Why What Is Happening in the AMiA Makes a Difference

By Robin G. Jordan

Recent developments in the Anglican Mission in the Americas point to a number of major weaknesses in the present form of governance not only of that ecclesial body but also of the Anglican Church in North America. Those holding top positions of leadership, while they exercise considerable influence and power, have negligible accountability. Decision-making procedures do not involve the meaningful participation of clergy and laity in the discussion and determination of major issues. Major decisions are not made openly and transparently. Major decisions are not announced until well after they are made so that opposition to a particular decision may not develop. When major decisions are announced, they may be accompanied by media campaigns to control the reaction to the decision, to mold public opinion, and to promote support for the decision. They may be announced at special gatherings of clergy and laity of the ecclesial body, which are carefully orchestrated to rally stakeholders in support of these decisions.

The present forms of governance in both the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission in North Americas provide inadequate safeguards against doctrinal changes that are in conflict with the teaching of the Scriptures and the Anglican formularies. Indeed those holding top positions of leadership in these two bodies have promoted the acceptance or toleration of such doctrinal changes. The ACNA College of Bishops authorized an ordinal sanctioning unreformed Catholic doctrine and practices at odds with historic Anglican principles and Archbishop Duncan commended it to ACNA congregations and clergy. Former AMiA Primatial Vicar Chuck Murphy endorsed two service books that did not conform to the doctrinal and worship standards established by the AMiA Solemn Declaration. He approved the draft of the 2008 Rwandan canons, which made the dogmas of the Council of Trent the official doctrine of the Anglican Church of Rwanda and the AMiA. He appointed Canon Kevin Donlon, the drafter of the document, to the position of Canon for Ecclesiastical Affairs to promote the doctrinal and structural changes in the canons in the Anglican Church of Rwanda, the AMiA, and the global South Anglican community.

The present forms of governance in the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission in the Americas subject the congregations and clergy of these ecclesial bodies to the vagaries of their top leaders. Archbishop Duncan has exceeded his authority as Archbishop under the provisions of the ACNA constitution and canons in a number of cases such as his creation of the office of Dean of the Province and his appointment of his longtime friend ANiC Bishop Don Harvey to that office. Bishop Murphy increasingly appears to have engineered his break with the Anglican Church of Rwanda and now appears to be seeking to mislead AMiA congregations, clergy, and mission partners into breaking with the Anglican Church of Rwanda and buying into his vision of what he is describing as a restructuring of the AMiA. What appears to have really motivated Bishop Murphy’s break with the Anglican Church of Rwanda was Archbishop Onosphore Rwaje’s unwillingness to support Bishop Murphy’s expansion of the AMiA outside of Canada, the United States, and its territories. Murphy appears to have been prepared to expose AMiA congregations and clergy to the trauma of a church split in order to achieve his ambitions, raising serious questions not only regarding his leadership but also the leadership of the AMiA bishops who resigned with him.

The current developments in the Anglican Mission in Americas provide an opportunity not only for the AMiA but also the Anglican Church in North America to revisit and rethink their present forms of governance. Without much needed reforms in these forms of governance any rapprochement between AMiA congregations and clergy loyal to Bishop Murphy, in a missionary organization structured along the lines Canon Donlon has proposed, and the ACNA would accelerate the movement of the ACNA away from genuine Anglicanism both doctrinally and structurally. Without an Anglican province built on the foundation of Scripture, the Anglican formularies, the Great Commission, and responsible, synodical church government authentic Anglicanism has no future in North America.