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While clergy formation, site selection and financial support for church plants are taking place at the diocesan level, none of the G-3 dioceses today has the resources or expertise to organize a formal church planting class. Classes for Evangelical church planters are available at Trinity Anglican Seminary and also the ACNA’s Church Plant Training Intensive, However, no such course is being offered at America’s best known Anglo-Catholic seminary, Nashotah House.
Next month, a new course on “Anglican Church Planting” is being offered at Cranmer Theological House, a Dallas seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church. It is believed to be the first U.S. course on Anglo-Catholic church planting. It is intended for church planters in the REC (most of whom use the 1928 BCP), in the Continuing Anglican provinces, and in Anglo-Catholic dioceses of the ACNA. Currently, registered students come from the first two groups.
The instructors will be
Fr. Michael Vinson, who in 2017 planted St. Benedict’s Anglican Church in Rockwall, Texas. He was interviewed May 16 on the Continuing Forward webinar (video here).
Fr. Tony Melton, who in 2019 planted Christ the King in Marietta, Georgia. He was the subject of a 2021 feature in North American Anglican.
Joel West, co-founder of Continuing Forward and co-chair of the Domestic Mission Committee for the ACC Diocese of the Holy Trinity.
The course description is
This course provides an introduction to planting a classical Anglican church in a modern context. The course discusses how to balance the universal with the particular for 21st century Anglican church planting. In particular, it focuses on combining and reconciling three key imperatives: apostolic mission, Anglican tradition and the cultural context of a specific time and place. The course is intended to provide practical techniques for both current and prospective church planters, and thus is intended both for prospective church planters and other clergy and laity who work in a church-planting diocese or parish.
From their own practical experience and prior training, Fr. Michael and Fr. Tony will walk students through the five phases of launching a new Anglican church:
Preparing to plant
Gathering people into the mission
Forming Anglican identity, cultivating missional culture, and transferring vision
Attaining the capabilities needed to launch effectively
Launching sustained worship, formation, and parish life
The major deliverable of the course will be a draft church planting prospectus, and the contents of this prospectus will also a major topic of class discussion.
The course will be taught October 18-20 at CTH’s Dallas campus. The intensive weekend format begins at 1 p.m. (CDT) Friday and continues through Sunday at 3:30 pm Sunday. Virtual attendance and auditing (non-credit) options are available, but the benefit for current church planters will be greatest for those who complete the graded assignments and attend in person.
For more information, email Joel West c/o Continuing Forward, or call or email Cranmer Theological House.
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