St. George’s is an “Anglican Mission in America” Church. The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) was birthed in Amsterdam in August of 2000, when Chuck Murphy and John Rodgers were consecrated Missionary Bishops to the United States from Rwanda and Singapore by Archbishops Kolini of Rwanda and Yong of South East Asia. This started what is now an entire Missionary Province called “the Anglican Mission” (theAM).
As a missionary outreach of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, theAM enjoys the oversight of Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda and the Rwandan House of Bishops. This global connection is a close partnership of mission and ministry fueled by a shared passion and vision for reaching those outside the church in the US and Canada.
Since 2000, theAM has broken into new territory through planting churches as well as receiving existing congregations. Currently, dozens of emerging works are in some stage of development. TheAM is sponsoring specific initiatives to reach Hispanic and Asian communities and concentrating efforts throughout the West and among urban populations to reach the 130 million un-churched and spiritually disconnected people in North America.
The Umbrella Structure of theAM: TheAM is a broad missionary province which now encompasses three subgroups: the original AMiA (which St. George’s is a part of), the Anglican Coalition in America (ACiA), and the Anglican Coalition in Cananda (ACiC). So what started out as an outreach to the United States has grown to Canada as well. There is another distinction with these subgroups. It is concerning one of the most challenging issues that is being worked out, not only within the Anglican Church worldwide, but within all of Christianity. The difference relates to their viewpoints on the ordination of women into the priesthood. TheAM has a Canonical Charter for Ministry which states:
Section 4: The Anglican Mission accepts two theological conclusions regarding the ordination of women to the priesthood, and is structured to accommodate both. The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) believes Holy Orders to be a matter of both the doctrine and the discipline of the Church, and receives the call of women exclusively to the diaconate as part of its common life. The Anglican Coalition in Canada (ACiC) and The Anglican Coalition in America (ACiA) accept Holy Orders as part of the discipline of the Church, rather than a matter of doctrine alone, and receive the call of women in the priesthood and diaconate as part of their common life.
St. George’s affirms the AMiA’s conviction from both Scripture and Tradition that only men are to be ordained as priests in Christ’s church. Please read the AMiA’s in depth study on women’s ordination that was led by Bishop John Rodgers found on theAM Resource page.
TheAM and its partnership with The Anglican Church in North America: In 2009, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) was officially constituted at its inaugural assembly in Bedford, Texas, and as a founding member of both the Common Cause Partnership (precursor to the new province) and the emerging province, the Anglican Mission has invested significant time and energy into its formation. TheAM is a Ministry Partner of the ACNA, a status that allows us to maintain a level of connection to the North American Province, while remaining under the spiritual and canonical authority of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda. It also allows for the Anglican Mission to continue to function as a missionary movement committed to church planting as we have since 2000.