3 Impressions from the ACNA Assembly

By Deacon Jonathan Kindberg

This last week I attended the ACNA’s provincial assembly in Asheville, North Carolina along with Fr. William and Anne Beasley and others from the Chicagoland area. I left from this gathering encouraged by what the Lord has done in these 3 years since the ACNA was formed and by the direction our movement is headed. Three main impressions have stayed with me from those days.

First, I was once again blessed by the breadth of Anglicanism.
I don’t think that at any other denomination I could, in the same day, experience all the following:

• Catch a vision of the glory of God through a world class exposition of the Book of Isaiah by a bishop from Singapore

• Hear Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church of America tell us we Anglicans are really orthodox (definitely NOT catholic) in our roots and that we should take the filioque clause out of our creed

• Receive Eucharist from the hands of a Rwandan bishop and then healing prayer (in tongues) by a Pentecostal leaning bishop who had several people fall down while receiving prayer (were they being slain in the Spirit?)

• Be challenged by a Baptist plenary speaker (Ed Stetzer) to be on mission as he expanded on Charles Spurgeon’s quote that "every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter."

It was quite a day.

Second, I was blessed by the fellowship with so many kindred spirits from all over North America and the world. One attendee said it was “nice to be around a lot of Anglicans” as there aren’t many in the area she is from. Archbishop Wabukala from Kenya commented on how surprised he was that the assembly was not a time of political process and bickering, but was a wonderful time of fellowship with fellow co-laborers in the Gospel. “Isn’t this what it means to be Anglican?” he said during a panel discussion with various Anglican primates from around the world.

Thirdly, I was so glad that mission was the overarching theme in all the plenaries and workshops as well as in everyone’s hearts I spoke with. Though as Anglicans we have much, much to learn in this area the vision and the desire are there. It is a desire to reach a broken and hurting world with, as the ACNA vision states, “the transforming love of Jesus Christ” through both “sharing and showing” as Ed Stetzer said. This, initiated through the power of the Holy Spirit, is what truly binds us together. Alleluia!

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