In just three months, the Anglican Church in North America has welcomed 39 new congregations. When the Anglican Church in North America officially launched in late June, it included 703 churches in the United States and Canada. Today, there are 742 congregations affiliated with the Anglican Church.
“We have an ambitious goal of planting 1,000 new churches in the next five years. It is very encouraging to see how much progress has already been made,” said Archbishop Robert Duncan.
not so sure that ‘planting’ is the right word for what they’ve been doing.
I wonder if the Scriptures, Creeds and 39 Articles are just historical artifacts for ACNA?
I wonder if the epistles of Bonnie and Kate are Holy Writ?
I think it is time to add one significant diocese to ACNA.
#2 Huh?
#2 – I think that the Presiding Bishop and Prez.H.D. of TEC are governed by “Holy Whim” rather than Holy Writ.
Hmmm. 39 new congregations added in about 4 months (not 3), or roughly 10 a month since the ACNA officially lauched in late June. Not bad, a nice surge.
However, if we in the ACNA are going to meet our stated goal of establishing an incredible 1,000 new “churches” in just five years, or 60 months, we’ll obviously have to pick up the pace considerably. For adding ten new churches a month would only generate 600 new congregations, not 1,000. I suppose it may depend on how you define new “churches.” It’s entirely conceivable that 1,000 new house-church-size groups could be started.
But the ACNA vision is for [b]”multiplying”[/b] congregations, not just adding them, i.e., exponential growth. It’s happening in the Global South, and it happened in the patristic era, and in the days of the Book of Acts. So why not now?
That ambitious goal of 1K new churches in five years is a breathtakingly bold vision. Obviously, we don’t have enough clergy to start 1,000 new churches that would look anything like the traditional parishes and church plants we’ve always known. Such an adventurous vision will call for very adventurous and creative approaches that are largely lay-driven. But some interesting experiments are already underway that may yet lead to a surprising degree of fruitfulness. Time will tell.
In the meantime, it’s almost guaranteed to be a wild, exciting ride, no matter it pans out. I find the prospects thrilling.
The decision of big Christ the King Anglican in Albuquerque to affiliate with the ACNA (and +John Guernsey’s Diocese of the Holy Spirit) is one of the most promising. With an ASA of some 300 or so each weekend, it has a lot of resources to help start other new churches. And it houses the national headquarters for Faith Alive.
Who knows, maybe they’ll even dispatch their “Artist-in-Residence,” the great contemporary singer Fernando Ortega, to do concerts in other places? Wouldn’t that be great?
David Handy+
#2 This link to the ACNA Constitution should answer your ACNA question. [url=http://www.anglicanchurch-na.org/about/ACNA_Constitution_-_RATIFIED_2009-06-22.pdf] ACNA Constitution [/url] Scripture, the Creeds and the 39 Articles are an integral part of ACNA unless I am reading incorrectly.
YIC,
NW Bob