The Mission and Ministry of the Church in England: History, Challenge, and Prospect

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali draws on the rich history of Ecclesia Anglicana, the complex reality that has been the English church from the beginning – he discusses its glories, achievements, vicissitudes and failures; as well as the expansion and adaptation of this ‘Anglican’ heritage to different parts of the world and many cultures. Nazir-Ali starts with the different ways in which England was first evangelized and how, in turn, the Church of (or in) England (Ecclesia Anglicana) was able to send missionaries to continental Europe for primary evangelism and church planting. He examines the more recent past with the evangelical and Catholic revivals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and their significance for mission both at home and abroad. The formation of mission agencies gave a new impetus to mission, challenging people to give, to pray, and to go. He then considers what we can learn from mission today in different parts of the world; providing specific examples of such missionary activity of the churches in Nigeria and Kenya, as well as the churches in South East Asia. The book examines how the gospel connects with culture, what we need to learn from the global Church about mission and ministry, the different models for mission and ministry, ranging from the incarnational to the itinerant, from inculturation to social and political activism and from embassy to hospitality.