 | The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(December 2015) |
A missionary bishop is one assigned in the Anglican Communion to an area that is not already organized under a bishop of a church. The term was also used in the Methodist churches at one time, but this was discontinued in 1964.
In the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops may, according to canon law, establish a mission in a geographic area that is not already governed by a diocesan bishop or by a church in communion with the Episcopal Church and appoint a missionary bishop to give oversight to that area. The mission may be a joint one with another church. [1] Historically the title of missionary bishop was often associated with Episcopal Church mission activities in new geographic regions, both domestically and overseas such as in the work of the Protestant Episcopal Church Mission in China in the 19th century.
While missionary bishops usually are assigned to areas within the jurisdiction of the national church, more recently some Anglican provinces have assigned non-geographic missionary bishops within other province's borders to minister to like-minded Anglicans those who are theologically opposed to the bishops under whose geographic jurisdiction they fall. The Church of the Province of Rwanda (as the Anglican Mission in America) [2] and the Church of Nigeria (as CANA, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America) [3] have assigned missionary bishops to the Episcopal Church primarily over the issues of homosexuality,[ citation needed ] which the African churches oppose.
A missionary bishop was a category of bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Church, and the Free Methodist Church, in use from the late 1800s until 1964.
In the Methodist Episcopal Church a missionary bishop was elected for a specified foreign mission field of the church, with full episcopal powers, but with jurisdiction limited to the field for which he was elected. A missionary bishop was not a general superintendent of the church in the same way as a bishop, but neither was he subordinate to the general superintendents (bishops). Rather, missionary bishops collaborated with the bishops in authority in the field to which each was appointed. A missionary bishop was responsible for his conduct to the General Conference, as were bishops. Missionary bishops received their support from the Board of Foreign Missions, rather than from the Annual Conferences (as did the bishops). Missionary bishops were ex officio members of the General Missionary Committee of the church. This use was carried over into The Methodist Church (USA).
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. It is the structure used by many of the major Christian Churches and denominations, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches or denominations, and other churches founded independently from these lineages.
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or more curates, and who operates from a parish church. Historically, a parish often covered the same geographical area as a manor. Its association with the parish church remains paramount.
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, the MEC reunited with two breakaway Methodist denominations to form the Methodist Church. In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.
The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion.
A presiding bishop is an ecclesiastical position in some denominations of Christianity.
A dean, in an ecclesiastical context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and many Lutheran denominations. A dean's assistant is called a sub-dean.
The history of the Anglican Communion may be attributed mainly to the worldwide spread of British culture associated with the British Empire. Among other things the Church of England spread around the world and, gradually developing autonomy in each region of the world, became the communion as it exists today.
A bishop is a senior role in many Methodist denominations. The bishop's role is typically called the "episcopacy", based on the Greek word episkopos (επισκοπος), which literally means overseer. Superintendent is another translation of episkopos but in Methodist churches this is a role distinct from bishop. The first Methodist bishops were appointed in America, and American Methodist denominations still recognize the office of bishop.
The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. "Ministry" commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.
Edwin Ferdinand Lee was a Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and The Methodist Church, elected in 1928.
The Church of Nigeria North American Mission (CONNAM) is a missionary body of the Church of Nigeria (CON). It has been in a ministry partnership with the Anglican Church in North America but no longer affiliated with it beyond mutual membership in GAFCON. Founded in 2005 as the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, it was composed primarily of churches that have disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). CANA was initially a missionary initiative of the Anglican Church of Nigeria for Nigerians living in the United States. It joined several other church bodies in the formation of the Anglican Church in North America in 2009. In 2019, the dual jurisdiction arrangement with the ACNA came to an end, and CANA was reformed as CONNAM, with a special focus on serving Nigerian-American Anglican churches in North America.
The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 977 congregations and 124,999 members in 2022. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.
The Episcopal Church (TEC), based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church is Michael Bruce Curry, the first African American bishop to serve in that position.
Lucien Lee Kinsolving was first bishop of the missionary diocese that eventually became the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil. He was a graduate of the Virginia Theological Seminary.
Andrew John Lines is a British Anglican bishop. Since June 2017, he has been the Missionary Bishop to Europe of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a province outside the Anglican Communion. In 2020, he became the first presiding bishop of the Anglican Network in Europe, a "proto-province" recognized by the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. Since 2000, he has been Mission Director and CEO of Crosslinks. He is also the chairman of the executive committee of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), the missionary arm of GAFCON in England. In June 2017, it was announced that he would be made a bishop for ACNA and GAFCON; he was consecrated on 30 June 2017.
The Anglican Diocese of the Trinity (ADOTT) is a diocese of the Church of Nigeria and formerly of the Anglican Church in North America and a sub-jurisdiction of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). It is the first missionary diocese of CANA launched by the Church of Nigeria in the United States and Canada, working as an evangelical church planting movement.
The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) is a small Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition with churches in Europe. Formed as part of the worldwide Anglican realignment, it is a member jurisdiction of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) and is under the primatial oversight of the chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council. ANiE runs in parallel with the Free Church of England (RECUK). GAFCON recognizes ANiE as a "proto-province" operating separately from the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and other Anglican Communion jurisdictions in Great Britain and the European continent. ANiE is the body hierarchically above the preexisting Anglican Mission in England; the former is the equivalent of a province whilst the latter is a convocation, the equivalent of a diocese.
