Towards the Conversion of England
Towards the Conversion of England: a plan dedicated to the memory of Archbishop William Temple was a 1945 report produced by the Church of England Commission on Evangelism, chaired by the evangelical Bishop of Rochester, Christopher Chavasse. At the time it was widely circulated and influential, though controversial.[1][2]
The commission had been appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple and Archbishop of York Cyril Garbett following a resolution of the summer session of the 1943 General Assembly.[3] The resulting report, forcefully evangelical in conclusion, was described by one leading Anglican as "one of the most remarkable statements ever authorized for publication by the Church of England."[4]
Among the findings of the report were restatements of Reformation teachings such as a judgment day and annihilationism.[5]
The report was the precursor to Evangelicals Affirm 1948, John Stott's Eclectic Society founded in 1955, the lay publication Church of England Newspaper 1959, and the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC).[6]
References[edit]
- ^ Kelvin Randall Evangelicals etcetera: conflict and conviction in the Church of England - Page 21 2005 "In 1945 the Church of England Commission on Evangelism produced the report Towards the Conversion of England which, probably because of the Commission's chairman, the Evangelical Bishop Chavasse, read like an Evangelical treatise."
- ^ Kenneth Hylson-Smith Evangelicals in the Church of England, 1734-1984 Page 287 1989 "In 1945 the Church of England Commission on Evangelism, chaired by the Evangelical Bishop of Rochester, Christopher Chavasse, produced its widely circulated and influential report Towards the Conversion of England."
- ^ subtitle "Commission on Evangelism, Report of a Commission on Evangelism Appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York Pursuant to a Resolution of the Church General Assembly Passed at the Summer Session, 1943"
- ^ The Bishops Page 202 Trevor Beeson - 2003 "Canon Max Warren, a leading overseas missionary statesman, described Towards the Conversion of England as 'one of the most remarkable statements ever authorized for publication by the Church of England',"
- ^ Towards the conversion of England Archbishop's Commission on Evangelism 1945 p22 "Judgment is no superstition or fiction. It is a tremendous and solemn truth. Ultimately all that is found valueless in God's sight must and will be abolished, that that which He can use may be set free, and "God may be all in all."(28) Revelation and reason alike point to this inevitable consuinmation. The idea of the inherent indestructibility of the buman soul (or consciousness) owes its origin to Greek, not to Bible p23 sources.(29) The central theme of the New Testament is eternal life, not for anybody and everybody, but for believers in Christ as risen from the dead. The choice is set before man here and now."
- ^ The Church in Anglican Theology Page 39 Kenneth A. Locke - 2009 "In 1945 the Church of England Commission on Evangelism produced the widely circulated report Towards the Conversion of England, and in 1948 a gathering of various shades of Evangelicals issued a book of papers entitled Evangelicals Affirm."