Last week I took a break from addressing the four existential crises Warren Cole Smith raised in his public letter about the future of the Anglican Church in North America. I was delighted to share with you in our headline and podcast last week the story of Restoration Anglican Church in Arlington, VA (ACNA Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic) and how over the last 15 years they grew from a church planting team of 60 adults to approximately 600 adults and 200 children in a multi-generational, family-and-child friendly, prayerbook worship church! Last week, today, and next week our Anglican Perspective Podcast will focus on the reproducible principles, values, and practices that we can learn from this growing, biblically-faithful, courageous, and resilient church in the heart of Northern VA-Metro DC culture.

But first, I wanted to share a post-script on “The Luminous Church,” which Warren Cole Smith described as “Exhibit A” of ACNA’s failure to properly form and educate clergy in the fundamentals of what Anglicans believe. To that end he cited a number of articles on how the Luminous Church in Franklin, TN was playing “fast and loose” with essential doctrines of our faith, including our Anglican understanding of Baptism and Holy Communion. Worse still was the fact that a member of their clergy publicly affirmed LGBTQ+ pride events on their Facebook page, in defiance of ACNA’s Fundamental Declarations on human identity and marriage, and our own ACNA Bishops Pastoral Statement on Human Identity and Sexuality. At the time Warren Cole Smith and others brought this into the light, Luminous Church was a member of the ACNA Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO) under the leadership of Bishop Todd Hunter.

That is no longer the case. Buried in their webpage is their change in affiliation: “Our clergy are a part of two provinces, The Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC) as well as The Anglican Free Fellowship of America (a part of the Anglican Free Communion). Our parish will have a new Anglican affiliation in 2025.” No doubt this will give pause to every ACNA bishop and diocese moving forward in receiving any clergy whose formation and Holy Orders are resident in either the CEEC or the “Anglican Free Fellowship of America”– especially since the priest who publicly affirmed LGBTQ+ Pride events remains on staff at Luminous without any discipline from these two bodies. In response to the spotlight on Luminous and its beliefs, the church significantly tightened up its declarations on Baptism and Holy Communion on its webpage, while anchoring its Anglican identity in the writings of Rowan Williams. For those who may not remember, Rowan Williams was the former Archbishop of Canterbury who presided over the schism within the Anglican Communion over the consecration of the first same-sex partnered bishop in TEC in 2003 and the blessing of same-sex unions in the Anglican Church of Canada/Diocese of New Westminster in 2002. Archbishop Rowan Williams was the leader of the Anglican Communion who permitted and even affirmed the leadership of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada in deposing biblically faithful bishops and hundreds of clergy in TEC and Canada—including the great Rev. Dr. JI Packer—who could not in conscience support these unbiblical teachings and practices, and who subsequently formed the Anglican Church in North America.

I spoke at length with Bishop Todd Hunter about the Luminous Church and their departure from the faith once delivered (Jude 3) on matters of human identity, sexuality, marriage, and leadership within the Church. “C4SO has always maintained a biblically orthodox position on human sexuality, gender, and marriage,” he said to me. “As is true in the church all over the world, some people are changing their mind on this. C4SO, however, is NOT.” For this reason, the Luminous Church can no longer remain in the ACNA, as they publicly conceded. Bishop Todd noted that even some well-known theologians like Richard Hays, who once championed the biblically-orthodox position on human sexuality, gender, and marriage have lamentably reversed course. This is not just a C4SO, ACNA, or Anglican problem—it is a problem within the Church worldwide. As the AAC often noted, heresy often begins with pastoral accommodation—even well-intentioned pastoral accommodation.

Bishop Todd also promised the following: “In the next few months, we [C4SO] will have a scholarly white paper that outlines the traditional [biblical] position for our current context. Along with that will be a long-annotated bibliography, giving rectors orthodox biblical help.” We look forward to receiving and reading that Report from C4SO.  It could be exactly the kind of contribution that the ACNA needs in order to implement the more conciliar process I commended recently in detail on how the ACNA can and should address difficult issues of doctrine, discipline, faith, and order.

On a more forward-looking note: I hope you listened to our podcast last week and will tune in this week on ministry to children. Last week and this week you will have heard the commitment of Restoration Anglican Church to hire a Minister to Children. This is a significant and often overlooked paradigm shift from the way many of us experienced “Sunday School” growing up. The difference is this: instead of using a classical lecture and cognitive focus on transmitting information to the mind, we ought to be focusing on the hearts and souls of our children so that they fall in love with Jesus! We can do this—as Restoration and others are doing—by raising up adults who will intentionally disciple children the same way Jesus did, in small groups. Adult volunteers become small-group leaders for children ages 4 and above. It is a significant commitment, but as you can hear from this short video clip (posted in a public Dropbox folder for viewing), even four-year-olds in this welcoming and loving small group can understand how Jesus’ love for them is like an endless game of hide and seek!

It reminds me of the wonderful days I served as Associate Rector for Adult and Family Ministries at Church of the Apostles in Fairfax VA (1992-1999) when we had a beloved pastor to our children, whom we knew affectionately as “Miss Jeannine.” Even then she understood the same principles of treating children not as an afterthought but as capable of becoming fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who could, in turn, return home and share Jesus with their parents! 

Over two packed morning services, we committed to have a 5-7 minute children’s sermon, with the pastor sitting on the steps leading up to the altar and children gathered around. At times it felt as if this must have been what Jesus did with the children who came to him. Some of the adults commented that this children’s sermon was often as compelling, or even more compelling in its simplicity, than the adult sermon! The children would then be dismissed to their small groups while adults sang the hymn before the Gospel reading. In their small groups the children would study the Bible, share, pray for each other, and even join in the laying on of hands for healing of one another! They learned not only what the Bible says but how to walk out and share the faith just as Jesus did. Middle schoolers apprenticed with adults in leading elementary grade small groups. High schoolers apprenticed with adults in leading the middle school groups. Church of the Apostles became the same kind of multi-generational, family-friendly, child-welcoming congregation, raising up leaders at every life-stage, that we see at Restoration Church and at other vibrant and growing ACNA churches.