As I look back on five years since the official launch of the Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE), it has been fascinating to reflect on the way our ministry has developed under the Lord’s guidance. In particular I’ve been able to discern two complementary models of mission through church planting.
In 2017 I was appointed as “Missionary Bishop to Europe” by GAFCON, to promote a Biblically-faithful Anglican movement in our region as an alternative to alignment with Canterbury. What is a “missionary bishop”? To summarise, we could say that it is a leader who gathers faithful individuals and emerging congregations into an Anglican fellowship and polity in a designated area. And it is to actively instigate the establishment of the church, ordaining and pastoring clergy, linking the new local movement with orthodox Anglicans globally, under the leadership of the GAFCON senior archbishops.
We could say that these two roles represent both “bottom up” and “top down” models of mission. We’ve seen both models in the development of ANiE.
Anglican bishops in 21st-century Europe
Bishops are supposed to be pastors and guardians of the Christian faith, teaching truth and refuting error, winsomely and compellingly …