The Anglican Mission in America, a Three-Stream Missionary Society

By Mike Blanchat, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of AMiA

I recently had the opportunity to go through the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) archives of the last 25 years as part of a process of receiving gifts and grants to our society. As I read and looked through our founding documents, statements and actions, I was struck by three things: 1) the prophetic insights of our founders—both lay and ordained—for the AMiA as a missionary society, 2) the unchanged vision for the Lord’s call on the mission as we have navigated through the shifting currents of the Anglican world and our culture and 3) how grateful I am as a beneficiary of our founders’ bold actions to begin a new Anglican work.

Our founders created a unique entity for America in the global Anglican church. How so?

We are Anglican: While one of the largest denominations in the world, the Anglican church has gone through profound changes in the last 25 years. The AMiA founders believed remaining within the Anglican Communion mattered and partnered with orthodox Anglican bishops all over the world to hold the orders of our clergy. These clergy were “sent” to America under the authority of our AMiA bishops to begin new works in America.

The creation of the AMiA allowed orthodox Anglican clergy and churches in America to remain within the global Anglican church and the freedom to begin new works without censure from the existing American province.

We are Missionaries: Because of our founding process, all our clergy and congregations are missionaries. Like missionaries throughout the church’s history, we have a freedom to act, begin and innovate while rooted to the plumb line of Holy Scripture and church tradition to bring the good news to America.

We are Three Stream: We build our churches and society around these three pillars: Holy Scripture (the Word of God authored for our benefit), Sacraments (the rites instituted by Jesus, the creeds, the practices and teachings of Christian tradition) and the Spirit (the Holy Spirit of God actively living in us though daily grace).

We are a Society: We are group of Anglican churches, clergy and congregations distinguished from other groups by our mutual interest in new apostolic works, participation in deep relationships and the shared institutions of Anglican life, and a common culture of seeking gospel partnerships (Made to Flourish, Novo, Alpha USA, etc.) to revitalize and build Kingdom communities in America.

I was a member of that original group that planted St. Andrew’s Little Rock, the first church in the AMiA. While I had no idea of the global scope of what we were embarking on, I am deeply grateful to our founders for their unique vision for the missionary society that started the beautiful church where I was discipled to love the Lord and raised my family. Well done, good and faithful servants!