A Special Message from the Chairman, Chuck Murphy:

At the close of this year's Winter Conference, we issued a Communiqué expressing the mind of the gathering. One of the key components and goals of that Communiqué, as well as subsequent communications from our Council of Bishops, was to "diligently seek appropriate jurisdictional connections" with an authentic and orthodox Anglican Communion province. As we continue to celebrate our Lord's Resurrection during this Easter season, it is a particular joy to report the good news that our goal has now been realized. This week, I received an official letter from Archbishop Henri Isingoma of the Anglican Church of the Congo, receiving me as a Bishop of the House of Bishops in his Province and offering us a new canonical residence. In response to a recent letter from Archbishop Rwaje asking our bishops to translate to another Anglican jurisdiction by the end of this month, I had earlier requested that he send my letters dimissory to the Province of the Congo.

This transfer follows a process of relational reconciliation with Rwanda facilitated by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala. These conversations culminated in our meeting in Johannesburg and the Communiqué in which Archbishop Rwaje agreed to release theAM to develop other jurisdictional relationships. Under our accord with the Province of the Congo, we are now secure and validly attached to the global Anglican Communion. Rooted in the East African Revival, the Province of the Congo [formerly Zaire] was originally joined together as one larger province, which also included Rwanda and Burundi. In 1992, all three were subsequently established as separate provinces. The Anglican Mission's connection with the Congo began at Winter Conference 2012 when Bishop William Bahemuka Mugenyi generously made provision for scheduled ordinations to go forward.

We are very grateful to Archbishop Henri for his warm welcome to the Province. As we continue to transition toward a Mission Society with oversight provided by a College of Consultors, we remain committed to the multi-jurisdictional model that launched the Anglican Mission in Singapore (the Provinces of Southeast Asia and Rwanda). Toward that end, conversations with other jurisdictions including the Anglican Church in North America will continue.

Now that a new canonical residence provides for our bishops and clergy to transfer from Rwanda to the Congo, I have been asked to facilitate the transition and therefore, requests for transfers should be sent to the Mission Center.

We look forward with great anticipation to the multi-layered process of developing a Mission Society designed to encase our values and facilitate our desire to be a mission, nothing more and nothing less. While we continue our consistent focus on planting churches in North America, our process will include careful consideration of our present structures including the roles of bishops, the Mission Center and its staff, and our Networks as we prepare to develop the constitution and statutes that will ultimately order our common life. We are scheduling several meetings in which we will discuss and seek input from clergy and leaders throughout the Mission to assist us in designing and vetting the shape and specific details of our proposed Mission Society. We expect to complete these conversations by mid-October.

The Council of Bishops and our leadership team are united in a vision to further develop and carry forth an Apostolic/missionary (sodality) call to reach those outside the faith in effective, creative and entrepreneurial ways. This journey is well underway, and we invite and encourage you to celebrate and press on with us.

In Christ,

--(The Rt. Rev.) Charles Murphy is Chairman, AMIA

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church in Congo/Province de L'Eglise Anglicane Du Congo • Church of Rwanda • The Anglican Church in South East Asia • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • TEC Departing Parishes • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Anglican Continuum • * Theology • Ecclesiology

1. A Senior Priest wrote: Well, at least Chuck Murphy and his cohorts are not longer literally episcopi vagantes, but it’s yet another embarrassment for Anglicans. I do hope the Congolese have insisted on financial transparency this time, and a good firm of aggressive accountants on retainer. April 14, 10:42 am | [comment link]

2. Terry Tee wrote: Financial transparency and the Congo?  Sound of hollow laughter  For years the country has been pillaged by its own corrupt leadership (eg the late unlamented Mobutu) and Westerners (soon perhaps also Chinese) hand in glove with them. April 14, 10:56 am | [comment link]

3. Andrew M. Gregory wrote: Whatever was said at early days, wasn’t Bp Murphy really looking to Rwanda only as an temporary umbrella from TEC nonsense until events sort themselves out in America? If that was the case, and Bp Murphy had a lengthy satisfactory understanding and relationship with Abp Kolini, then Abp Rwage (the new manager justifying his employ with busy work) was the problem, not Bp Murphy. All the talk of a so-called lack of financial transparency, you’d swear ours was the Mormon church. If anyone has any evidence Chuck Murphy or Emmanuel Kolini improperly diverted funds, went on wild spending sprees, or held fat secret bank accounts, sue them, or better still, go to a tax authority and a prosecutor. They would be glad to listen. April 14, 12:48 pm | [comment link]

4. Richard A. Menees wrote: AMIA members who are now or soon to be under the oversight of the Congo would do well to do some homework.  “King Leopold’s Ghost”, “A Bend in the River”, and “The Mission Song”, are useful sources of differing genre to understand the Congo.  Bishop Philip Ridsdale’s account of the death of Bukavu Anglican Archbisop Bezaleri Ndhura if it can be obtained from archives in the UK would likely be background that is insightful into specifically Anglican background of the church in Zaire at a critical time in its development roughly thirty years ago. I will be praying for the relatively new Archbishop Henri Isingoma in view of the challenges he already faces in a very remote, difficult and dangerous region now increased by oversight of Anglican’s in distant America. I spent two years as diocesan secretary, theological tutor and development officer in Bukavu under the late Archbishop Ndhura and   the remarkable Emanuel Kolini.  My experience suggests that Terry Tee’s comments are in the right ball park. April 14, 12:56 pm | [comment link]

5. okifan18 wrote: I keep hoping that Chuck Murphy will stop doing damage to the “orthodox” Anglican movement in North America, and he keeps making it worse. Will no one hold him accountable? April 14, 3:08 pm | [comment link]

6. Marie Blocher wrote: “Will no one hold him accountable? “ Yes, Someone will. But not here on Earth. The same Someone who will hold us all, each and every one of us, accountable on Judgement Day. April 14, 5:08 pm | [comment link]

7. evan miller wrote: However this all resolves itself, I hope ABP Duncan does not let +Murphy into ACNA.  He is a loose cannon and a source of divisiveness.  We in ACNA need to be sheddding our various jurisdictional identities and becoming one united Anglican Church in North America.  Way too many fiefdoms at present, many no doubt ego driven. April 16, 3:43 pm | [comment link]

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© 2013 Kendall S. Harmon. All rights reserved.

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