Nine men were ordained on 6 December as the first deacons and priests of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), the breakaway conservative evangelical movement that seeks to plant Anglican churches in England but outside the Church of England.
The nine were ordained by the Rt Revd Andy Lines at a service at a Baptist church, the East London Tabernacle.
The nine men – eight have been ordained deacon, and one as priest — are the first not to have been trained by the CofE. All work in AMiE churches. [Priest in an Anglican understanding of the term, not in the Roman Catholic sense.]
Ordinands
The newly-ordained priest was the Revd Peter Jackson, a pastor at Christ Church in Walkley, an AMiE church plant in northwest Sheffield.
Those ordained deacon were Kenny Larsen, the associate pastor in Walkley; Jon Cawsey and Matthew Thompson, who together lead Christ Church, Stockport; Alistair Harper, from Grace Church, Bude; Christopher Houghton, from Christ Church Central, in Sheffield; Martin Soole and Christopher Young, who are senior minister and student worker respectively at Trinity Church, Lancaster; and Robert Tearle, assistant minister at Trinity Church, Scarborough.
First church
The first AMiE church, Trinity Church, Scarborough, was planted by the Revd Lee McMunn, who was previously assistant curate of St John’s, Newland, in Hull. Lee, who is also the mission director for AMiE, said that, while many ‘faithful Anglicans’ remained within the CofE, others were finding their route to ordination ‘blocked by liberal clergy who do not believe orthodox Anglican teachings’. One of the men – only men are eligible to be ordained by the complemen-tarian AMiE – who were ordained was not recommended for ordination by his diocese because of his conviction that other CofE clergy who did not preach Christ as the only route to salvation were false teachers.
Bishop Lines emphasised he did not want to confront the CofE. ‘This is not a threat to people in the structures. This is to cater for those who are already outside,’ Bishop Lines said. He has given assurances to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he will not minister to those within the CofE. There were plenty of orthodox Anglicans who were content to stay in the CofE, and he had no desire to draw them away into another organisation.
‘We are keen to be seen not to be hiding: sensitive, but not secret.’ The ordination service was open to the public and streamed live on the Internet.
The nine due to be ordained had gone through a ‘process of rigorous discernment and training’, said a statement from AMiE. ‘Some will serve in existing AMiE congregations, while others will lead teams engaged in planting new churches’.
Serious and credible
Lee McMunn said that the ordination service would ‘put credibility on our map. People will see that we are actually serious about Anglican ordination, and doing it with an English bishop. This may be the first, but it will not be the last. It will encourage more people to come and talk with us, and things will grow.’
There are currently ten AMiE churches in England.
