Church of England Commissions New Evangelists

|TOP|Four new Church of England evangelists have been commissioned by the Chair of the College of Evangelists, the Bishop of Lichfield, at a service in Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire this week.

Brother Desmond Alban SFF from the Diocese of Birmingham, Rev Janice Harney (Diocese of Manchester), Rev Canon Michael Hart (Diocese of Southwark) and Rev Paul Rush (Diocese of Leicester) were all commissioned into the College of Evangelists by Rev Jonathan Gledhill.

The College of Evangelists was established in 1999 with an aim to provide support and offer the accreditation of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to evangelists within the Church of England.

Those who are looking to qualify into the College must be involved in evangelistic missions, not just training and teaching about evangelism, and also must be operating at a nation or region level.

The four newly appointed evangelists are:

|AD|Brother Desmond Alban SSF, a teaching assistant in a Birmingham primary school, who runs five youth clubs a week. Alban is heavily involved in youth work in the area, and has also been involved in Springboard, one of the Archbishop’s evangelism initiatives, where he led 7-10-day-long Parish Missions, with youth events, services and meetings in people's homes.

Rev Canon Michael Hart is Canon Missioner for the Southwark Diocese and works with parishes across the diocese to develop various models of mission and evangelistic activity to deepen spirituality. Other works carried out by Canon Hart are works with churches in church growth issues, as well as the implementation of the report Mission Shaped Church.

Rev Janice Harney is building a community of people who have faith but who do not do anything about it. Rev Harney holds a new church congregation that meets in her own home in Leigh.

Finally, Rev Paul Rush is Leicester Diocese’s Evangelism Officer and has been an itinerant evangelist for many years, working with Crusaders Youth Movement and British Youth for Christ.