And things continue to get worse. The last census indicated that 46 percent of the English population claimed to be Christian. Less than half the population but still a considerable percentage. However, at the same time normal Sunday CofE attendance for all ages represents just 0.9 percent of the population.

The officers are in a quandary, somehow 'Pride Month' celebrations in the local parish church and a helter skelter or pitch and put in the cathedral just don't seem to be having an evangelistic impact on the unchurched of England. Membership in the CofE is in freefall. The future does not bode well, one in four congregations in 2017 did not have any children at worship services, will this have improved following Welby's rigorously imposed church lockdown during Covid? What more can the church leadership possibly do? If only there was some method of attracting people to Jesus.

Something More Important Than The Gospel The latest issue causing widespread debate is that of the Anglican evangelical mission body, the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS). CPAS was founded with the 'conviction that a primary calling of local churches is to enable those who are far from Christ to be reconciled to him, and that CPAS could help resource churches to that end.' This they have been doing with considerable success for nearly 200 years. Countless lives have been impacted by the work of CPAS in and with local churches. Unfortunately today they are the latest casualty in the war against the Bible being mounted by 'progressive' Christians.

The help CPAS has given and continues to give the church is as nothing compared to the offence they have caused the self-regarding woke ecclesiastics who ferociously guard their reputation in the CofE as a leaders of progressive inclusiveness. The staff of CPAS had the temerity to align the organisation with the Evangelical Alliance's (EA) statement on human sexuality. In particular it was CPAS' endorsement of EA's affirmation eight which caused the reaction, 'We welcome and support the work of those individuals and organisations who responsibly seek to help Christians who experience same-sex attraction as in conflict with their commitment to live in accordance with biblical teaching.'

This brought the predictable accusations of 'homophobia' and 'hate' from progressive Christians, with the unfounded assertion that CPAS had endorsed conversion therapy. This despite the fact that affirmation eight goes on, 'This help will involve counsel and pastoral support to live a chaste life and, as part of this process, some may seek and experience changes in the strength or direction of their same-sex attractions.'

Christian progressives are no nicer than secular progressives

When a comment appeared on social media the trustees of CPAS turned tail and had the offending endorsement deleted. This did nothing to calm things down, rather, as always it encouraged the progressives to go further. Christian progressives are no nicer than secular progressives, they are given to the same censorious and sometimes vicious attacks on those with the temerity to disagree with them. When they smelled blood in the water the cyber-bullies, those keyboard warriors of progressive Christianity, leapt into action to repel the insurrectionists and mutineers who insist on the Bible and 2000 years of theology.

Like all elites the ecclesiastical elites believe that they are moderate, sensible centrists, more informed and learned than those undereducated pew fillers who disagree with them, especially those obscurantists who want to follow Scripture. One could almost hear the gasps of horror as the gospelphobic ecclesiastical elites clutched their pearls at the thought of evangelical Christians having the temerity to adhere to biblical doctrines.

Rev Colin C Coward MBE, CofE priest and director of Changing Attitude commenting in 'Thinking Anglicans' writes, 'Friends in CPAS, your Biblical theology is homophobic and prejudiced and abusive of LGBTQIA+ people in church and society. I do not recognise your theology as Christian -- Biblical maybe, but not Christian -- not all Biblical theology is Christian.'

A Struggle For The Soul of the Church There we have the nub of the matter, our woke ecclesiastics want a theology which countenances the Word of God only when his Word agrees with what they want anyway. Scripture must appear before the bar of their desires and either conform or be found guilty and dismissed. When they say that evangelicals are a threat to the church what they really mean is that evangelicals are a threat to the ecclesiastical elites self-regarding rule of the church and their imposition of a modern non-biblical ideology onto the millennia old theology of the church.

It was ever thus. Sir Thomas More complained that William Tyndale put concern for the Bible before the concern for the church. The Reformers, the Wesleys, wherever anyone has prioritised Scripture over the ecclesiastical organisation the church mandarins and their acolytes have turned on them.

The progressive ecclesiastic priorities the normalisation of homosexuality, the evangelical Christian prioritises the truth of Scripture. Ultimately this is not a controversy about what people do in their bedrooms, it is a struggle for the soul of the church.

END