Rwandan Archbishop vows to stand by American Anglicans

[The Church of England Newspaper] January 19, 2006--Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini said that though at the time of the genocide the world abandoned Rwanda to its fate, the Rwandan church would not stand by and allow American Anglicans to be deprived of their heritage in the global Anglican Communion. “I will never do what the world did to my people,” he said.

The Archbishop was speaking at the sixth winter conference of the Anglican Mission in America in Birmingham, Alabama, last week. This network, which was formed in 2000 with 11 congregations has now grown to over 80 churches in 6 years, and one new church is opened very three weeks. The Bishops of the AMiA sit in the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Rwanda. A strong international presence graced the meeting with the Anglican Archbishops of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, West Africa, Congo, SE Asia, Burundi and Central Africa attending. Visitors from the UK included Bishop David Pytches of New Wine (who consecrated Bishop John Rodgers), and the Venerable Michael Lawson, representing the Church of England Evangelical Council.

The English contingent said they were shocked to meet clergy from Montgomery, Alabama, and Jackson, Florida, whose bishops have unfrocked and deprived them of their holy orders for leaving ECUSA. These clergy have their licences from Archbishop Henry Orombi, who attended the conference. The Birmingham News of January 13 reported Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama as saying: “Dioceses are geographical entities. People are ordained in the diocese by the diocese, not outside of geographical boundaries.”

The conference focused on mission, disciple-making and planting churches among the 130 million North Americans who are unchurched, the largest English speaking unchurched group in the world. The Rev Paul Briggs, chief operating officer, pointed out that research showed that churches that plant churches are comprised of 60 per cent of non-churchgoers. Some 90 per cent of the growth of churches that are more settled is through transfer growth.

The Rev Graham Tomlin of St Paul’s Theological Centre of Holy Trinity, Brompton, gave a plenary presentation on Building a Provocative Church — the importance of the witness of churches in making Christianity attractive to people, thus provoking interest and questions about what made them tick. The chairman of AMiA, Bishop Chuck Murphy, emphasised that churches that undertake “a long obedience in the same direction” of proclamation of the word, meeting human need, baptising, teaching, experiencing God’s power, tithing their gifts and worshipping the living God would find God adding to their number (Acts 2:42).

Bishop Murphy drew heavily on a book by Bishop John Finney’s (formerly Archbishop’s Officer for the Decade of Evangelism) Recovering the Past: Celtic and Roman Mission which emphasises organising around affinity rather than geography in the Celtic Church.