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LONDON: C of E 'shies away' from converting others
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
10/16/2006
The Church of England was accused yesterday of shying away from its sacred duty of trying to convert Muslims and people of other faiths to Christianity.
Paul Eddy, a member of the General Synod, the Church's ruling body, said that the active recruitment of non-believers had always been a Biblical injunction on Christians.
But he claimed that the bishops were deliberately down-playing evangelisation among other faiths for fear of upsetting minority groups and their role in inter-faith talks.
Mr Eddy, from the Winchester diocese, has now tabled a private member's motion aimed at forcing the Church to clarify its position on what is potentially a highly sensitive issue.
The motion, which requires a minimum of 100 signatures to secure a Synod debate, has already garnered the general approval of more than 80 members even though it has not yet been posted on the Church's website.
Mr Eddy said the surge of support was an indication of the growing belief among many Church members, particularly evangelicals, that Church leaders were downgrading the importance of its mission to all.
He said the Church's official statements tended to gloss over the issue of converting Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs or followers of other religions. His motion calls on the bishops to report back on "their understanding of the uniqueness of Christ in Britain's multi-faith society, and offer examples and commendations of good practice in sharing the gospel of salvation through Christ alone with people of other faiths and of none".
"My Muslim friends say they can't understand why we Christians don't evangelise more, especially as they have a strategy to convert Britain," said Mr Eddy.
"The Church needs to regain confidence in the God it professes to believe in, and a new confidence in the Gospel it should be proclaiming. And that starts with a clear steer from the bishops."
His motion follows growing concerns that the Government's efforts to turn Britain into a multi-faith society has eroded the influence of the majority Christian Church.
Supporting Mr Eddy's motion in principle, the Ven Peter Hancock, the Archdeacon of the Meon in Portsmouth, said that there was widespread concern over the issue and people were looking to the bishops to take a lead.
The Rev Richard Turnbull, the Principal of Wycliffe Hall theological college in Oxford and the chairman of the Church of England's Evangelical Council, said that the bishops must take the missionary and evangelical message of the Gospel seriously. "Mission is for all people of whatever colour, race or faith. There are no no-go areas," he said.
The last time the Synod debated a similar motion four years ago, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, was forced to assuage fears among Muslims and others that the Church had decided to launch a heavy-handed campaign to convert them.
The motion, which was overwhelmingly carried, demanded that the "good news of salvation in Jesus Christ must be shared with all, including people of other faiths or of no faith." An amendment added that Christians should be willing to learn and be enriched by other faiths.
Dr (now Lord) Carey said later that the Church had affirmed that the Christian message "includes a gracious invitation to others to hear the words of Christ. That is not to be understood as a directive to coerce others to believe what we believe."
