About Anglicans Ablaze

By Robin G. Jordan

In 2004 I launched the Anglicans Ablaze web journal as an Internet ministry to North American Anglicans primarily to keep them abreast of developments in the North American and global Anglican communities, to offer commentary on these developments, and to draw their attention to informative articles on church planting, evangelism, small group ministry, and other subjects, and to other useful resources. Readers, I think, will agree that I have kept in large part to those aims.

The articles that I publish on Anglicans Ablaze do not necessarily reflect my views nor do I necessarily endorse the views contained in them. I consider my readers mature enough where they can decide for themselves if they agree with the views expressed in a particular article. Where I think that they may need additional information in weighing these views when possible I provide it or point to where this information may be found.

On Anglicans Ablaze I have championed a number of causes. They include but are not limited to authentic historic Anglicanism, the Protestant and Reformed heritage of the Church of England, and the reform of the Anglican Church in North America.

God has drawn to my attention a number of groups and their needs. In a number of areas in Canada and the United States the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church are in retreat, consolidating and closing churches. These areas historically have not been areas where the Anglican Church has done well due to a number of factors. They are areas that are not attractive to the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission in the Americas for this reason.

Anglicans and Episcopalians who live in these areas and whose church has been closed or is slated for closure have three options. They may attend an Anglican or Episcopal church in another community, which in some areas may require an hour or more drive. They may attend a non-Anglican church in their community if there is one. Or they may stop going to church altogether and join the ranks of the unchurched. If they cannot find an Anglican or Episcopal church within a reasonable traveling distance of the community in which they live, most of them are likely to choose the third option. The result is small pockets of Anglicans and Episcopalians scattered across Canada and the United States. In some cases there may not be another Anglican or Episcopalian for several hours’ drive in any direction. They form a group that may be described as the abandoned and the orphaned.

In a number of areas of Canada and the United States Continuing Anglican churches that were established in the 1970s or later have died or disbanded. They have also left behind Anglicans who are unchurched due to the lack of an Anglican church in their community or within reasonable traveling distance of their community. Age, ill-health, poor eyesight, the high cost of gasoline, reduced income from retirement, and the increased wear and tear on their vehicle may keep them from attending an Anglican church that is within a reasonable traveling distance.

The establishment of Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans in the Roman Catholic Church in Canada and the United States is going to create a third group of “orphans”—those who choose not to convert to Roman Catholicism when their church seeks admission to the Roman Catholic Church and those whose church is disbanded after converting to Roman Catholicism, having been denied personal quasi-parish status, and who are forced to attend a Roman Catholic church in their community, which is not a part of the Canadian or US Ordinariate. A number of the Anglicans and Episcopalians who may convert to Roman Catholicism under the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus and its Complementary Norms are likely to do so because their clergy and other congregation members are converting. If they do not convert, they fear that they will be churchless.

There are areas of North America and segments of its population that are not receiving the attention or the notice of the AC of C, TEC, ACNA, the AMiA, or the Continuing Anglican Churches. These Churches have largely focused on the traditional constituencies of the AC of C or TEC—Caucasian, affluent, educated, upper-middle class, professional, living in new neighborhoods, in new housing, in the suburbs or gentrified urban neighborhoods. There are a few special missions to Native American population groups and a small number of churches with the Spanish-speaking Latino population, immigrants from Kenya, Nigeria, and other parts of Africa, and immigrants from the West Indies as their ministry focus group. These areas and population segments form another group that may be described as the neglected and the unnoticed.

Since I have moved to western Kentucky, God has directed my attention to the residents of the small towns and rural areas of the region and to the young adults attending the region’s universities particularly Murray State University. While the region has numerous churches, it also has a large unchurched population, which like the unchurched population of Canada and United States is growing. A chronic problem of the smaller churches in the region is their inability to support a full-time stipendiary minister or even to secure a part-time bi-vocational minister supporting himself from secular employment.

God has also drawn to my attention what is known as the “fly-over area” of the United States. The church planting efforts of the ACNA and the AMiA are focused upon those areas where the Episcopal Church has historically focused its efforts. They include the East Coast states, the West Coast states, the Southern states, and the suburbs and the gentrified urban neighborhoods of cities throughout the United States. The East Coast states, the West Coast states, and the Southern states form a U. The area that lies within the arms of the U and which consists of the Central states is the “fly-over” area and is not as densely populated as the East Coast states, the West Coast states, and the Southern states. The economy is to a large part farming, ranching, and some mining. As agribusiness has replaced family farming, the population has dwindled even more. Western Kentucky is located in the Upper South or Southern Upland and borders this area.

The isolated and the scattered is the third group which God has drawn to my attention. They might be described as the conservative Protestant wing of the North American Anglican Church. Some are confessional Anglicans, that is, they subscribe to the teaching of the historic Anglican formularies. Others have adopted many, if not all, of the historical confessional Anglican positions on a number of key theological issues. They come from a variety of backgrounds and evidence the influence of various forms of churchmanship. They are scattered throughout the AC of C, TEC, the ACNA, the AMiA, the Continuing Anglican Churches, and non-Anglican Churches, Reformed and non-Reformed. They may not be affiliated with any denomination or a part of an organized church.

