Today was a very significant day in the life of our province. We were still basking in the glow of the good numbers we received late yesterday on our membership, attendance, and number of churches. I’m pleased to report that despite COVID, the ACNA rebounded. Our attendance exceeds where we were pre-COVID, in 2019 (now 84,794). Our membership is also greater than it was before COVID (now 128,114). Our congregations increased from 972 in 2019 to 1013 today. Some of the increase can be accounted for by the Anglican Diocese of All Nations coming into the ACNA with 22 congregations, but then we also had an almost equal number of congregations close, so these numbers do represent a genuine increase. This is good news for the ACNA.
Nevertheless, we face an extraordinarily challenging mission field. Our Bible teacher this morning, Bishop Rennis Ponniah of Singapore, gave us a teaching on 2 Timothy, which addressed the question of how we spread the Gospel in a culture like Timothy faced, where the forces of darkness were unleashed on the Church, externally through persecution and internally through false teaching. It’s a context not unlike what we face today.
Bishop Rennis reminded us that, like Timothy, it’s easy to become timid and to have our spiritual fire burning low in our own communities. The answer is to stir up the gifts and the power God already gave us through the Holy Spirit. Bishop Rennis reminded us that there are three dimensions to the power of the Spirit: first, the accomplishing power that abolishes death, annihilation, and judgment, and gives to us eternal life through Jesus Christ (2 Tim 1:9-10); second, the safe-keeping power that guards both the integrity of the Gospel and its messenger, so that we finish well and keep both the message and the messenger flourishing (2 Tim 1:11-12); and finally, there is the enabling power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to follow the pattern of the sound Word we received through the Scriptures (2 Tim 1:13-14). For those of us facing challenges in missional contexts, it was an inspiring and hopeful message.
When I left off yesterday in my video on Provincial Council, we were in the middle of robust fellowship on new canonical amendments that place the burden of safe-guarding, both children and adults, on the bishop and the diocese. There was language in the canonical amendment (Title 1; Canon 5; New Sections 8 and 9) that said it is the duty of the bishop “and not the province” to bear this burden. An eloquent objection was raised that it is both morally and spiritually wrong for the Church, and the Province in particular, to avoid responsibility for legal reasons. Another delegate moved to table the motion over lunch so that drafters and objectors could meet together and hammer out a compromise. When we returned after lunch, a new preface was added to both Sections 8 and 9 that stated it is the “moral responsibility of the Church (the province, the diocese, the congregation, and ministries) to care for the flock of Christ and protect them from abuse and misconduct.” At the same time, it was noted that where this takes place most effectively was “in the diocese rather than the province”. This compromise seemed to satisfy Provincial Council, which represents the whole Church. It was passed unanimously and stands as an excellent example of how the synod engages governance in a conciliar way and without wordsmithing from the floor.
Today, the Provincial Assembly met to ratify all of the amendments that have been passed by Provincial Council since the last Assembly, five years ago. There were 34 separate amendments throughout our canons that were passed by Provincial Councils 2020-2024. Under our form of government, the ACNA provides a check and balance on the Provincial Council by enabling a much larger gathering (the Assembly), which is even more representative of the whole Church, to either ratify the amendments or send them back for further work. This afternoon I’m pleased to report that all 34 amendments were ratified by Provincial Assembly. There was good discussion and good comments made from delegates to the Assembly on the further work the Governance Task Force needs to do in helping our Church have good and godly governance.
In addition, we had a magnificent festival Eucharist to signify the opening of Provincial Assembly. Anglicans love liturgy and processions (let’s admit it!), and this service was marked by incredible organ fanfares, a boys choir, and ten minutes of clergy, ACNA bishops, visiting bishops, and Gafcon bishops processing through the basilica at St. Vincent’s in Latrobe. It was the ACNA at worship at its best. The Rev. Von Roberts, the rector of St. Ebbs at Oxford, was the guest preacher and delivered a powerful message from Amos, Chapters 1 and 2, whose main point is that God will not ignore evil in our culture or failure of the Church to live up to its calling to live under the Scriptures’ authority. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, the Chair of Gafcon, brought a special message at the Offertory. He shared many good reports of the work Gafcon is doing, but perhaps the most important part of his message was that the Gafcon primates are ready to work with the GSFA primates to reset the Anglican Communion on its biblical foundations.
There are still no specifics on how Gafcon and Global South will work together expeditiously to reset the Anglican Communion, but the word “reset” is one that keeps coming up in our prayers, our conversations, and our hopes. Clearly this is a time of resetting both the Anglican Church in North America, as the baton passes to a new archbishop, and the Anglican Communion, as it sheds the colonial structures and false teaching that characterize the Canterbury-TEC led Communion. May the Lord continue to help us, both here in North America and around the globe, to continue the work he has given us to do in resetting and refocusing our mission for the sake of the Gospel!
