Yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury (AoC) released this statement concerning the launch of AMiE. The Rev Paul Perkin, the Chair of the Steering Committee of AMiE has released this in response.
Here are my initial comments on the AoC’s stateemnt.
The response from Lambeth is not as hostile as it could be, which is hopeful.
They welcome mission, which is great.
They welcome faithfulness to the structure of the Church of England, which is disappointing. I’d have preferred faithfulness to the doctrinal position of the Church of England. But let’s see how it pans out.
They’re not clear about how AMiE relates to ‘proper’ oversight. Clever use of the word ‘proper’, I thought. Except that if all Anglican evangelicals had ‘proper’ oversight from Diocesan Bishops in the Church of England there wouldn’t be an issue. Some wouldn’t feel that it was necessary to go looking elsewhere! But that’s something that they can sort out, one would hope.
Their issue may well be one of episcopal collegiality; ours is episcopal integrity. We want Bishops who will do what they promised to do and ‘drive away erroneous doctrine’. Or as the English Prayer Book version of the Consecration of Bishops puts it, ‘Are you ready to banish and drive away all wrong and strange doctrine that is contrary to God’s Word and will you both in public and private urge and encourage others to do the same?’ At the heart of this debate and the actions of some Anglican evangelicals who, in good conscience, have thought this significant move necessary, is a desire to have orthodox Bishops upholding orthodox doctrine and opposing heterodoxy. That’s it; it’s not rocket science, is it?
For more, see:
http://theurbanpastor.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/amie-update-2/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 3
http://theurbanpastor.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/1633
My new Reform Newsletter arrived this week. It has a helpful section on the launch of AMiE written by the Reform Chairman, Rev Rod Thomas. Here’s the text. You can find it here.
A major step forward has been taken in the development of a society. This is now being called the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) and it was publicly announced at the Evangelical Ministry Assembly on Thursday 23rd June. The purpose of the Mission at the moment is to provide some immediate recognition and oversight for churches that cannot or do not currently receive the oversight of Church of England bishops. It will operate with episcopal oversight from Michael Nazir-Ali, John Ball, Colin Bazley, Wallace Benn and John Ellison. The new Mission has the warm support of the Archbishop of Kenya who is currently the chairman of the FCA Primates. He ordained the first English presbyters for mission in the wider church on Saturday 11th June and their episcopal oversight has been delegated to the AMiE bishops.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is still much work to be done on exactly how AMiE will operate in future – and in particular on how its bishops will in future be selected and the role they will perform. One possibility is that they will look to local deans of mission to engage with individual congregations. Different levels of church and individual membership also need to be detailed; some members will need the oversight of the AMiE bishops, but others may not – at least for the time being. Their membership will be a matter of fellowship rather than oversight. The Reform trustees have undertaken to do more work on this – both to help AMiE and to demonstrate what the CoE should itself be doing. The formation of the AMiE is the first major practical step the FCA has taken in this country to help churches which are in impaired or non-existent communion with C of E bishops and it puts the emphasis positively on mission rather than division. On behalf of Reform, I have therefore warmly welcomed it and expressed gratitude for the support that it has been given by the Archbishop of Kenya.
Update 4:
http://theurbanpastor.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/amie-update-4/
It’s still in the news cycle.
The Anglican Mission in England has just launched a website. You can find it here. Of particular interest is the article by Richard Bewes, the former Rector of All Souls. I really enjoyed the comment, ‘We must trust that comment on this development will focus on what has actually been said and done – the strategy, and the commitment to remain in the Church of England – rather than base its evaluation on conjured-up hypothetical suppositions about what might or might not happen in the future’.
The Church Times has commented on The Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement. And Ed Thornton, the author of the piece, has quoted from this blog. Whilst it’s a little unnerving to find yourself quoted in print, I think he’s reported what I wrote with fairness. I think he’s accurately summmarised our situation. And I appreciate that. He does however make one mistake; Christ Church Balham is not an AMiE church.
No comments:
Post a Comment