Locating Lambeth?
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
Transition of leadership is always a testing time for organisations.
This is certainly true for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which came into being in 2009. Following the consecration to the office of bishop of a man who was in a samesex relationship, those who could not accept this within a Christian church formed a new church, faithful to Anglican teaching. It was recognised by the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON), which first met in 2008 in Jerusalem.
ReNew
Mark Burkill
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
For evangelical Anglicans who grow weary
of the vital battles over women’s ministry
and sexuality in synods and elsewhere, the
2014 ReNew conference (22–23 September)
was a great encouragement and inspiration.
It is not that the necessary task of contending for biblical truth was ignored, but
that this was seen within a bigger context.
That bigger context is the work of pioneering, establishing and securing healthy local
Anglican churches.
Encourage one another
Susie Leafe
Date posted: 1 Oct 2014
Our dear brother John Richardson went home to glory this year. As a writer, he is a loss to this column, but his ministry has myriad legacies. Not the least amongst them is the annual Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference (JAEC) which took place in September.
The ‘Junior’ refers to the delegates – they are all people with less than seven years in ordained ministry, with some who are only just embarking on that path. It was wonderful to be there to see men and women from all over the country gathered to explore together their future ministry, in pursuit of John’s oft repeated goal – nothing less than the evangelisation of England.
Lessons for the future from the US?
Andrew Symes
Date posted: 1 Aug 2014
At the end of June I was privileged to attend the Assembly of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a vibrant and upbeat gathering of nearly 1000 people at St Vincent University, Pennsylvania.
It was a celebration to mark five years since its formation, to worship together and hear from the Lord, and to recommit itself as a movement under the leadership of Archbishop-Elect Foley Beach to mission based on the foundation of God’s Word.
Nigeria: David Cameron gets it right
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jul 2014
On Sunday June 29, Canterbury Cathedral hosted a service of Celebration and Thanksgiving, marking the 150th anniversary of the consecration of Samuel Ajayi Crowther in the Cathedral as Bishop of the Niger.
Bishop Crowther had been a slave and was made the first Anglican black bishop, of the Niger. He was an evangelist and church planter and promoted ‘wholistic mission’ especially combatting the slave trade. His slogan was ‘The Bible and the Plough’. The tragedy was that the Anglican church worldwide had no further non-white bishops until Bishop Azariah in India in 1912. Crowther, who was a distinguished linguist with a DD from Oxford, was too much of a threat.
Moment or movement?
Susie Leafe
Date posted: 1 Feb 2014
In my youth we enjoyed the old game of seeing how many people we could squeeze into a Mini.
Little did I know how useful those skills would be when trying to organise ReNew, a new conference for conservative evangelical Anglican leaders that took place last November.
A hard pill to swallow
Lee Gatiss
Date posted: 1 Jan 2014
The Church of England has now entered
another turbulent period of debate over
sexuality, which threatens to tear it apart
from the inside.
The Pilling Report on Human Sexuality
came out at the end of November and will
be discussed by the House of Bishops in
January. It contains worrying evidence and
worrying recommendations.
India: strategies to face persecution
Vinay Samuel & Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jan 2014
Thirty
lawyers, media personnel, pastors
and agency workers from Christian denominations across India met at the Centre for
Religious Freedom in Delhi from November
25–29
to prepare
resources
to enable
Christians of all churches in India to meet
the
likelihood of
further persecution
in
months to come.
Persecution may be stepped up because
Hindu nationalist politicians may win power
in the current local and upcoming national
elections and even form the Government if
only in coalition with others.