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

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2000 by Douglas, Ian T

An Anglican province that embraces and celebrates our commitment to a particular kind of apostolic catholicity within the vernacular moment or moments of a uniting Europe at war must look to the missio Dei for its reason to be. In other words, an Anglican province in Europe should not come into being in order to advance Anglicanism but rather for the sake of restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. The development of an Anglican province in Europe will only be blessed if it effects greater unity in the world and in the Church. The missio Dei and its emphasis on the restoration to unity necessitates that a prime imperative of a new Anglican province in Europe is growth towards greater ecumenical cooperation.

Anglicans have historically been leaders in the ecumenical movement from Charles Henry Brent to Henry Knox Sherrill. Our commitment to a mission of unity and our self articulated sense of being both a catholic and a reformed Church have been wonderful gifts to ecumenism through the years. As the Anglican Communion has become more plural and diverse, resulting in a greater preoccupation with keeping our own house in order, Anglicans have increasingly retreated from the ecumenical movement. Konrad Raiser, the current General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, has been quoted recently as saying: "Anglicans have become much, much more self conscious and interested in protecting Anglicanism than in furthering the process toward genuine unity of the Church."17

Raiser's observation or critique must be taken to heart as the Convocation of American Churches in Europe proceeds in its conversations towards an Anglican province in Europe with the Church of England's Diocese in Europe, the Spanish Reformed Church and the Lusitanian Church in Portugal. Such conversations need to ask: How will the advent of a European Anglican province advance the cause of unity among those in communion with the See of Canterbury How will the advent of a European Anglican province advance the cause of unity between Anglicans and the Old Catholic Churches, between Anglicans and the Roman Catholic Church, between Anglicans and the Lutheran Churches, between Anglicans and the reformed Churches, between Anglicans and the Orthodox Churches

If our calling as Christians, as Anglicans, is to participate with God in God's mission, then the end to which we all need to be working is that shalom, that reign, that kingdom, where all will be restored to unity with God. The Shalom of God will be that place where all Christians, all people of faith, in fact all of creation, will find a renewed oneness and renewed wholeness with and in God. In the Shalom of God, the breaches in the Body of Christ and the killings in the Kosovos of the world will all be overcome and made new. In this important time of change and transition for the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, let us pray that you will grow in your sense of genuine identity as European Anglicans who are motivated by and always committed to the restoration of all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.