wfn.org | Anglican Mission in America waiting for meeting of Anglican primates in March

[ENS@ecunet.org]

2001-16

Anglican Mission in America waiting for meeting of Anglican primates in March

by Jan Nunley
jnunley@dfms.org

     (ENS) Some 800 Episcopalians, former Episcopalians, "continuing Anglicans" 
from congregations not in communion with Canterbury, and the merely curious met 
January 17-21 at the spacious campus of All Saints Church in Pawleys Island, 
South Carolina, for the first Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) "Homecoming" 
Winter Conference.

     Conference organizers reported that participants came from 114 parishes in 
39 states. The vast majority, however, hailed from southern or western states, 
where AMiA's influence is strongest. Of the 21 named congregations or small 
groups which have left the Episcopal Church to affiliate with the AMiA, ten are 
from the south, seven from the west, three from the Midwest, and one from New 
England. The locations and names of another nine AMiA "church plants" were not 
identified.

     The meeting was the first gathering of the AMiA since its formation from two 
conservative groups, First Promise Roundtable and Anglican Association of 
Congregations on Mission (AACOM) in June 2000. The group is headed by leaders of 
both its predecessor organizations: Charles H. "Chuck" Murphy III of First 
Promise, rector emeritus of All Saints, and John H. Rodgers of AACOM,  former 
dean of Trinity Evangelical School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Both 
men were consecrated January 29, 2000, as missionary bishops, Murphy for the 
Province of Rwanda and Rodgers for the Province of Southeast Asia, and given the 
charge of planting churches and receiving congregations and clergy who "can no 
longer conscientiously remain in the Episcopal Church." 

Call for 'deep change'

     Although the four-day gathering featured rousing worship sessions and 
workshops on such topics as "Releasing the Prophetic," "Intimacy with God," and 
"Renouncing Idol Gods," it was clear that for most the "main events" were the 
afternoon plenaries featuring Murphy, Rodgers, and the African members of AMiA's 
Council of Bishops: Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini and Bishops John Rucyahana and 
Venuste Mutiganda, all of Rwanda.

     Speaking on Thursday to a capacity crowd in the sanctuary of All Saints, 
Rucyahana, the bishop of Shyira who defied American canons by accepting an 
Arkansas parish into his African diocese in 1998, took for his text Revelation 
2:1-7 as he called upon the Episcopal Church to "repent [and] put to the test 
false apostles." Several times in his talk he dismissed the need for seminary-
educated leadership and exhorted his listeners to share a simple Gospel message 
despite "rebukes" from within and without the church. "They may even tell you you 
are arrogant…fundamentalist, short-minded, limited--primitive, like us Africans," 
he said with a wry grin, clearly still stung by then-Newark bishop Jack Spong's 
reference to certain African bishops' theological views as "superstitious" just 
prior to the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

     After Rucyahana spoke, Murphy took the microphone for a speech laden with 
metaphors from church growth experts, business management gurus--and the 
archbishop of Canterbury. "George Carey had a prophecy that churches die from the 
top down," Murphy said, citing statistics that show the Church of England at its 
lowest attendance levels since the Reformation. Citing business writer Robert 
Quinn, he called for "deep change" in the church, although it was not clear at 
some points whether he meant the AMiA or ECUSA. 

     Leaders in the church, Murphy said, need to "break the rules," "step outside 
the box," "battle the bureaucracy," and "lead by lone example." "Deep change 
requires a form of deviance," he said, rather than seeking what he called a 
"peace with pay" attitude on the part of ECUSA leaders.

Flexibility with limits

     During a question-and-answer session with Murphy, Rodgers, Kolini, and 
retired West Tennessee bishop Alex Dickson, who serves on AMiA's Council of 
Bishops, the four repeatedly referred to the upcoming March meeting of the 38 
primates of the Anglican Communion at Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina. 

     Several pressing questions were all met with a similar answer. Outreach to 
congregations and clergy in Canada? Wait until Kanuga. Replacing ECUSA as 
Anglicanism's representative in North America? Wait until Kanuga. A bishop to 
replace John Rodgers, set to retire in March? Wait until Kanuga.

     Participants hoping for clear guidance on which Prayer Book the fledgling 
group will endorse (1662, 1928 or 1979) were disappointed. "I'm not suggesting 
we'll all end up alike," said Rodgers, citing a guiding principle of "flexibility 
with limits." 

     He said that "there will not be one given prayer book any time soon." As for 
theology, Murphy said, the Catechism of the 1979 Prayer Book, the 39 Articles of 
Religion, and the Lambeth Quadrilateral would do just fine for now as "effective 
defining instruments." 

     But at least one participant was troubled by what he saw as a difference in 
motives between the Rwandan bishops and their American colleagues, and professed 
disinterest in international Anglican politics. "The majority of Anglicans are in 
the global South," he said, "but it seems like 100% of the argumentation is in 
the United States. Is that really at the heart of what we're talking about?" 
Rodgers assured the questioner that once congregations pass into AMiA's care, 
their focus shifts to mission--when it isn't taken up with legal battles over 
property, as Murphy admitted.

Steps towards a Concordat

     Even before the public sessions of the conference, leaders of the AMiA met 
privately with representatives of various "continuing Anglican" churches to begin 
discussions about bringing them into the Anglican Communion through AMiA's 
connection with the Provinces of Rwanda and Southeast Asia, although archbishop 
of Canterbury George Carey does not recognize Murphy and Rodgers as bishops.

     Bishops of the AMiA, the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province 
of America signed an "agreement concerning steps toward a Concordat" between the 
three groups, declaring their common adherence to the Bible, classical Christian 
creeds, the historic episcopate and Anglican liturgies, and the 39 Articles as 
the basis of their future intercommunion. Representatives of other "continuing" 
groups, such as the Charismatic Episcopal Church and the Anglican Evangelical 
Church, were also on hand for the conference.

     Leaders of Forward in Faith North America, formerly the Episcopal Synod of 
America, signed an agreement with AMiA's leadership to work together on mission 
projects.

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of the Office of News and Information 
for the Episcopal Church.