Southwark Evangelicals Set Up “Ministry Trust”

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This news is slowly coming out of the UK. From EV News (part of the Church Society):

Southwark Evangelicals set up alternative quota

The Church Times reports today (page 8) in a short news item that evangelicals in the diocese of Southwark are planning to set up an alternative quota:

‘Evangelicals in the diocese of Southwark are drawing up plans for an alternative parish share. It is understood that documents to set up the scheme, which will be a registered charity, were scheduled to be signed yesterday. About 100 Evangelical clergy and lay people met the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, earlier this month (News, 5 April) to protest about the lack of Evangelicals in senior posts.’

(Source: The Church Times, 20/04/2012)

and then this

Due to widespread concerns in the Diocese of Southwark, a Trust is being established to support the ministry cost of parish clergy.

There will be a presentation for members of the Diocese of Southwark Evangelical Union and other interested bodies within the next couple of months, which will include a question and answer session, and briefing papers to take away for Parochial Church Councils to discuss, should they want them.

There has already been an expression of interest from clergy in the Diocese of Salisbury, because of their own local concerns.

This is tremendous news, not to mention a clear indication that the new Bishop of Southwark has failed to get to grips with the obvious bias in his diocesan selection processes. It looks like, rather than paying part of the regular quota to the diocese which covers clergy stipends, that portion will be sent somewhere else and the stipends paid out of it. That “somewhere else” will no longer be distributed by the bishop. There’s really not a clearer way of saying “we don’t want you over us”.

Or, in other words, if the liberals in the hierarchy refuse to promote orthodoxy and do the opposite … cut off the cash.

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