I recently had the opportunity to attend Oak Hill College’s annual School of theology event. This year the title was: Class and Ministry in the UK Today. It is a one-day event, although for me it was three days, and it showed how evangelicals, while often cast as those who don’t do privilege, class and poverty too well, actually do – and are looking to God to do it better!

It formed one day of an “Impact Week” for the students, to enable them, as future leaders in churches, to start to build an understanding of the wider social, and therefore ecclesial, landscape they will minister into. You can’t escape politics or culture – you can either do them well or poorly, or just ignore it, but they will never go away.

Day One was with current Oak Hill students doing teaching and open Q&A with the other speakers. Day Two was the conference proper, and Day Three hosting some students in my South East London parish.

Monday was the practical and theory day, and we had John Funnel from Noddfa in Wales, initially self-supporting with only a few faithful pensioners in his church, to now over 300, and a ministry that works with local agencies to support thousands across the community. His is truly a church that has made its place in the area invaluable and that has been recognised. And John has done it without any compromise on how he preaches, teaches and ministers. Personally, the big point of interest was that John was working with a near homogenous group of people from the Welsh Valleys, whereas I minister in an area that now has 38 different first languages in the local school, meaning 38 different people groups on my patch, many of whom dislike others. Hyper-diversity doesn’t begin to touch it, but our approaches had both areas of direct similarity with complete difference – both saw the core human need of the “full-fat Gospel”, that life-changing encounter with Christ, as non-negotiable, while in terms of simply culture, how you shape ministry to Welsh men from the Valleys is not the same as Zimbabwean women in South East London. This was the source of many questions from the students.

Gary Jenkins, Dean of Estates for Southwark Diocese looked at how class is more a culture than an economic category, even though the two clearly overlap, and finally, Natalie Williams (Jubilee Plus) spoke about coastal poverty, but her main focus was on how she, as a unmarried working class woman, did not fit so many of the leadership models that evangelicals often work with, yet she was now a CEO. There is a need to look beyond externals to the gifts and callings God places deeper within people.

Tuesday was the conference proper, and Matthew Sleeman (Oak Hill Vice Principal) opened with an excellent overview of what class is and isn’t and how it has been shaped by history and political and philosophical movements, and become described using ever more subdivided categories. Previously class was predicted on landownership, but the Industrial Revolution changed paradigm, which then got further shaped by political ideas in the Victorian period. Both the world wars reshaped the landscape (poverty creates political problems, so let’s avoid that happening again), and various recessions, crashes and de-industrialisation in the last few decades further complicates the picture to include those who would be “generationally non-working working class”

The second session led by London City Mission was based around three short vignettes (acted out Archers like – middle-class Radio 4 reference point!) that showed how (unintentionally) assumptions can be made about people and situations, and how then the gold can be missed – e.g. talking about your mortgage or skiing holiday in a sermon as if it was a common lived experience for all in the congregation, when the single parent is simply wondering how to get to the end of the week.

The afternoon had seminars on hyper-diversity, class on urban estates, class in coastal towns, and class in post-industrial communities  followed by the final session by Kirsten Birkett with her quiet yet powerfully spoken scholarship on full view. However, one comment she made remained with me: “We are primarily children of God rather than demographic categories.”, and by always bringing it back to the Gospel she rooted and rounded off the day wonderfully.

On Wednesday some students came to see what we do on Thamesmead, considering everything from badly thought through architecture and local infrastructure, via using local gifting to the fullest, ending with a session with the local Church Army Evangelist with the very people we had been thinking about for the past two days.

Privilege, class and poverty are tricky but unavoidable issues for the church today, and Oak Hill provided an excellent way in for those called to truly engage our society.

Revd Jonathan Macy leads a church in Thamesmead, London and is author of Sowing Seeds with Songs of Joy: Growing God’s Garden In Forgotten Places, which was published in 2025.

