Prayers for the Global Anglican Communion of Churches
It may come as a surprise to some Anglicans that the “Second to Last Sunday of Epiphany” is designated “World Mission Sunday.” Here is the Collect of the Day from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation. Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (2019), page 604
As Anglican churches prepare this World Mission Sunday, I would like to propose that our prayers include a petition for the global Anglican communion of churches (by this, I include those who remain faithful within the historic Anglican Communion and those who identify with and are recognized by the new global Anglican fellowships I discuss below). For example, this petition could be said in the Prayers of the People as follows:
Sponsored
Prosper, we pray, all those who proclaim the Gospel of your kingdom throughout the world, [and most especially the global Anglican communion of churches] and strengthen us to fulfill your great commission, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that you have commanded.
Anglican Standard Text, Book of Common Prayer (2019), page 111
For all those who proclaim the Gospel at home and abroad [and most especially the global Anglican communion of churches]; and for all who teach and disciple others.
Ancient Renewed Text, Book of Common Prayer (2019), page 128
The Great Commission and Anglican Missions
What is the difference between “mission” and “missions”? Let me explain. Jesus gave his Church one “Great Commission” to make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-20). Those apostles who had seen the Risen Lord carried out this mission, beginning “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Ever since that time and down to the present day, churches have sent missionaries to evangelize, to teach, and to found new churches throughout the world. Through the providence of God—and no doubt the grasp of empire—Anglican Christianity spread through much of the world due to the sacrificial work of British missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Anglican Communion was the fruit of Anglican missions, which had matured into self-sustaining churches called “provinces” (see Ian S. Markham et al., eds., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion). In 1867, the Archbishop of Canterbury invited the bishops of far-flung churches to meet together in a “conference” at Lambeth Palace, and Lambeth Conferences have continued to meet every ten years (more or less) since then. Remarkably, when the empire receded in the 1950s and ’60s, the indigenous churches survived and even thrived, so much so that well over half of the world’s Anglicans today live in the Global South.
The Decline and Rise of Anglican Missions
Although the Episcopal Church was the first province to break away from the Established Church in England and experienced periods of Evangelical and Catholic mission activity, by the mid-twentieth century, it became known more for its “comfortable pews.” In my first large suburban church, the Great Commission went unmentioned. There was no Mission Sunday, no mission committee, no sponsored missionaries, and no financial giving outside of children’s Mite Boxes and the diocesan assessment, which was assumed to support any mission work through the national Church. In fact, the Episcopal Church was scaling back its mission work and even questioning its validity.
However, to borrow a Dylan lyric, the times they were a-changin’, and our local church found itself caught up in a movement of the Holy Spirit sweeping through the Episcopal Church, igniting a passion for missions. The first step was modest: the renewed vestry voted to designate the income from the church bazaar for outreach purposes. Five years later, under a new rector, the vestry committed 50% of its income to local and overseas partners and established a mission committee aimed at involving church members in these partnerships.
New Wineskins
During this period, renewal movements led to the birth or re-birth of a cluster of Anglican mission societies independent of the Episcopal Church, including the Episcopal Church Missionary Community (now New Wineskins Missionary Network) (1974), South American Missionary Society (1976), Church’s Ministry among Jewish People (1982), Episcopal World Mission (1982), Sharing of Ministries Abroad (1985), Stanway Institute for World Mission and Evangelism (1989), Rock the World Youth Mission Alliance (1989), and Anglican Frontier Missions (1993).
In 1994, Walter and Louise Hannum organized the Anglican mission conference New Wineskins for Global Mission, held triennially since then. The next conference is set for September 2025, expecting 2,000 attendees, the largest North American Anglican mission conference.
A major goal of New Wineskins is to connect parish leaders with missionaries and mission societies that have emerged over the decades. Additionally, New Wineskins unites leaders from the global church, particularly among Anglicans, and offers a wealth of resources for Mission Sunday.
The Reordering of the Anglican Communion
We should not be surprised, given the examples from the churches of the New Testament, that preaching Christ leads to controversy, and this has held true for Anglicanism. In North America and England, the church establishment began to redefine its mission in terms of serving secular culture rather than focusing on preaching for conversion and growth. The diverging directions within the Anglican Communion reached a critical point at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. This resulted in a “tear in the fabric” of its formal structures and sparked a movement of revival, reformation, and reordering of Anglicanism centered in the Global South and East (see my survey of this period here).
As part of this reordering, two major and largely overlapping fellowships have arisen. Gafcon (Global Anglicans) is the spiritual movement that began with the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem in 2008. Gafcon stated its vision in the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration and has recognized Anglican provinces in North America (ACNA) and Brazil and branches in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, and Europe. The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), established in 1993, is best known for its Kuala Lumpur Statement on “Scripture, the Family and Human Sexuality” (1997) and for the Cairo Covenant (2019), which the ACNA College of Bishops has endorsed.
It is my conviction that this movement outside the historic structures has been led by the hand of God to give birth to a global Anglican communion of churches. This movement was the fruit of much prayer worldwide, and I would love to see it included in our corporate prayer. Hence, my proposals above.
Prayers for the Universal Church of Christ
I would add one further theme to these Anglican distinctives: the catholicity of mission.
As Anglicans, our mission is only one part of the wider call of the “one holy catholic and apostolic church.” For this reason, I would suggest one more addition for the Prayer for the Universal Church, which could follow the Collect of the Day.
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church [and most especially the global Anglican communion of churches], that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer (2019), page 646
This ancient prayer is particularly relevant in linking the worldwide vision of Anglicanism with Jesus’ own anointing by the Holy Spirit to bring good news to the poor and to “build up the ancient ruins” (Isaiah 61:1-4; Luke 4:18). The prayer also recalls St. Paul’s vision of the mystery of God’s sovereign providence in raising up the Body of Christ in order that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10; 5:32).
May you and your church be encouraged and built up on this Global Mission Sunday.
Photo by doidam10, courtesy of Canva.
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