The Ephesian Fund – what is it and why is it needed?
By John Dunnett, CEEC.
The Church of England is fundamentally divided over the issue of sex and marriage. For too long we’ve been trying to put sugar and salt in the same pot. We need to be honest and say, look, we have actually got two different visions of the future we wish to build (in reality, I suspect we actually have two gospels – it certainly is the case that the question ‘what does repentance and faith look like’ will elicit divergent answers).
In response to this, the CEEC is working to secure a future for those committed to biblical and Anglican teaching, primarily through a permanent structural settlement – something we often refer to as structural differentiation.
The pursuit of this differentiation will however take time and in the meantime evangelicals across the country find themselves in ‘limbo’ with regard to a number of issues of conscience.
Lay people across the country have told us that they’ve lost confidence in their giving. They have told us that they don’t feel they can continue to give to their diocese, in good conscience, when it might be used to support a bishop and/or churches that have walked away from a biblical understanding of sex and marriage and have commended/are using Prayers of Love and Faith.
The idea behind the Ephesian Fund is to enable people to continue to give joyfully and in good conscience by ensuring that their money is going to be spent on gospel purposes.
As individuals, people can use the Ephesian Fund to give to their local church in a way that says ‘I support orthodox ministry’.
It also means that churches can pay their share to the diocese through the Ephesian Fund and be assured that their money has been allocated to orthodox churches like theirs. This is particularly important in dioceses where there is a real concern about the liberal inclination of bishops and an agenda to drive the Prayers of Love and Faith forwards.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
