Network Launches Three New Ministry Initiative Websites
The Anglican Communion Network (ACN) has launched three new websites: anglican-church-planting.org, anglican-evangelism.org and anglican-missions.org. These new sites will inform Anglicans of upcoming events and conferences, connect leaders in each of these ministry areas to one another, and link to other related ministry tools and resources. These websites will also be a primary communications tool for the Network’s Church Planting Initiative, Good News Initiative and Global Missions Initiative.
“The work of the Network has grown so quickly that rather than people having to dig down through several layers of our main site, we thought that having separate sites would be more user-friendly,” said the Rev. Cn. Daryl Fenton, the Network’s Chief Operating Officer. “If we were to send out a press release on every event that we are sponsoring, people would be inundated with information. We want these sites ultimately to be online communities serving all Anglicans where real networking and resource-sharing can occur between and among leaders in each of these important ministry areas.”
Already the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, one of the Network’s first ministry initiatives, has its own website and can be found at www.anglicanaid.net. Another Network initiative, Children and Youth, is set to launch its new site in early summer.
“In my ministry area, the Network Task Force on Church Planting is sponsoring church planting foundations seminars, sending new church planters to boot camp, doing assessments of new church planting candidates, and offering coaching workshops in different cities all across the country,” said the Rev. Tom Herrick, ACN Director for Church Planting. “We hope that all Anglicans in the Common Cause movement interested in church planting will regularly check our site.”
The Good News Initiative is the newest of the ACN initiatives, but already eight “Sharing Our Faith” evangelism conferences are scheduled in cities across the nation. The first conference, held May 17–20 at St. Clement’s in El Paso, TX, was attended by 200 people. The next conference is June 8–10 at Christ Church in Moline, IL. (To register, go to anglican-evangelism.org). The Rev. Dr. Cn. Michael Green is speaking at each of these events along with a team of other evangelists.
“With the leadership of Dr. Green, we are working to re-focus the Anglican Church in this country on the need for effective evangelism,” said Jenny Noyes, ACN’s Coordinator for Evangelism. “By training the clergy and laity in how to share their faith with others and doing hands-on outreach, we hope to see revival in our churches. This new website will help us all keep track of dates, event registration and details as well as link people to other evangelism resources.”
Finally, the anglican-missions.org website will be managed by the Network’s Global Missions Initiative Director, the Rev. John Cruikshank. “This new website will help us build the relationships necessary in today’s cross-cultural missions,” said Cruikshank. “This is accomplished through the networking and resource-sharing among the 30 mission agencies and mission-minded parishes and dioceses that make up the Anglican Global Mission Partners, and eventually through matching up U.S. parishes with overseas partner parishes. The basic site is up, but the potential is unlimited in terms of what we can do with it in the years to come.”
All of the new sites are linked to the Network’s main website of www.acn-us.org. “Mark these new sites in your bookmarks/favorites and check them often for the latest Network ministry news and details on upcoming events,” said Fenton.
Posted 6/1/07