Rwanda to appoint three more US bishops: CEN 9.14.07 p 9 September 17, 2007
Posted by geoconger in AMiA, Anglican Church of Rwanda, Church of England Newspaper.trackback
Three more American bishops will be added to the roster of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMIA), the Church of Rwanda announced on Sept 5; increasing the size of the Rwanda House of Bishops to 16: seven missionary American bishops and nine Rwandan diocesan bishops.
The House of Bishops of the Province of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda (PEER) on Sept 4 elected the Rev Terrell Glenn, the Rev Philip Jones and the Rev John Miller as missionary bishops to the United States under the jurisdiction of Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini. Their election came the week after Uganda and Kenya consecrated three former Episcopal priests to serve as missionary bishops to the US.
The election of the three comes as a result of the “the significant growth of the missionary outreach initiated” by the Rwandan church in the United States, a statement released by the Church’s provincial secretary read.
Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini denied suggestions the consecrations were financially motivated. “We are an independent church and we don’t need any funding from America. Ours is not a begging church, it is a church that can stand on its own,” he told a Kigali newspaper last week.
Popular sentiment in the East African nation has supported the missionary outreach to the United States. Kigali’s English-language daily newspaper, The New Times, said the consecrations were a “a move in the right direction, if the country has to save so many of the souls that had crumbled due to the [Episcopal] Church’s recent scandal.”
“It is high time our Church leaders accepted to render a hand to the ‘friend in need’ before the seeming schism takes actual root between Africa and the West,” it said.
A former member of the standing committee of the Diocese of Central Florida, the Rev John Miller, III was rector of St John’s Episcopal Church in Melbourne, before seceding with a portion of his congregation to form Prince of Peace Anglican Church in 2004. The Rev Terrell L. Glenn, Jr., a one-time deputy to General Convention from South Carolina and former rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Mt Pleasant, has served as rector of the AMiA’s flagship congregation, All Saints, Pawleys Island, since 2005. The Rev Philip Jones has served as rector of St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Little Rock since 2005 after serving seven years as Dean of St Clement’s Episcopal pro-cathedral Church in El Paso, Texas.
The three former Episcopal priests will be consecrated on Jan 26 in Dallas, TX, during the AMiA’s annual winter conference.
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