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Anglican Studies Seminar: Session 1

Submitted to Program Units
1: Anglican Studies Seminar

Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, Claremont School of Theology, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

In Year 3 of this five-year initiative, we engage papers that surface missiological currents within Anglicanism, past and present, that contribute to the development of processes of Anglican identity formation and the ecclesiologies that arise alongside those identities. The complicated and fraught history of missionizing goes far beyond the typical account of how the non-European “peripheries” have been the recipient of colonializing mission work from the imperial “center” in England. This is only a part of a much larger story that extends through Anglican history to the present in a more complicated manner. These complex forces demand nuanced scholarly treatment of the de- and postcolonial dynamics at work in Anglican identity formation and “operative ecclesiologies."

The papers are provided for reading in advance so that our time together can be spent discussing them, both separately and by putting them into conversation.

Papers

  • Jolyon Pruszinski, Princeton University

    "White Flight" Missiology and Its Result: Racially Segregated Ecclesiology in the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

    Abstract

    A mid-twentieth century burst of church planting missionary activity in the Diocese of New Jersey aimed at catering to the massive suburban growth in the state. During his period of “white flight,” white families fled urban areas and settled in racially restricted suburban developments in order to avoid proximity to Black neighbors. The Diocese of New Jersey fully cooperated with this pattern of development, funding and building new churches in suburban areas with racially restrictive covenants. The result today is a functionally segregated diocese, with most Black churches located in areas of systemic neglect, and most White churches located in areas that have been comparatively prosperous and fully supported with infrastructure and services. Long diocesan cooperation with the prevailing systemic racism that produced the current, functionally segregated state of New Jersey, has produced ecclesiological segregation and perennial underfunded Black churches and ministries.

  • Beverley Haddad, University of KwaZulu-Natal

    Church Uniforms and the Mothers’ Union of South Africa: A Neo-indigenous and Post-colonial Expression of African Anglican Women’s Christianity

    Abstract

    In this paper I will reiterate earlier work where I showed that African women members of the Mothers’ Union (MU) in South Africa forged a neo-indigenous expression of Christianity during the first half of the 20th century. The paper will show that these women had to resist the restrictions placed on them by women missionaries and church leadership from England with respect to their church uniforms that had been adapted from manyano groups (women's prayer groups) of other church denominations. In the modern post-colonial post-apartheid church context, the church uniform carries with it certain ambiguities and these will be explored through interviews with African women clergy, professional middle-class lay women, and the leadership of the MU. This case study will show that African Anglican women in South Africa have forged a particular expression of Anglican identity that, despite being shaped by post-colonial modernity and globalization, is unique.

  • Sarah Kathleen Johnson, Saint Paul University

    Young People and Liturgical Renewal in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto: Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Mission from the Pews

    Abstract

    It is crucial to consider the perspectives of people in the pews—active lay Anglicans—to understand the operative ecclesiologies and lived missiologies present in the Anglican Communion today. Analysis of focus groups conducted with over four hundred lay people in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto reveals a dominant operative ecclesiology focused on the survival of individual local parishes in familiar forms, and a transactional conception of mission that emphasizes liturgical change to attract younger people. In addition to being theologically problematic, these ecclesiologies and missiologies are disconnected from the contextual realities of the Canadian religious landscape. However, openness to change and a desire for more emotionally energetic liturgy that is relevant to everyday life also have the potential to empower people in the pews to connect their liturgical lives with the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion and Transformational Aspirations of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen
Podium microphone

Comments

I am allergic to peanuts and fava beans. Please do not serve these foods at the seminar.

Full Papers Available

Yes
Program Unit Options

Session Length

90 Minutes

Schedule Preference

Sunday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Schedule Preference Other

Monday, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Schedule Info

Saturday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Tags

Anglican Communion
Anglican Studies
ecclesiology
African Christianity
Episcopal Church
Youth
liturgical renewal
women and church
missiology
liturgy
music
young people
Anglican
Canada
qualitative research
affect
sociology of religion

Session Identifier

A23-301