John Stott on Anglican Evangelical Identity

http://markdthompson.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-stott-on-anglican-evangelical.html

[Theological Theology] 2 Nov 2009--This quote from John Stott in the 1980s continues the theme of Anglican Identity discussed in earlier postings. It reveals yet again why John Stott has remained for so many of us the real voice of Anglican evangelicalism throughout the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. There were points at which I found myself, reluctantly, in disagreement with this great leader, but on this matter I am in the most profound agreement.

First and foremost, by God's sheer mercy, I am a Christian seeking to follow Jesus Christ. Next, I am an evangelical Christian because of my conviction that evangelical principles (especially sola scriptura [Scripture alone] and sola gratia [by grace alone]) are integral to authentic Christianity, and that to be an evangelical Christian is to be a New Testament Christian, and vice versa. Thirdly, I am an Anglican evangelical Christian, since the Church of England is the particular historical tradition or denomination to which I belong. But I am not an Anglican first, since denominationalism is hard to defend. It seems to me correct to call oneself an Anglican evangelical (in which evangelical is the noun and Anglican the descriptive adjective) rather than an evangelical Anglican (in which Anglican is the noun and evangelical the adjective). (Quoted in R. Steers, The Inside Story, p. 191)