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mission shaped church

characteristic and desirable Anglican diversity and unity. This is not just to

broaden the choices people have within and across parish boundaries. 

This is also an exploration of the Church being one, yet not being uniform.

continuing Anglican history

In one sense all Anglicans worship at a planted church. Celebrations of

church centenaries and tri centenaries are an acknowledgement that every

church had a beginning. Anglican history is the outworking of the Church's

belief that this country is its mission field and pastoral responsibility. Being

catholic and reformed, the Church holds together instincts for continuity

and development.

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rediscover a forgotten dimension

Many models of `the Church' exist. Some church planters, who reflect on

Scripture and tradition in the light of their experience, want to affirm an

important dimension that should be fundamental to the Anglican

understanding of church: `The Church is a community with a divine

mandate to reproduce.'

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Church planting serves as a strong reminder that the Church is called to 

be essentially, not incidentally, missionary in character. The Church is to 

be so outgoing that it will reproduce itself, by the Spirit, in all the variety 

of expressions needed. This direction is at one with the Lambeth 1988

Resolution 44:

This conference calls for a shift to a dynamic missionary emphasis,

going beyond care and nurture to proclamation and service; and

therefore accepts the challenge this presents to diocesan and local

church structures and patterns of worship and ministry, and looks to

God for a fresh movement of the Spirit; in prayer, outgoing love and

evangelism in obedience to our Lord's command.

reviewing the mission task in England

Philip Richter and Leslie Francis, in Gone but not Forgotten

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, give a sketch,

by implication, of different groups in English society, a snapshot from

October 1996. Their particular interest in the book centres on researched

numbers of those who have left the Church. The diagram very roughly

illustrates the proportions involved.

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This simple diagram is not attempting

to take account of the church involvement or non involvement of people

who are members of other world faiths and traditions (6 per cent of the

population in the 2001 Census).

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