Church of England Looks to Reignite Mission Amid Anglican Crisis

The Anglican Communion, which has traditionally had its spiritual home in the Church of England, has seen a drastic shift over the past years, with energetic revivals taking place in the Global South.

|PIC1|In Africa, Asia and South America, the rise in church congregations has been phenomenal, yet the Church of England has been shrouded in reports of decreasing churchgoers, with statistics revealing that less than a million worship regularly in the Church of England.

The urgent need to capture back the “empty pews” has led to evangelicals within the Church of England to invite an American-based bishop, consecrated in Singapore and sent from Rwanda as a missionary bishop to the United States, to speak at a number of events in early July.

The Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy, Chairman of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), leads a missionary movement based in the Anglican Province of Rwanda, which testifies that it is planting a new church in America about every three weeks.

Bishop Murphy said, “I’m personally happy to go. It will allow us to present the passion and vision we have for church planting in the AMiA among the leaders of the Church of England, in ways that will strengthen our bonds and relationships.”

|TOP|The visit follows the recent efforts of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to keep some degree of unity within the worldwide Church. The spiritual head of the Communion last month called for a two-tiered system of membership. The “covenant system” proposes that Churches should be asked to sign a formal covenant, which would allow some to be fuller members of the Anglican Communion than others.

A dual system is proposed, whereby there would be full “constituent” members to the Communion that have conformed to the traditional Biblical views of the Church, but also another section of “associate” members which will incorporate rebel and more liberally-viewed Churches.

The move has come following the ECUSA’s failure to “repent” for its actions to liberalise the gay agenda of the Church at its General Convention in Columbus, Ohio earlier this month. In addition, the ECUSA also failed to vote through a moratorium on any more gay consecrations.

The debate over homosexuality has raged-on in the Church for a number of years, but the Anglican Church was plunged into crisis when the ECUSA consecrated the first-ever openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire in 2003.

Most worldwide Anglican archbishops affirm to the faith that gay relationships violate Scripture, and many have now broke ties with the U.S. Church over Robinson.

|QUOTE|However, despite the archbishop’s clear efforts to keep unity, Bishop Murphy believes that the proposals do not fully appreciate the serious divisions within the Communion over the authority and role of Scripture.

He said, “I understand why he has this desire to hold together the family of churches in the broadest possible sense, but I am convinced that it will ultimately prove to be a failed strategy that will not hold. The plan being suggested seems to ignore Jesus’ very clear teaching that a ‘house divided against itself cannot stand’.”

The ‘Anglican Mission in America’ website tells that for Bishop Murphy, the Anglican Communion is in the midst of a realignment that is now working its way toward a final resolution, and any attempt to hold together two points of view that diverge on so important an issue as loyalty to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this church has received them, will ultimately fail.

|AD|Bishop Murphy said, “These struggles are nothing new. Each age has had to choose to remain loyal and faithful to “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” [Jude 3]. I am planting my flag with the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, and those giants in the church’s story that have chosen to be faithful to the historic faith.”

The American bishop, did one year of his theological training in England, will participate in a number of speaking opportunities, including preaching at a parish church in London and addressing national leaders of ‘New Wine’, a renewal movement that draws thousands to its events.

Canon Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream, and the Venerable Michael Lawson, Archdeacon of London invited Bishop Murphy to the UK, and testified that the Bishop was “the best speaker I have heard on the topic of church planting, bar none.”

The Anglican Mission in America, formed in 2000, describes itself as a missionary movement based in Rwanda that is reaching out to the 130 million un-churched in the United States. Now numbering around 100 churches and fellowships, it is intentionally raising up missionary networks of churches to plant new congregations to draw people to Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.