Evangelical Alliance Gives Left Foot of Fellowship to Major Ministry Over Homosexuality Stance

The Evangelical Alliance (EA) has discontinued the membership of the Oasis Trust, founded by Steve Chalke, because it says the trust is promoting a nontraditional Christian view of human sexuality.

Its full statement, released Friday, is below:

“It is with sadness that the Evangelical Alliance have discontinued the membership of Oasis Trust. 

“Having heard the concerns expressed by the Alliance’s board and council as to what has been perceived by some as a campaign to change the church’s historic view on human sexuality, the Oasis board did clarify their position as having ‘no corporate view on this matter.’

“However they were unwilling to fulfill the council’s request to adjust the content of their website/resources and social media output to equally profile the traditional Christian view.

“After many months of prayerful discussion, the Evangelical Alliance council concluded that a relationship between an organization and one of its members, in which the member felt it could not comply with a reasonable request from council, was not tenable.

“The Evangelical Alliance council remain deeply respectful of the work and achievements of the Oasis Trust and have a strong desire to avoid any unseemly dispute and to speak well of each other.

“For the sake of clarity, the views of individual members of the Evangelical Alliance are a matter of personal conscience. Personal members are requested to affirm the Evangelical Alliance basis of faith and indicate their support for the work of the Alliance by making a financial contribution.

“Organization and church membership of the Evangelical Alliance involves not only an affirmation of the basis of faith but a willingness to abide by the guidelines of the relational commitments with a specific reference to good fellowship with other evangelicals.”