Jenny Standage Women and the Church Forty years on; A Woman’s Place is in the House of Bishops
Richard Peers Quodcumque – Serious Christianity Clergy Discipline Measure – the need for total change
Martyn Percy ViaMedia.News Does the Bible Really…Advocate the “Nuclear Family”
Cornel Wilde Anglican Ink The English, the evangelicals and the elites: The school for scandals
I was a Cambridge undergraduate in the mid 60’s and the influence in CICCU ( the Christian Union) of ‘Bash Campers’ was very strong – supported by David Watson as Curate of the Round Church. As someone from a minor public school on a scholarship because of good marks in 11+ it did seem a different world. Is this conservative evangelical Freemasonry? (for the avoidance of doubt, this is no longer my theological position!)
“Conservative evangelical Freemasonry”? Maybe – but perhaps more like “Totalitarian Anglicanism”?
It’s like Freemasonry in the way it operates networks under the radar, by means of which its insiders get plum jobs and exercise influence.
I was born in inner city Leicester in a working class neighbourhood, and my family background was solidly working class. My dad left school at 16, but was ordained in his mid-thirties, and was solidly evangelical all his life. He had no connection at all with this upper-class public school old boy network. The point I’m trying to make is that the Bash Camps are far from being the whole story of the evangelical movement.
You’re right, they’re not the whole story. But Iwerne men have tended to get the ‘best’ jobs in the Church, and have exercised an influence far beyond their numbers or even gifts. They’re a very large part of the story of English evangelicalism – but many people don’t realise how large because much of it is hidden.
How does a Christian decide what is the ‘best job in the church’?
The writer is praising the puritanism of Jim Packer so is making the very point that this elite is a tiny fraction of evangelicals, but a tiny fraction that seeks to exert control. They have decided what are ‘the best jobs’ and have gone for them. The puritan tradition is not mine and I have serious theological objections to it, but from my encounters with this elete the critique of the Bash circle rings true. Evangelicalism at its best is egalitarian. This movement is elitist.
Who is Cornel Wilde, author of this piece?
‘Cornel Wilde’ is, at a guess, a pseudonym for George Conger of Anglican Unscripted.
If so, why does he have to use a pseudonym? He’s no wilting violet lol.
On latest Anglican Unscripted ( at the end) Gavin Ashenden says he knows the author who feels he has to use a pseudonym.
I dont think it can be a reputable journalist like George Conger. He has spelt incorrectly Iwerne (‘Iwerene’) and Juckes (‘Jukes’). But then maybe he or she is a reputable journalist trying to throw us off the scent with deliberate mistakes. Maybe he or she was rushed and forgot to check his or her piece for inaccuracies or ask someone else what they thought and reflect on the wisdom of his or her approach. But hey … no doubt it will all come out in the wash or on the Day. Grace and peace to you all … with much… Read more »