Network Announces Director for Mission
The Anglican Communion Network (ACN) is pleased to announce the appointment of The Rev. John Cruikshank as Director for Mission. Deacon Cruikshank is a transitional deacon in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Deacon Cruikshank will coordinate the ministry initiative of missions including developing the on-going relationship the Network has with Anglican Global Mission Partners (AGMP), creating mission partnerships between U.S. parishes and overseas dioceses, promoting Anglican Relief and Development (ARDF) project support, and maintaining our fellowship with leaders of the Anglican Communion, particularly in the Global South.
The Network is committed to being a Biblical, missionary, uniting movement. “Fulfilling our missionary calling includes reaching out both nationally and internationally,” said the Rev. Canon Daryl Fenton, ACN Chief Operating Officer, “Our domestic initiatives of church planting and reaching children and youth are a significant part of our missionary efforts, but the Director for Mission position will focus on the more traditional definition of mission as cross-cultural relationship-building.”
Deacon Cruikshank just returned from a 23–day mission trip to Uganda and will be traveling abroad often to represent the Network and build relationships with overseas partners. “We want our identity as part of the worldwide Anglican Communion to permeate everything that we do, to be part of our DNA, as it were, not merely as directors of global missions, but as equal participants of God’s mission to the world,” said Deacon Cruikshank.
In April 2005, the Network agreed upon a formal mission partnership with the Diocese of Singapore. “Our goal is to see every Network parish partnered with an overseas diocese or parish,” said Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the ACN. Deacon Cruikshank will also be the Network’s liaison to the AGMP, a group established in May 2004 that connects over 30 orthodox Anglican mission organizations for resource sharing and ministry coordination. Some of ARDF’s grant projects are coordinated through AGMP partners working overseas. “Our church has entered upon a new era of reformation and this reformation includes how we ‘do’ mission,” said Deacon Cruikshank, “Mission is now best accomplished working together with our brothers and sisters worldwide to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”