I recently attended the consecration of Dr Ashley Null as Anglican bishop of North Africa, a new Diocese in the Province of Alexandria.
The service took place in Tunis, and I was among the leaders from around the world who represented the GAFCON movement. It’s estimated that there are around 30,000 Christians in Tunisia (0.2% of the total population) of whom some are Anglican (English, Arabic and Berber-speaking); there are also Anglican congregations able to meet openly in Chad, and groups of underground believers (including Anglicans) in Mauritania, Libya and Algeria.
The history of Christianity in North Africa is complex, tragic, challenging and fascinating. The involvement of Simon of Cyrene in the crucifixion, and that same town in eastern Libya mentioned in Acts 2:10 at Pentecost, suggests that there was a Christian community there from earliest times. The church grew rapidly westwards along the Mediterranean in the first three centuries after Christ, despite persecution from the Roman government with its official devotion to (often politicised) pagan deities.
Two complementary models of planting
As I look back on five years since the official launch of the Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE), it has …