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Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby's time is up.

They were the so-called Bash Camps founded by a chap named Nash. Their aim was to create a cadre of conservative evangelical leaders recruited from only the most prestigious public schools, who would wage was against liberalism and Anglo-Catholicism. They succeeded in their aim producing lots of evangelical clergy and bishops dominating one wing of the C of E- an Anglican Militant Tendency but obviously more committed and successful.

Here is traditional evangelical view


And more realistically


The wikipedia page for Nash has a couple of other details about him which really set the scene for creating an environment ripe for abuse.


Including:

He used military terminology: Nash was known as commandant, his deputy, adjutant and the leaders were officers.

a "lack of interest in social issues" and "a large dose of self-denying otherworldliness."

John Stott reports: "His letters to me often contained a rebuke, for I was a wayward young Christian and needed to be disciplined. In fact, so frequent were his admonitions at one period, that whenever I saw his familiar writing on an envelope, I needed to pray and prepare myself for half an hour before I felt ready to open it."

the union was marked by his methods: a very simple evangelical gospel; meticulous preparation; a wariness of emotions or intellect and assiduous “personal work” before and after conversion."

On hearing one leader expressing himself in a way characteristic of the renewal, he said "will officers please not pray such emotional prayers,"

Some have noted that Nash created an "oddly male, oddly elitist, and oddly simplistic world.

Chapman notes: "He was an unassuming yet eccentric figure who avoided tomato pips, took a bewildering array of medications, and enjoyed juvenile humour."

Controversy is eschewed by "Bash campers"; it is held to be noisy and undignified - and potentially damaging. As a result many issues which ought to be faced are quietly avoided. Any practical decisions that must be made are taken discreetly by the leadership and passed down the line. The loyalty of the rank and file is such that decisions are respected; any who question are liable to find themselves outside the pale... It does not give a place to the process of argument, consultation and independent thought which are essential to any genuine co-operation, inside the church or outside it.

Nash could be "single-minded to the point of ruthlessness" and "courageous in challenging people about their actions or priorities," but that this could become "over-direction"; some even needed to make a complete break in order to be free of his influence.

And a few other details pertaining to the elitist nature of 'his mission':

he "had a vision in a railway carriage that he was to win Britain for Christ."

His prayer was "Lord, we claim the leading public schools for your kingdom."

Nash focused on those individuals that he felt had special leadership qualities, "not from snobbery, but from strategy."[13]According to Bishop David Sheppard, Nash would pray "Lord, we know that thou dost love one talent and two talent men, but we pray that thou wouldst give us a five talent man."

John King said: "Many 'Bash campers' went from school to Cambridge and became pillars of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, so that it was possible, when the movement was at its zenith for a boy to go from public school to Cambridge, to ordination, to a curacy and to a parish of his own without encountering the kind of life lived outside those particular circles...
 
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From Private Eye. I've used Google Lens to try and copy and paste the column, forgive me for any errors in the process.


THE EDITOR WRITES...

LATTENDED the Trustees Annual Dinner at the British Museum on Wednesday last week, having once curated an exhibition there a list since. It was and good, but as I stood with: sa gathering few years ago and been on the guest of the "great a drink In my hand I couldn't help noticing that the man standing across the Great Con was the Archbishop of Court from Can Canterbury. me

This was the day after he to resign had been forced in disgrace scandal and cover-up abase in for his role in an appalling of monstrous rch of England the Church he would turn up to a It was jaw- Like many guests there, I could not believe pablic event. dropping. But there with his wife, exchanging not only was he pleasantries with other guests, but he made a bee line for a me and came over 10 pl was said. I told introduce himself to the small group 1 standing with. "Justin Welby," he him that I knew who he was. He then said, looking around: "Isn't this lovely?"

I am afraid at this point I couldn't contain myself and refused to allow him to use the politeness of the British establishment to get away with what I thought was extraordinarily shameless behaviour. I said: "It is lovely that you have resigned." It is not the most brilliant piece of repartee ever, but he did at surprised and asked me if that is what I at least look thought. I said I didn't particularly want to be rude, but yes, that was exactly what I thought. was not being any ruder than a lot of people in the church. He then said that I

I explained that Private Eye had been writing about this scandal and his part in it for years. He then started to protest that our coverage had not been entirely accurate. I said it felt odd for me to address the Archbishop of Canterbury on the subject of humility, but that it was really not appropriate for him of all people at this of all times to comment on anyone else's grip on truth and lies. an He looked at me attentively and said

it was really not appropriate for him of all people at this of all times to comment on anyone else's grip on truth and lies. an He looked at me attentively and said


rapidly: "Do you mean lies before or after 2013" a reference to whether he was lying between 2013 and 2017, or whether he was lying long before that about how much he knew about the behaviour of his disgusting friend John Smyth. I asked whether four years wasn't enough lying for him. At this point our conversation ended.



Welby proesounced himself horrified by read whan he lese shocked

Throughout the rest of the evening, various other guests told him he was "very brave" to come to the party. I disagreed and thought the word "brave" should be reserved for, say, people like Andy Morse, the victim of the abuser who had come forward at great personal cost and denounced the church for its behaviour. One guest told me he had hugged Welby "in a spirit of Christian forgiveness". That seemed to me exactly the problem: that these particular Christians were far too keen to forgive each other for their sins and far too slow to seek justice for the poor victims in their flock.

Welby seemed to me to be unrepentant and unashamed. I am not convinced he has been punished enough - unlike the poor boys his friend so mercilessly flogged in the name of Christianity.

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