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Alternative Anglican Ordinations: seven South African deacons
Seven lay ministers from dioceses across the Church of England were ordained in May 2025 by a visiting Anglican bishop from South Africa. In this guest post, Andrew Atherstone provides the first report of this event, based on interviews with several of the leading participants.
On Wednesday 21 May 2025, the Archbishop of York received notification from the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH SA) of their plans to ordain “missionary clergy” for ministry in England…
Curious. Their names are being withheld so they are hardly practicing a public ministry. They are going back to thiet parishes to practice a lay ministry, so what is the point of being ordained deacon?
Curious indeed.
Who is the ‘deputy director of the Cornhill Training Course’ – presumably a C of E presbyter, holding a bishop’s licence in London or Southwark diocese or both?
And which side is the ‘commentator’ from Oxford batting for, one wonders, or hedging his bets at the moment?
Can a licensed lay minister continue to be licensed having undertaken a step like this? Just asking.
Seven people who believed they were called to ordained ministry have put themselves in a position where they will not be able to exercise ordained ministry. What a good idea.
Atherstone: ‘Why then get ordained? Their primary rationale is that it connects them with global Anglicanism and gives their ministries a form of public recognition. REACH SA orders are valid, and legally accepted, throughout the Anglican Communion.’ I agree that it’s all rather odd. And, paradoxically, places an emphasis on the ontology of orders rather that their function (which sounds more ‘catholic’ than ‘reformed’ to me). But maybe they are playing a long game, in terms of ministry in the CofE, and an international game, in terms of relationships with the pluriform animal that is global Anglicanism. Perhaps they will… Read more »
Andrew Atherstone: “In a departure from the Book of Common Prayer, there was no Holy Communion. The service was followed by tea and cake, a typically English way to celebrate.” Tea and cake! Why didn’t I get an invite? Although I suppose the Eucharist would have been better at setting the ordinations in their true ecclesial context. Indeed, are they valid without the Eucharist?
They can exercise ministry, just possibly not in the CofE (although many evangelical CofE churches hire non ordained ministry staff).
I agree it will be interesting to see if +London or +York do anything or if more and more steps of differentiation will be taken by conservatives.
Ordained but not recognised by the Church of England? How will they present themselves to people? Will people make a mistaken presumption of their authority? (Note the chaos physician assistants have brought to the medical profession). Who do people complain to if there are issues? What safeguarding training do they have? Will they be under the clergy discipline system? Frankly it looks to be a train wreck in the making!
It rather depends on what they are actually doing. Presumably they are based in parishes and the incumbent supervises them.
sadly that’s what they said about physician assistants – drs will be supervising, but in practice… That doesn’t make safeguarding or discipline straightforward…
If you’re not a Licensed cleric, or one with Permission to Officiate from a Diocesan Bishop, I don’t think the CDM can reach you. This is part of the problem of imbalance within CofE ecclesiastical discipline. Lay people can be awful to clerics (and each other), but unless they break the law of the land it can be hard to address the situations they create. If clergy tread out of line in any way a CDM or the possibility thereof lurks ominously in the background, or leaps out to bite. I guess these irregular deacons employed and functioning as lay-workers… Read more »
“The new deacons have now returned to their Church of England parishes, where they will continue to minister in a lay capacity…,” writes Andrew Atherstone. What class of ecclesiological b*ll*cks is this?