The Feast of St Michael and All Angels
September 29th 2017 :
Former Queen’s Chaplain Consecrated as Missionary Bishop to Anglicans in the UK and Europe.
The Christian Episcopal Church of Canada and the USA, has announced the consecration in Vancouver, BC, during the course of an Episcopal Synod, of the Rt. Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, a former Chaplain to the Queen, as missionary bishop to the United Kingdom and Europe.
Bishop Ashenden is charged with the responsibility of working as closely and collaboratively as possible with those Anglicans who are committed to remaining faithful to orthodox Christianity. In particular with the Free Church of England and the ‘Unity Forum’ that has been created to achieve that unity of purpose and action in the UK.
The Right Reverend John Fenwick, convenor of the Unity Forum, said: ‘Gavin’s stand for orthodoxy has been an encouragement to Anglicans in the UK and beyond. We look forward to working closely with him as we face the challenges that lie ahead.’
The Christian Episcopal Church is a traditionalist Anglican Denomination which originally emerged from The Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC) in the 1980s in response to the capitulation of that Church to secular values and priorities.
Its bishops celebrate the fact that their Orders derive from both Anglican and Roman Catholic successions, and so offer potential for mutual recognition and collaboration in ecumenical relationships. At the same time their commitment to the Gospel and the Scriptures has created powerful alliances across the evangelical and charismatic spectrum.
As the Church of England is in the process of abandoning Christian teaching on culture, sexuality, marriage and the uniqueness of Christian revelation, the Bishops of the Christian Episcopal Church believed that it was their responsibility to offer a renewed episcopal oversight and encouragement to those Anglicans in the UK and Europe who had become distressed and disillusioned by the changes of direction and the adoption of secular values by the Church of England.
Dr Ashenden trained originally in the law, and was ordained as an Anglican priest in Southwark Cathedral in 1980. He worked in parishes in South London for ten years before becoming a University Chaplain and a lecturer in the Psychology of Religion for 23 years.
He holds degrees in Law, Theology, the Psychology of Religion and a doctorate on the work of the Anglican theologian and poet, Charles Williams. He was a member of the General Synod for 20 years.
He was appointed as one of the Canon theologians at Chichester Cathedral, and in 2008 as a Chaplain to the Queen. He was a presenter for the BBC Radio’s Faith and Ethics programmes for four years and has written as a columnist for the both the Times and Church Times. In 2017 he resigned as Chaplain to the Queen so that he could speak out more freely in the wake of the Quranic readings in Glasgow Cathedral which denied the divinity of Christ.
The Most Rev’d Theodore Casimes,
Archbishop of the Christian Episcopal Church in the United States, Bishop Co-adjutor of the Christian Episcopal Church in Canada, Bishop of the Diocese of Seattle.
