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
Evangelical
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

The FIEC staff team is ultimately accountable to its affiliated churches.

A 12-man 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’re 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 our churches and they serve in office for three years before re-election.[5]

History

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

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

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.

English Presbyterian Church to form the United Reformed Church
denomination (URC).

Many Independent churches within FIEC are

baptise adults and also to churches that baptise the children of believers.[14]

Roles of men and women in the church

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

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

  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. ^
    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. 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.

External links