“500 years ago Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses to a church door in Germany. He did it because the church had become corrupt. Today a Declaration is being fixed to a cathedral door here in England because the Established Church in our land is becoming corrupt.”

So begins a document nailed to five British cathedral doors by anonymous evangelicals this week. PJMedia reports that the declaration went up on the cathedral doors on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The declaration goes on to say,

The Church of England claims it has not changed its doctrine but its practice on the ground has already changed: clergy are already adopting lifestyles which are not biblical and teaching that such lifestyles are holy in the sight of God.

This revisionism is causing a crisis not only in Southwark Diocese but across the whole of the Church of England. It is weakening and destroying the church as it has done in the United States of America and in Canada. When the church redefines sin and eliminates repentance, it can no longer off the good news of eternal salvation from sin in Jesus; the church no longer remains distinctively Christian; it is no longer salt and light in the world — see Matthew 5:13.

The Southwark Declaration has been signed by a good proportion of clergy and Parochial Church Councils of Southwark Dioceses to affirm and defend traditional teachings about the Bible and marriage and the kind of relationships God wants for his people.

The Bishops of the Church of England now have a very narrow window — from now until General Synod next February — to regain the confidence of Bible believing Anglicans in this country and around the world and to avoid a rupture in the church.

It is often said, “Leadership abhors a vacuum.” Where leaders refuse to repent and submit themselves to the word of God, the Lord raises up new leadership for His church, and new structures: just as He did through Martin Luther 500 years ago.

Soli Deo Gloria

First published on Reformation Day, 31st October 2017

Declarations posted at the choir entry to Canterbury Cathedral, week of 31 October 2017. Open Use. Provided by a Church of England priest. Via PJMedia

Also pinned to each of the five cathedral doors, alongside this statement, was a copy of the Southwark Declaration in support of biblical and historic views of marriage and morality. The Southwark Declaration has been signed by at least 60 priests.

Christian Today dismissed the act as a “stunt.”

Kent Vicar, the Rev. Stephen Rae, is the one identified participant in the campaign. He issued a press release expressing the “great sadness” with which he participated in the posting at Canterbury Cathedral. “God never calls his people to innovate in matters of first importance, ” he wrote.  “If a leader of the church does this, he has misunderstood his calling.”

Other cathedrals chosen for the timely and symbolic nailing of the declaration were St. Paul’s, Hereford, Canterbury and Rochester.

The campaign is being chronicled through the Twitter account @TurbulentParson.