Anglican Missional Partnerships

Anglican Missional Partnerships

Early in 2009, Bishop Mark Lawrence, serving then as our diocesan bishop, called for the creation of the Anglican Communion Development Committee to help fulfill his vision,

“To help shape the future of Anglicanism in the 21st Century through mutually enriching missional relationships with dioceses and provinces of the Anglican Communion (Romans 1:11-12; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15), and through modeling a responsible autonomy and inter-provincial accountability (Philippians 2:1-5; Ephesians 4:1-6) for the sake of Jesus Christ, his Kingdom and his Church.”

1. Clergy and lay representatives from each of the deaneries were recruited to form this committee in 2009 and continue to provide the present structure.  One of the early tasks of the committee was to compile information from every parish in the diocese to provide a complete view of what was going on throughout the diocese as a whole. The committee specifically wanted to identify those parishes that (1) supported a missionary; (2) sponsored a missionary sent from their parish; (3) sponsored parish participation in short-term missions; (4) and had existing missional relationships in other areas of the Anglican Communion. This data collection remains ongoing to keep current.

From 2009 through to mid 2017, the committee with the consent of Diocesan Council, was blessed to provide block grants in support of development within the Anglican Communion among those provinces and dioceses that shared a common vision for a mutually enriching missional partnership. In all cases, those provinces were those aligned with either the Global South or the GAFCON movement. Additionally, the committee was able to provide support to diocesan clergy involved in full time foreign mission, as well as some support to mission minded organizations such as New Wineskins Missionary Network and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. During this nine-year period, The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, through the Anglican Communion Development Committee was responsible for over $1.6M of investment in the building of God’s Kingdom within the Anglican Communion throughout the world.

With the entry of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina into the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) in 2017, the diocesan funds that had supported direct international development and mission are now our diocesan contribution for support of the mission of ACNA. This change in 2017 also precipitated the change in name and focus for the committee. While the diocese was blessed to invest in development efforts with financial grants, it has always been parish-based missions and relationships that yield the fruit of building up God’s Kingdom. To that end, the committee for Anglican Missional Partnerships with the full support of Diocesan Bishop Chip Edgar, continues to foster the relationships and missional partnerships that remain mutually enriching throughout the Anglican Communion with the goal of having every parish in the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina involved in a strategic and missional relationship.