The word
‘evangelical’ comes from the greek
word euangelion which means ‘gospel’ or ‘good
news.’
It was first
used in the sixteenth century to describe the leaders of the Reformation.
Men such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Nicholas
Ridley and Hugh Latimer, also bishops, were part of a movement that sought to
return the Church of England to the New Testament Gospel, which they believed
had been obscured by the teachings and practises of the medieval church. Their
counterparts on the continent were men such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Bucer and Melancthlon. Later the
term ‘protestant’ was applied to these early evangelicals but at first only in
The reformers
emphasised the authority of scripture, the finished work of Christ on the cross
and the doctrine of justification by faith. In
The term
‘Evangelical’ was next used to describe those part of the evangelical revival
or spiritual awakening of the eighteenth century, people such as John and
Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, John Newton, Charles Simeon and William
Wilberforce. This movement drew heavily upon the teachings and writings of the
Reformers and of the Puritans who followed them. John Wesley, for instance, was
converted as Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans was read at a
church meeting. Particular emphases of the eighteenth century revival was on
the new birth, the doctrine of assurance, evangelistic preaching, and the
social and political aspects of the Gospel.
In the
twentieth first century evangelicals comprise a large and diverse international
movement spread over the majority of Christian denominations. The key elements of Evangelical belief remain
as before. As their name suggests, evangelicals are first and foremost ‘gospel
people’ and because of this they are also ‘bible people.’ Although they look to
the spiritual forebears of the sixteenth and later centuries, the real heart of
evangelical belief is in the first century AD, because it is in the light of
the teaching of Scripture that Evangelicals believe all things should be
evaluated, including evangelical Christianity itself.
In one sense
evangelical Christianity is the most traditional form of Christianity because
it seeks constantly to go back to the origins of the faith. In another sense it
is the most radical because to the evangelical nothing is sacrosanct except
scripture itself. Everything must be open to change, renewal, and reformation
in the light of scripture, (especially the church and its customs). This is why, on the one hand, evangelicals are some of the most
doctrinal conservative Christians but, on the other hand, the group in the
church most likely to experiment with new forms of worship and methods of
communicating the Gospel.
Evangelical
belief has no distinctive doctrines of its own. It aims to be no more or no
less than New Testament Christianity. It believes that the church must be
continually reformed in the light of God’s word in Scripture.
Anglican
evangelicals
Of all
Anglicans, evangelicals are perhaps the most comfortable with the doctrinal
basis of their church. The 39 Articles and the Book of Common Prayer
witness to the key evangelical doctrines, especially:
1.
the supremacy of scripture
(Articles VI, XX, XXI, XXII)
2.
the finished work of Christ
(Article XXXI and the prayer of consecration at Holy Communion)
3.
justification by faith (Article XI).
Anglican
evangelicals therefore believe that the Church of England is an evangelical
church at heart and that there is no inherent contradiction between being both
Anglican and Evangelical.
Holy Trinity, since its inception, has stood in the evangelical tradition
of the Church of England. The Simeon Trustees are the patrons of Holy Trinity
and as such have the responsibility of choosing the vicar. They continue the
work of Charles Simeon (1759-1836), the great Anglican evangelical leader of
the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, who founded a body of trustees
for securing and administering Church patronage in accordance with his
evangelical principles.