William Taylor says: \u2018The bishops of the Church of England have walked away from us.\u2019 St Helen\u2019s annual clergy review will now be led by Archbishop Foley Beach of the worldwide orthodox Anglican grouping, GAFCON.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Richard Moy, Resource Church Lead at \u2018Christ Church W4,\u2019 says of the meeting between 180 clergy and their London diocese bishops: \u2018It was extraordinary. The meeting was called with expectations that [just] the \u201cusual suspects\u201d would turn up but had to be relocated when it was clear that there were more than a couple of dozen people coming.\u2019<\/p>\n
Moy says the bishops were told that the whole leadership of one charismatic church plant had told their minister: \u2018Of course we\u2019re leaving the C of E.\u2019 This was echoed by four or five other charismatic churches with Global Majority Heritage congregations from across several networks.<\/p>\n
A clergyman believed to be the longest serving in the room said he had been ordained 47 years, in the diocese for 40 years and that there had always been rogue or renegade bishops. However, this was the first time that the House of Bishops had collectively gone against the majority view of the Anglican Communion, Anglican doctrine and Biblical authority, Moy reports. At this, those present erupted into \u2018rousing applause\u2019 after which the bishops were reported to look as though they were in \u2018shell shock\u2019.<\/p>\n