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Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches

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For the Australian body, see Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (Australia).
Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
ClassificationProtestant
TheologyEvangelical
PolityIndependent
AssociationsAffinity[1]
RegionUnited Kingdom
FounderRev Edward Joshua Poole-Connor[2]
Origin1922 as A Fellowship of Undenominational and Unattached Churches and Missions
Congregations639
Members50,000
Official websitefiec.org.uk Edit this at Wikidata

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is a network of 638[3] independent evangelical churches in the United Kingdom. FIEC exists to help "Independent churches work together to reach Britain for Christ".[4]

Governance

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The FIEC staff team is ultimately accountable to its affiliated churches. A 12-member Trust Board acts on behalf of the churches in making policy, safeguarding the Fellowship’s integrity, and in meeting - as its trustees - FIEC’s legal responsibilities. They are also responsible for ensuring the FIEC staff team serve the churches and fulfil FIEC’s vision. Trust Board members are voted into office by representatives from the churches and they serve in office for three years before re-election.[5]

History

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FIEC was formed in 1922 under the name A Fellowship of Undenominational and Unattached Churches and Missions.[2] It was later renamed The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches. The Fellowship brought together many independent churches and mission halls, which had been somewhat isolated.[6] By February 2021, FIEC had come to include 639 churches across Great Britain and the Channel Islands,[7] and 50,000 members.[8]

Beliefs

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All FIEC churches unite around the truths of historic, biblical Christianity found in FIEC's Doctrinal Basis.[9] Member churches also agree to abide with three accepted Ethos Statements. These are intended to bring clarity to life and ministry as a Fellowship.[10] FIEC is in the Independent Evangelical tradition.[11] According to the National Director of FIEC, "An ‘Independent’ church is self-governing. Each individual local church has ultimate control over its own affairs. It does not belong to any external body or institution which has control over it."[12] The FIEC leadership claims it exercises 'something comparable to the sub-apostolic' ministry of Timothy and Titus.[13] Some trace the routes of Independency to separatists, such as Robert Browne in the time of Elizabeth I and James I of England, but "separatism" may be an unhelpful term to use in the present day to describe FIEC, because although a church has to be autonomous and self-governing to affiliate to the FIEC, one of the main purposes of FIEC is that local churches should work together to share resources as they seek to advance the Christian Faith. A number of churches joined FIEC when they separated from a denomination that moved away from what they considered to be historic orthodox biblical Christianity. For example, Westminster Chapel, a leading church in the Independent tradition, joined FIEC when the Congregational Union merged with the English Presbyterian Church to form the United Reformed Church denomination (URC). Many Independent churches within FIEC are Baptist churches but FIEC is open both to churches that only baptise adults and also to churches that baptise the children of believers.[14]

Roles of men and women in the church

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FIEC believes the classical Complementarian view which recognises that the distinctive calling to be a pastor or elder in the local church is a calling for men. It also recognises and encourages a wide calling of ministries within the church for women and men. [15]

Relations with other churches

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FIEC is the largest corporate partner of Affinity, which was previously called the British Evangelical Council.[1] They also believe that Ecumenism in the form of Churches Together is not a positive move, citing various reasons including the liberal stance of other churches.[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b Affinity. "The FIEC is the largest constituent member body of those which make up Affinity." Archived 2006-08-22 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ a b Fountain, David (22 March 2005). Contending for the Faith: E. J. Poole-Connor – A Prophet Amidst the Sweeping Changes in English Evangelicalism. London: Wakeman Trust. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-870855-32-7.
  3. ^ "FIEC Churches A–Z".
  4. ^ "Who We Are, FIEC".
  5. ^ "Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, Trustees and Governance". FIEC. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  6. ^ Tola Mbakwe, Network of churches FIEC marks 100th anniversary with 100 gospel initiatives, premierchristian.news, UK, 27 Nov 2022
  7. ^ "Welcome to the Family (February 2021)". FIEC. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  8. ^ Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, Who we are, fiec.org.uk, UK, retrieved November 5, 2022
  9. ^ "Beliefs". FIEC. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  10. ^ "Beliefs". FIEC. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  11. ^ "Beliefs".
  12. ^ "Independent but not alone | Strand Blog | What we do | Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches". www.fiec.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2013-07-16.
  13. ^ Stevens, John (1 November 2014). Independent Church. 10P Publishing. p. 315. ISBN 978-1-909611-65-8.
  14. ^ "All in the Family". FIEC. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  15. ^ "Women in Ministry Ethos Statement". FIEC. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  16. ^ "FIEC's Gospel Unity Ethos Statement". FIEC statement on Gospel Unity, official website. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
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