Sowing Seeds with Songs of Joy: Growing God’s Garden In Forgotten Places

As Christians, many of us aren’t sure what to think about Pride month. On the one hand, we want to love people well, stand up for human rights and stand against bad treatment of people made in the image of God. But on the other hand, we believe that God has given us good guidelines for sexuality and gender that contrast sharply with so much of what is celebrated in our culture. With both these sides in mind, many of us are left unsure what to think and how to respond.

Living Out has put together some of resources that you might be helpful if Pride month raises those sorts of questions for you. Find out more.

The initiative coincides with the July meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England, where members are expected to debate a significant Private Member’s Motion on marriage and sexual ethics. 

PRAYjuly will begin with two national online prayer meetings on 1 and 2 July, which are open to all.

On Sunday 12 July, CEEC is asking churches to pray in church services using the resources on its dedicated webpage.

Every day in July CEEC will publish a Bible verse and a prayer pointer on its social media channels and website, encouraging and helping Christians to pray for the Church of England and its mission to the nation.

Revd John Dunnett, National Director of the CEEC, said the month of prayer was intended to encourage Christians to pray that God would renew the Church of England in its faith and witness. 

“We want to pray and give thanks for the continued opportunities for the evangelisation of our nation that we see every day. We want to encourage evangelicals across the country to join together in praying for the Church of England’s faithfulness and its witness to the gospel. We want to pray for many more people to come to faith in Jesus Christ.

It has been confirmed by the Business Committee that the July General Synod will debate the PMM proposed by Professor Helen King, which seeks to affirm the compatibility of intimate same sex relationships with Christian discipleship.

The controversial motion (in full below) is cleverly worded and designed to secure support for a revision of the Church of England’s sexual ethics, without explicitly asking for a change to Church of England doctrine.

Professor Helen King (Oxford) to move:

‘That this Synod affirm that there are no fundamental objections to being in a committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationship, and that such a relationship can be entirely compatible with Christian discipleship.’

Private Members’ Motions function similarly to those in Parliament: once sufficient support is gathered, the Business Committee may schedule them for debate. While PMMs do not change doctrine or law, they can signal the theological and political ‘view’ of the Synod.

The last time General Synod expressed a view on marriage and sexual ethics in this way was in 1987. In that year, the ‘Higton Motion’ was passed by General Synod, which affirmed the Church’s traditional teaching on sexual ethics and marriage.

Revd John Dunnett, National Director, Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), said: “This motion matters. While it might be viewed by some as committing General Synod to ‘nothing in particular’, this motion shows that the revisionists will find new and different ways to continually push their agenda – away from Scripture, away from our Church’s doctrine and towards liberal change – even when the House of Bishops is not doing so. And were the motion to find support it could be seen as paving the way for further change.

“The big question is how the bishops and indeed the new Archbishop will respond. Will the Archbishop see it as an opportunity to allow Synod to express its mind, or would she prefer the process to be steered by the House of Bishops, and therefore encourage her colleagues to vote against the motion?”

Around the Communion, Dunnett cautions, the overwhelming response would be one of both sadness and despair.

“News of this motion will evoke a sad and negative response from across the Communion”, Dunnett concluded. “The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans and GAFCON would undoubtedly be concerned by the motion, and its passing would increase the impaired nature of relationships between the majority Anglican Communion and the Church of England.”

The Evangelical Group on General Synod (EGGS) will be working to defeat the motion in as an effective way as possible.

The February 2026 General Synod motion has committed the House of Bishops to forming a group which will carry forward the LLF trajectory – an initiative which could be of even greater threat to the apostolic understanding of marriage and sexual ethics upon which the Church of England has always been built.

]]> https://ceec.info/dont-let-your-voice-go-unheard/ Thu, 14 May 2026 14:49:15 +0000 https://ceec.info/?p=4938 Read more

All here at Living Out are praying for our brother and co-founder Sam Allberry following the release of a statement by his church, Immanuel Nashville.

We don’t know what has happened beyond this statement, but it references both Sam’s inappropriate actions and his repentance, humility and co-operation. We will be reaching out to Sam to better understand how we can support him, what has happened, and the implications. In the meantime, we believe his many past contributions to this site retain their value, and they will not be taken down.