Isolation is a problem that besets this group. They have little if any contact with like-minded people in North America, much less outside of North America. They would benefit from being networked together into some kind of organization to support and help each other and to promote common interests.

The young and the vulnerable is a fourth group that God has drawn to my attention. It includes children and teenagers as well as young adults. North America has undergone a major paradigm shift and is post-Christian and post-modern. A number of ideologies and religions are competing with Christianity for the hearts and minds of these population segments. They include Islam, militant atheism, Mormonism, secularism, and Wicca and other forms of Neo-Paganism. Churches are not doing a good job of keeping their own young people, much less reaching and evangelizing the unchurched.

A fifth group that God has placed on my heart is the small membership church, its problems, and its needs. North American cultural values equate large with important. Consequently, ministry of the small-membership church is not as greatly appreciated as it should be. Neither do its problems and needs receive the attention and notice that they deserve.

These groups are not the only ones that God has brought to my attention but they are the main groups.

I do not see how I can be an effective change agent –doing what I can to advance the causes that I champion or to help solve the problems and meet the needs of the groups that I have identified—and not engage with other people who identify themselves as Christians and Anglicans or Episcopalians. I do not see how I can fulfill the Great Commission—spread the gospel and make disciples—and not engage with people who are not Christians and even may be adherents of other religions. Engagement entails mingling with them, listening to them, and talking with them. It may involve publishing articles about them or by them or interviews with them. It may even extend to collaborating with them on projects of common interest.

Engagement does not mean compromising the gospel. At the same time engagement does play a vital role in the spread of the gospel. The apostle Paul wrote the Church at Rome, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17-18) To two verses earlier Paul cites Isaiah 52:17 and Nahum 1:15. “‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’” (Romans 10:15) To come to faith, the non-believer must hear the gospel. He is not going to hear anything if no one brings to him the good news. This movement toward the non-believer and not away from him is engagement. Paul traveled from city to city and engaged with the people there, first the Jews and then the Gentiles.



Jesus himself pursued a policy of engagement. He did not shun the Pharisees and the scribes. He sought out tax collectors, whores, and the dregs of Palestinian society. He mingled with both the self-righteous and the notorious sinners. Jesus preached to the Samaritans as well as to the Jews. The Jews detested the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews. He had a conversation with an adulteress at a well side and forgave a woman caught in adultery. Jesus went from village to village, town to town, proclaiming the good news, and taught his disciples to do likewise.

Jesus might have found a comfortable spot on a mountain in Galilee and built an ashram. He might have waited there, navel-gazing, until someone stumbled upon him. However, he did not. He moved toward those who needed him the most, not away from them. He engaged with them. He set an example for the twelve and the seventy-two. He set an example for us.

In a previous article I examined the New Testament passages relating to the Great Commission. Two of them contain commands to “go.” The passages in Luke and Acts and John infer movement, the passages in Luke and Acts an expanding witness and the passage in John a sending out. The bottom line is engagement. In Acts we read about the persecution of the Church in Jerusalem and how the early Christians were forced to leave the safety and comfort of Jerusalem and fulfill the Great Commission. We also read about Peter’s vision. God’s message was very clear—move toward the Gentiles, not away from them, engage with them, not avoid them.

It is a very human tendency to form a group and to keep to ourselves, to our own clan, to our own tribe. The Jews shunned the Gentiles because they were unclean and had unclean ways. They were not ritually pure and did not live according to Jewish standards of ritual pureness. Peter had to overcome strong prejudices. However, he was able to do so because God was at work in him to will and do what was His good pleasure.

I am expanding Anglicans Ablaze from one web journal to four. I have already begun to phase in two of the new web journals and will be phasing in the third new web journal in the near future. These new web journals are:
• Heritage Anglicans with a focus upon the heritage of Anglicans in and outside of North America, their inheritance from previous generations of Anglicans and their legacy to their posterity.
• The Heritage Network with a focus upon the aims of the Heritage Anglican Network.
• Western Kentucky Anglicans with a regional focus—what is happening in western Kentucky but also central, northern, and other parts of the Commonwealth, developments outside of Kentucky that may impact churches in Kentucky, and any other topic that might interest Anglicans in Kentucky.

In the case of West Kentucky Anglicans I will be soliciting contributions in the form of media releases related to Anglican churches in Kentucky, articles describing new ministries and other developments in Anglican churches in the Commonwealth, and viewpoint articles on particular issues (e.g., open communion). I do reserve the right to edit all contributions in consultation with the contributor. This does not represent a new policy but is the continuation of an existing one. I apologize to anyone who may feel a sense of betrayal at a perceived change of policy on my part.

I have long advocated networking together the Anglicans in the isolated and scattered group in the ACNA with those in this group outside of the ACNA, networking them with similar-minded Anglicans outside of North America, forming a diocese or sub-provincial jurisdiction for this group within the ACNA, and forming an independent convocation of churches for those in this group for whom the ACNA and no other existing North American Anglican body for various reasons hold any attraction. This requires some level of engagement. Some of my readers do not believe an ACNA diocese or sub-provincial jurisdiction for this group would work. I respect their views.

I hope that readers have a better picture of the ministry of Anglicans Ablaze.