What it means to be an Anglican Mission Church 

Introduction
You may have noticed that St. Philip’s is "An Anglican Mission Church" and wondered what that means. This brief summary will help by introducing you to Anglicanism, the Anglican Mission, and how we relate to them.

A Church with a history
The Anglican Church traces its roots to the church of the first century. From its beginnings in Jerusalem, the Christian church spread across Europe and into England. The continuity of the church's life and mission after the apostles was overseen by the historic order of bishops. Rome became the headquarters of the church with its branches in many countries, including England.

In the 1500s, pressures to reform the church spread in Europe partly as a reaction to the corruption in the church and partly because the church had strayed from a biblical faith. In England, this led to a split from Rome and the beginning of the Anglican Church.

While in some countries liturgy, traditions, and the order of bishops were discarded, the Anglican Church reformed them instead and kept what it saw as godly and worthy. This included the three offices of bishops, priests, and deacons, the two sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism, and the prayer book with its forms of service and historic creeds. The Anglican Church never created a lengthy written confession of faith like some, but chose to articulate its faith through its adherence to the Bible, the prayer book and brief articles of faith.

Today's Anglican Church echoes forms of worship, organization, and belief going back many with Christians of centuries and provides continuity earlier generations.

A worldwide Church
As the British Empire and British traders spread to many parts of the world (including the US), so the Anglican Church went with it. Even though the Empire receded, through missionary endeavors the Anglican Church saw significant growth outside England, most notably in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

 

The worldwide body is known today as the Anglican Communion. It consists of 38 provinces with some 80 million members. Each province governs itself and all the provinces are associated with each other by being in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. The Archbishop of Canterbury has a symbolic and unifying role but no official authority over the other provinces. The provinces come together through representatives collaborating and consulting on a regular basis.

A declining and a growing church
As the Anglican Church has declined in the West, God has brought much life and growth to the churches of the Global South, particularly in Africa. Africa is now home to the large majority of Anglicans in the world and the church is thriving there. Not coincidentally, the churches in the West have increasingly embraced liberal values and moved away from the authority of the historic, biblical faith, while the churches in the Global South have stood firm on the historic, biblical faith.

The Anglican Mission in America
As a response to this decline in the US, the Rwandan and South-East Asian Anglican Archbishops agreed to send missionary bishops to the US and the Anglican Mission was born in 2000. The Anglican Mission's aim is to plant Anglican churches in the US that seek to remain true to the historic, biblical faith. There are some 130 million unchurched people in the US so the need is urgent.

The Anglican Mission provides a way for congregations and clergy to be fully Anglican-connected to the worldwide Anglican Communion through the leadership in Rwanda and South East Asia-while, at the same time, being free of the crises of faith, leadership and mission in the Episcopal Church USA. There are now around 100 churches in the Anglican Mission and a number of new church plants planned.

St. Philip’s

In November 2007, St. Philip’s officially organized under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Mission in the Americas. This organization was established comes under the Episcopal oversight of the missionary bishops and the Archbishops of Rwanda and South-East Asia and has been blessed by their leadership and missionary focus.  As of October 2007,  the Anglican Mission became a missionary arm of the Anglican Church of Rwanda under the leadership of Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini.               

  St. Philip’s is part of a network (Emmaus Network)
  of Anglican Mission churches in Central Florida that
  are planning new church plants. Our bishop is
  The Rt. Rev John Miller whose office is located in
  Melbourne, Florida.