We founded Living Out to be a place where real-life stories, including stories of sin, repentance, humility and co-operation, could be openly shared for the good of all who struggle with their faith and sexuality. We get that news like this is unsettling. If it is impacting you, please reach out to people you trust, and know that we are praying for you too.

Living Out exists because of people like Sam, and for people like Sam. We continue to appreciate all that he has contributed to Living Out. Please join us in praying for Sam and everyone involved – and all of us impacted by this news. Thank you.

The full post can also be viewed on the Living Out website.

What is immediately striking is the warmth of the welcome, the joy of the worship and the clear commitment to the authority of scripture. There is also a tangible graciousness in the way conversations are held and issues explored. At the same time G26 raises questions which need to be addressed if GAFCON is to offer any substantive support for those contending within the Church of England.

Some of the contributors have been outstanding: a video from Rick Warren challenged us to work missionally towards the 2,000th birthday of the church, an address by Michael Oh (CEO Lausanne Movement) reminded us that the bible is not ‘clay in our hands’ but the ‘bedrock under our feet’ and we were offered an insight into how the Lord is building His church in countries where Islam is the dominant faith.

The big news of this gathering is the launch of the Global Anglican Communion (GAC) and a new leadership structure: the Global Anglican Council. This Council replaces the former Primates Council, and now includes clergy and lay members. It also has a new governance ‘model’, in that the chair of the new Council (Archbishop of Rwanda) will exercise leadership without being primes inter pares.

The message from the stage was that GAC is neither a departure from the Communion nor a schism – rather a ‘reordering’ of the Communion from within. In practice, this will be most obvious in a commitment to withdraw from participation in the instruments of Communion (the Lambeth Conference, The Anglican Consultative  Council, the Communion Primates and recognition of Canterbury as primes inter pares).

Viewing all of this from the perspective of the Church of England raises various questions.

First, what is not clear is how, and if, the launch of GAC will have a direct impact or relevance for those of us contending within the Church of England (we do however remain grateful for the ongoing commitment of GAFCON to support those contending within the C of E as well as those who have felt compelled to leave).

Second, I noted that the stage was dominated (perhaps even exclusively?) by men. This of course might reflect various cultural sensitivities, but if GAC is to be truly global then this needs to be addressed.

Finally, it continues to remain unclear how GAFCON and GSFA might relate going forwards. It is to be hoped that the launch of GAC will not exacerbate differences between them.

Above all – and despite the questions that the launch of GAC might raise – it is a joy to see so many Anglican bishops meeting with an agenda for gospel mission, biblical authority and the honour of the Lord Jesus.

John Dunnett – Observer at G26

The Abuja Affirmation can be read here

The news comes less than a month after Bishop Andrew announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. On sharing his bleak prognosis with the wider diocese, he reassured them that he was “cheerfully persisting towards a good death”, and that his “faith in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, had only grown stronger”.

Bishop Julian Henderson, President, Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), said:

“CEEC is deeply saddened by the news of Bishop Andrew Watson’s death.

“We give thanks for the life and ministry of our dear brother, Bishop Andrew, whose faithful service to the life of the Church of England, and to those he ministered to and shepherded, will leave a lasting mark. His leadership was marked by humility, wisdom, and a wholehearted commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We pray for Beverly, their children, their friends and the whole diocese as they grieve his loss. We pray that the grace of God may prove sufficient for this time of grief and transition.”

Bishop Andrew was born in 1961 and grew up in Buckinghamshire and Hampshire. Andrew read law at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, returning in 1984 where he took a second degree in Theology whilst training for ordained ministry at Ridley Hall. He was ordained in the Diocese of Worcester in 1987 and served his curacy in Redditch. He subsequently moved to the Diocese of London, serving first in Notting Hill and then as vicar of St Stephen’s Twickenham.

In 2008, Andrew was appointed as Suffragan Bishop of Aston in the Diocese of Birmingham before his translation to Diocesan Bishop of Guildford in 2014.

In recent years, he has been a member of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC).

Bishop Andrew is survived by his wife Beverly, four children and three grandchildren, as well as his mother and three siblings.

