Preventing CEEC from becoming
a ‘Rump Parliament’
by
prepublished, with permission, from the
‘Rump’ is a term that originally referred to the hind end of an animal. Since the seventeenth century, however, its use has been expanded to speak of any unrepresentative remnant left in power following the deconstruction of a legitimately elected and representative body. The most famous example of this comes from December 1648 when Colonel Pride forcibly purged the ‘Long Parliament’ of all those MPs hostile to the Army’s intention to try Charles I for treason. Driven by Puritan conviction that the cause was right, the principle of Parliament being legitimately elected and properly representative was jettisoned in favour of a ‘Rump Parliament’ pursuing this and other ‘righteous’ agendas.
For evangelicals in the Church of England, an important current question is whether the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) has been allowed to move in a similar direction. Set up by John Stott and others in 1960 to represent and unite evangelical Anglicans and still claiming to represent a large range of evangelical organisations (www.ceec.info), the current membership of the council indicates that this is no longer the case. Bishop Pete Broadbent recently raised this issue at a CEEC meeting and the current list of its members does suggest an over-weighting in the council of conservative evangelicals and particularly those closely linked to conservative evangelical organisations.
What follows is a list of the current membership of CEEC noting their links and affiliations.
(Abbreviations for organisations: AM = Anglican Mainstream; CS = Church Society, CPAS = Church Pastoral Aid Society, CMS = Church Mission Society; EFAC=Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion; FWS = Fellowship of Word and Spirit; LT = Latimer Trust; Ref = Reform)
President: Wallace Benn (Bishop of Lewes, Trustee LT, FWS, Ref, AM, Vice President CS)
Chair: Richard Turnbull (Principal Wycliffe Hall, Steering Ctee AM)
Treasurer: Dr Graham Campbell (GS member,
Secretary and Conference Organiser: both vacant
Executive Officer: Canon
Communications: Peter Breckwoldt (Vicar in
Other Member: Richard Bewes (past Chair, now retired, former Rector of All
24 representatives of Diocesan Evangelical Fellowships/Unions who are elected by the Chair and Secretary of the DEF in each diocese in the province or, where there are no such posts, by people in that diocese chosen by the Council.
Canterbury clergy: Julian Henderson (Archdeacon in Guildford Diocese);
Canterbury laity: Nigel Chetwood; Sarah Finch (Trustee LT, AM Steering Cttee); Deirdre Ducker (ex GS member); Ian Dobbie (GS Rochester committed conservative); David Wilson; Stephen Hofmeyr (Guildford-based lawyer who defended Richard Coekin in his case against the Bishop of Southwark); John Challen; vacancy
Reps of evangelical societies and networks: CS and CPAS are automatically represented. Under the recently revised constitution six others are chosen by CEEC. Church Society: David Phillips (Director, Ref Council); CPAS: John Dunnett; Reform: David Banting (Trustee of AM and on AM Steering Cttee); New Wine: John Coles (also Trustee of AM and on AM Steering Cttee); Anglican Mainstream:
Evangelical Group on General Synod (EGGS), 4 reps: Alison Ruoff (prominent conservative evangelical, London); Gerry O’Brien (prominent conservative evangelical, Rochester diocese); Paul Perkin (Ref Council, Council of Wycliffe Hall, and vicar in Southwark dioc); Pete Broadbent (
Other bodies:
Theological Colleges: Mike Ovey (Principal, Oak Hill, Trustee CS, GAFCON Theology Group); George Kovoor (Principal of
Reps for Children’s and Youth work: two vacancies (to be filled by Council).
Scripture
Evangelical
Six Members Co-opted by CEEC Council “in order to increase its expertise and/or representativeness”: John Cook (GS London dioc, Wycliffe Hall Council); Dr Philip Giddings (Vice Chair of House of Laity GS, Archbishop’s Council, Convenor AM Steering Cttee); Steve
Considerable effort has been made to ensure that the details recorded above are as accurate as possible but by any reckoning they appear to indicate a striking imbalance within CEEC of conservative evangelicals against those from more ‘open’ or ‘charismatic’ standpoints.
The electoral base in DEFs/DEUs is a particular problem. Whereas DEFs were once a genuine constituency basis they no longer contain all evangelicals since many are now nourished by alternative networks such as New Wine, Fulcrum, Spring Harvest, blogging and many more. Several DEFs are defunct whilst others, such as London DEF in its last meeting on 1st October, have joined with Reform to achieve viable meetings. The effect of all this upon the composition of CEEC is significant. Even if DEFs are functioning, just two of their number vote members onto CEEC and where there is no DEF, the executive of CEEC simply select two members of that diocese to act as voters. Given that the executive committee is even more dominated by conservatives than the council this is of major concern. Rather than increasing the council’s breadth, the co-opted members of CEEC also largely come from those conservative networks already represented on the council and when evangelical societies and networks were invited to put up representatives for election (by the council), Fulcrum was rejected whilst those representing Reform, FWS, CI and AM were all chosen.
The non involvement in CEEC by the vast majority of evangelical bishops and archdeacons is also a major anomaly. Whilst the Council’s own constitution recommends that the President should be a diocesan bishop, the continued position of the conservative Wallace Benn (Suffragan Bishop of Lewes) in this role suggests a strong priority of agenda over process. Another weakness is the striking absence of those major evangelical scholars who are making such an exciting contribution to the current advance of biblical and theological scholarship.
The imbalance of conservative evangelicals versus the rest is just one issue in the composition of CEEC. The Council’s own report on a recent survey it conducted is candid here indicating a similar imbalance in regard to under 30s, laity and women (click ‘Survey Results’ button for the CEEC’s own account: (www.ceec.info). In fact under 40s and perhaps under 50s are massively underrepresented and it is of particular concern that there are only two ordained women on CEEC and none on the Executive Committee.
The key question, of course, is what should be done in response to these problems. Canon
Encouragingly, CEEC is not unaware of the lack of balance in its representation and the erosion of its DEF constituency. Six vacancies for the Council are currently up for election with the closing date being Friday 19th December (full details on the CEEC website, (www.ceec.info/elections.htm ) and it is clearly important that evangelicals in non-conservative networks take this opportunity seriously. In addition, the evangelical bishops need to organize themselves more effectively so that their influence and input into CEEC becomes more apparent. However we also need to hear directly from CEEC about what its specific plans are to address these issues. Particularly on the eve of its calling of NEAC 2008, which appeared in its initial programme and speakers to lack any real recognition of the breadth in the evangelical constituency, the credibility of CEEC is at stake and the Council itself holds the chief power to address this.
Lacking legitimacy both in its election and representativeness, the ‘Rump Parliament’ eventually became corrupt and little more than a self-perpetuating oligarchy before its eventual dissolution in 1653. CEEC is way too important a body to be allowed to go the same way.
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The Revd
Stephen Kuhrt is Vicar of Christ Church, New Malden.