Mandate eNewsletter, 2007 - Issue No. 2

Catching an Anglican Wave

“The Kingdom Is Our Business:  Fighting Poverty, Creating Jobs, Transforming Lives.” