This is the text of an open letter from the ‘Research Group’ to Dr John Langlois OBE, Chairman of the official inquiry into Tony Anthony and Avanti Ministries.

August 21st 2013

Dear Dr Langlois,

We wish to express our thanks to you and your fellow panel members for agreeing to conduct the inquiry into Tony Anthony and Avanti Ministries subsequent to our approach to the Evangelical Alliance.

We are writing this open letter to you following the coverage of this investigation in the September 2013 edition of Christianity Magazine. Discussing the inquiry’s findings, the magazine quotes Steve Clifford, the General Director of the UK Evangelical Alliance, as follows:

“The Alliance believes the report should be made public in the interests of transparency and to bring closure. Avanti can release the report at any time but have declined to do so. For legal reasons the Alliance cannot release the report.”

From this (and the news that Avanti have now ceased operations), we conclude that there is no prospect of either Avanti or the EA disclosing the full findings of the inquiry. Given the very serious nature of this matter, this is a source of considerable distress and confusion in the wider Church and indeed among the general public.

In the light of this, we therefore request that you, in your independent capacity as Chairman of the panel, now make public as full a report on your findings as you deem appropriate in the circumstances, in the interests of all concerned.

We sincerely believe that this course of action is presently the best way to “tell it to the church”, in line with Jesus’ teaching in such matters.

We invite others who share our view to support this request by contacting the inquiry panel through the offices of the Evangelical Alliance.

Yours faithfully in Christ,
Aaron Petersen
Carl Chambers
David Buick
Geoff Elliott
Jon Mason
Mike Hancock
Tony Pancaldi