The Evangelical Fellowship of the Anglican Communion-USA held its annual assembly Oct. 8-10 at the Church of the Resurrection in West Chicago, Ill.

Speakers included the Rev. Stephen Noll of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, the Rev. David Scott of Virginia Theological Seminary, Michael Maudlin of Christianity Today, the Rev. John Throop of Christ Church, Limestone, Ill., the Rev. Jim Basinger of EFAC-USA, host rector the Rev. George Koch, and the Rev. Emeka Nwigwe of EFAC Nigeria.

"True Anglican identity is fundamentally evangelical, i.e., committed to the understanding of the gospel of the magisterial reformation," Fr. Noll said. "Under that overarching label of evangelical there are authentic distinctives: the catholicity of Caroline Divines and an Eric Mascall, the Reformed 'capital E' Evangelicalism of Simeon and Packer; the Arminian pietism of the Wesleys; and the liberal classicism of Hooker and O'Donovan. We have such a representation today at this conference, and we find it possible to work together because for all our differences, we do have a common understanding of the gospel."

Fr. Scott called for evangelicals to return to the task that occupied the liberal evangelicals before their disappearance in the 1960s, the task of engaging intellectually with the non-Christian world. "The Christian claim that the God known in Christ is ultimate reality and ultimate truth should lead Christians to want to assess critically non-Christian truth claims and propose Christian truth claims as their correctives," he said.

Fr. Basinger called for evangelicals to continue to uphold scripture as the final authority for faith, life and worship. "Scripture's doctrine must shape our experience; we go wrong when our experience shapes our doctrine," he said. "So we must not abandon doctrines like substitutionary atonement or justification by faith alone."

(The Rev.) Philip Wainright