. The Conservative Evangelicals won't get the sufficiently restrictive Covenant they would want, if they get one at all, and really they are the ones who are going to have to decide what to do as everyone else will just keep talking. At some point the Conservative Evangelicals are going to have to put the money where their mouths are and probably recognise another geographical centre for Anglicanism within Africa, rather than Canterbury, as some African leaders have suggested, and then we may see many Conservative Evangelicals ally themselves to that centre instead. The real difficulty then comes for Open Evangelicals, as to which way to jump: to go with Conservative Evangelicals or with Liberals, but recently the Principal of Wycliffe Hall has been calling them "Liberal Evangelicals" and seeks to exclude their influence on the way to having a contest with the Liberals, and others have been lumping Open Evangelicals together as letting the side down, which isn't quite fair to these evangelicals.

Moderate evangelical voices on Anglican Mainstream tend to be rounded upon by others of the true faith. I am sometimes tempted, rather like a red rag to a bull, but I don't see why I should supply some sport. These people are disgruntled and even angry in some cases, and so feeding is a matter for care and calm.