What Rico Tice’s resignation says about the Anglican Communion
by Mark Woods, Christian Today:
Rico Tice is a solid evangelical with a great track record in converting people, not least through his Christianity Explored course. He’s what used to be called a ‘muscular Christian’ – ex-public school, captain of Bristol University’s rugby team, grew up partly in Africa.
He has a straight-down-the-line, uncompromising approach to faith, and it’s very powerful. He’s a hugely respected figure in evangelical circles, and just the sort of person the archbishop of Canterbury would want on his evangelism task group alongside Amy Orr-Ewing, Andy Croft and the bishop of Burnley.
But he’s resigned, he told the GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem, because the vice-chair is the bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, and Bayes is a supporter of same-sex marriage. He said he and Bayes ‘have a different religion’.
‘It is around whether scripture is authoritative in terms of human sexuality.
‘I think it is a great wickedness to tell people who are on the road to destruction that they are not. To tell them that they are safe when it comes to God’s wrath when they are not.’
He continued: ‘If we have church leaders that are putting people on that road to destruction it is a salvation issue. That is why we have to distance ourselves. That is why I stepped down from the archbishop’s commission on evangelism, which I may say was grievous. I wept about it. I was longing to serve and found it a great honour that archbishop Welby had appointed me to that body.’
It’s sad to hear such a statement; this was not a decision that cost him nothing. And given his conviction that this is a ‘salvation issue’, perhaps he had no option.
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