Anglican identity and the Missio Dei: Implications for the American convocation of churches in Europe

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2000 by Douglas, Ian T

When a Mission Consultation for the Convocation of American Churches in Europe was initially conceived, few envisioned that Europe and the Church would be in such an important time of change and conflict, transition and turmoil. In the Convocation many knew that Bishop Rowthorn's six-year appointment would expire on December 31,1999, but most hoped he would renew for an extended period in order to provide ongoing leadership in these crucial times for Anglicans in this part of the world. Similarly, in these post-Cold War times few anticipated that NATO would be drawn into its first military engagement since its founding. How could we imagine that bombs again would be falling in response to wide-scale human atrocities, the likes of which we have not seen in Europe in five decades At the same time, we all knew Lambeth 1998 was coming but had no idea that the decisions and conversations at that gathering last summer would be so contentious and challenging for our common life together as Anglicans. What is one to say about mission and the calling of the Church in these trying times? Where is the hope? Where is the new life in Christ that we celebrate this Easter season?

Bishop Rowthorn's March letter to the Convocation outlining the Mission 2000 Consultation emphasized the importance of these times: "Over the past several years a new missionary awareness has become evident in each of our churches; more outreach to English speaking populations, the launching of indigenous ministries, planting of new congregations, increased use of the vernacular, and the recognition and celebration of diversity. All this is happening at an increasing pace, and now is the time to take stock."1

To assist with the mission planning of the Convocation, I will offer three brief reflections. I will begin by positing a new working definition of Anglicanism or Anglican identity, one that is fairly radical and forward-looking and is not based on either sharp doctrinal definitions or one shared cultural history. Second, I will develop a theology of mission based on the biblical story, apart from which any understanding of Anglican identity has no meaning. Finally I will try to tie both the discussion of Anglican identity and the theology of mission to the particular context of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe at this important time of change and transition.

A New View of Anglicanism

Even to the casual observer, Lambeth 1998 was not the garden party of yesteryears. For the first time, Anglicans in the industrialized West had to wrestle deeply with the reality that the Anglican Communion is no longer a Christian community primarily identified with Anglo-American culture. Astute watchers of Lambeth and the emerging Communion knew that such a profound shift had been in the works for decades. Speaking of the modern Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, past Archbishop of Canterbury, in his address to the 1985 General Convention of the Episcopal Church close to fifteen years ago, said:

We have developed into a worldwide family of Churches. Today there are 70 million members of what is arguably the second most widely distributed body of Christians. No longer are we identified by having some kind of English heritage. English today is now the second language of the Communion. There are more black members than white. Our local diversities span the spectrum of the world's races, needs, and aspirations. We have only to think of Bishop Tutu's courageous witness in South Africa to be reminded that we are no longer a Church of the white middle classes allied only to the prosperous western world.2

The changes in contemporary Anglicanism, from a white, predominantly English-speaking Church of the West to a Church of the Southern Hemisphere is consistent with the changing face of Christianity over the last few decades. Anglican mission scholar David Barrett has documented that in the year 1900, 83% of the 522 million Christians in the world lived in Europe or North America. Today only 41% of the world's one-and-a-half billion Christians live in the same area and by the year 2000 that number will drop to 39%. Barrett predicts that in less than three decades, in the year 2025, fully 70% of Christians will live in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.3

Up until the summer of 1998, however, most Anglicans in the West could pretty well ignore these radical shifts in the Communion. Our cultural, economic and political hegemony shielded us from deeply engaging the realities of our increasingly multicultural and plural Church.4 But Lambeth 1998 signaled a turning point for Anglicanism. In debates over international debt and/or sexuality, it became abundantly clear that the churches in the Southern Hemisphere, or the Two-Thirds World, would not stand idly by while their sisters and brothers in the United States and England set the agenda.

Whether aided by some in the West who stood to gain ground in sexuality debates by siding with bishops in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific, or not, it was abundantly clear to all that a profound power shift had occurred within Anglicanism. For the first time ever the Anglican Communion has had to face head on the radical multicultural reality of our Christian community. Old understandings of Anglican identity based on shared Anglo cultural, economic and political hegemony have broken down. Anthems of Titcomb and Tallis sung by boy choirs in chapels at Cambridge and Oxford can no longer hold us together. Even bishops taking tea with the Queen in the garden of Buckingham Palace during Lambeth is not what it used to be. Neither a shared Anglo heritage nor tight doctrinal definitions will provide a basis for our common life. A new understanding of Anglican identity is needed if we are to remain in communion across the colors and cultures, nations and nationalities that Anglicanism now embodies.