The shift of global Anglicanism

Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Led by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.

On the evening of October 27, Episcopalian bishop Ian Douglas lectured us on Anglicanism. Most of all, bishop Douglas preferred to use “Anglican Communion” rather than “Anglican Church” in referring to the Anglicanism. According to him, Anglican Communion is the family (or communion) of churches that has originated from the Church of England and is now made up of 38 regional or national churches known as provinces with 80 million members around the world. He particularly highlighted that Anglicanism is no more identified with the white, English-speaking West, but a multi-cultural, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic entity. As a result, he stressed, Anglicanism is struggling to find unity at the expense of the diversity and at the same time, the diversity at the expense of the unity.

Our discussion began by sharing impressions of the lecture. By and large, we shared that the way in which he presented Anglicanism was appealing in terms of their goal being reconciliation through the gospel. Not only that, but one of colleagues stated that the tangible description of the tension between contextualization and catholicity was very impressive. However, there was an inquiry on the origin of Anglicanism. One argued that Anglicanism seems closer to Catholics in terms of theology and structure because, he sees, the schism of Anglican Church from Catholicism in the 17th century seems to be centered on the political situation rather than theology. Anyhow, we agreed that the global presence of Anglicanism is point to the balance of unity and diversity within its theology and administrative structure, i.e. ecclesiology.

Turning to the globalization issue, we discussed about the demographic shift of Anglicanism between colonial eras to global Anglicanism today. In fact, Anglicanism began to spread in the light of colonialism by Britain in the 19th century and by the USA in the 20th century. But the typical Anglican today is different from that of colonial eras. It is female, black and non-English speaking. As one of our members pointed out, there seems to be a gap between realities of two moments. Then, what causes this shift and the global Anglicanism today? One argued that the hierarchical authority structure would contribute to preserving Anglicanism. That is, though Anglican Communions exist around world, they can maintain unity amid diversity because of their episcopacy. This view seems to come from one’s structural understanding of Anglicanism. Another participant argued that global presence of Anglicanism is possible through the backlash against colonial oppression. By the end of colonialism, many indigenous people seek to establish their churches with Anglican background. In addition to this efforts, the goal of reconciliation through the gospel effects on the forming of the indigenous faith. As a result, this participant sees, Anglicanism by the black, female, non-native English speaking was settled down. We can surmise in diverse way, but there were two things we converged: the missionary efforts since colonial era and the strategic transition from missionary sending to missionary partnership with younger churches under influence of post-colonialism.

Gun Cheol Kim, discussion moderator