You can read the announcement on the Diocese of Guildford website and you can sign an online condolence book here.

Following a five-hour debate of a four-part motion, two new groups will be established which will be chaired by bishops and will be tasked with carrying the LLF work forwards. Both the Archbishop of York and the outgoing programme board made it clear that the cause must continue.

Rev John Dunnett, National Director, CEEC, said:

“​It is anticipated that the newly established groups will be pushed very hard by those wanting to pursue change to bring to the General Synod, as quickly as possible, some kind of proposal to amend the canons of the Church of England, so that clergy same-sex marriage will be a possibility.

“It’s also possible that the General Synod will find itself debating a motion, even as early as this July, exploring the proposal that intimate same-sex relationships are entirely compatible with Christian discipleship.”

Here are four themes we’ve noticed from our work at The Word One to One.

Helping Everyone Play Their Part 

I love this story from a church in Northern Ireland. A woman new to church turns up one Sunday. A chat with the person she sits next to leads on to a coffee, then to the 321 course. Alongside, they read John’s Gospel together. Through friendship,looking at the Bible and getting to know the church family, wonderfully this lady comes to faith and is baptised. I love it because it sounds so ordinary, but God has been at work in an extraordinary way.

We can sometimes forget that the work of ‘making disciples’ isn’t just a job for church leaders. We might expect Ephesians 4 to say that leaders are given to do works of service. But it doesn’t say that. Leaders are given to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the whole body matures in Christ. This means that we are all called to play our part.

What also stands out to me from that story is the believer’s availability.  They understood the pathways the church had created for those curious about Jesus and prayerfully chose to walk alongside someone through them.

If we’re church leaders, we can pray for our people to be available like this, with hearts ready to meet others and help them take steps towards Jesus. Resources such as A Passion for Life training videos and materials have proved a valuable way of envisioning and equipping everyday believers for this work.

And we can all ask ourselves the question: “In this season of life, how can I help others come to know and love Jesus?’

Offering Connection 

Another thread from that story from Northern Ireland is the importance of relationships. Many who come to church for the first time are not just exploring faith – they are seeking connection. Whether they come back is not often to do with how polished the service is, but whether they are noticed, welcomed and known.

Inviting people into our lives through opening our homes, sharing meals, and making time for a walk or coffee, can feel unremarkable. Yet in an age marked by loneliness, this kind of a connection carries surprising weight. When people not only hear the gospel explained, but see it lived out, following Jesus begins to feel tangible and real.

Blend the Organised and the Organic 

Structured evangelistic courses such as Alpha, 321, or Christianity Explored are a great option for churches, offering welcoming spaces for people to ask questions and explore the claims of Christ. But the question often follows: ‘What’s next?’

Often, discipleship flourishes where there is a healthy blend of the organised and the organic.

One natural next step after a course is to open the Bible together. Resources like The Word One to One, available as books or a free app, provide a simple, structured way to read John and Acts 1-to-1 or in small groups. There’s a double benefit. Christians grow in confidence as they read the Bible with others, trusting God to work. And those exploring faith deepen their understanding of Jesus, discover how to read the Bible for themselves, and are gently drawn into the rhythms of church life.

In South Wales, one church invites every newcomer for a coffee and the opportunity to read the Bible. Almost everyone says yes. They’re now preparing for twelve baptisms – and many of these new Christians say reading the Bible with someone was central to their journey to faith. ‘It doesn’t feel like revival,’ the church leader reflects, ‘but it feels a bit like what we see in the book of Acts – share the Word, and the church grows.’

Remember where the power lies 

Of course these stories remind us where the real power lies in evangelism and discipleship. It’s not in the strategies we employ, the slickness of a course, or the intellect of the Bible sharer – but in the Spirit of God working through the Bible and His people to bring people to Christ.

In this “quiet revival”, God invites His church to faithful dependence on Him. As we pray, open His Word and invest in others, we can be confident that He will be at work, drawing people to Jesus and making His glory known.

Allen is The Word One to One’s Regional Field Manager in Ireland. Allen joined the team in April 2025 and is based in Belfast.