Made in Hull: bishops appointed for breakaway Anglican church against same sex marriage
by Tim Wyatt, Religion Media Centre:
An independent Anglican denomination has appointed four new bishops, as it continues to build and expand in expectation of more conservative churches defecting from the Church of England.
The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) consecrated three men (with a fourth due next year) to serve as suffragan — or assistant — bishops in a service in Hull last month, as part of ambitious plans to grow the movement from its 35 congregations today.
The consecrations are also part of a slow journey towards turning the breakaway network of churches into its own formal Anglican denomination, offering an alternative for conservative-minded members of the Church of England.
Some traditionalist clergy and parishes have warned that should the CofE propose changing its doctrine to permit same-sex marriage in a vote at the General Synod in February, they will be forced to abandon the church altogether.
What is ANiE?
The Anglican Network in Europe is a relatively new body, formed in 2020 as an umbrella group for two separate groups of churches: the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) and the Anglican Convocation in Europe (ACE).
AMiE is the older of the two groups, and has been going for about 10 years. It is a network of about 25 conservative evangelical churches, each of them Anglican but not part of the Church of England.
While many of the churches began independently, they have joined forces to try to build a new Anglican Church in England. As well as taking in those quitting the CofE, AMiE also starts new churches and trains its own clergy from scratch.
ACE is a younger grouping, and includes about 10 congregations spread across Wales, Scotland, England, Portugal, and Germany. Although similarly conservative in outlook, ACE churches have a slightly more diverse background than AMiE, according to the Rev Dr Andrew Atherstone, a church historian at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and includes several charismatic-minded congregations.
ANiE is aiming to become, in time, a fully fledged denomination, with AMiE and ACE acting as de facto dioceses within it.
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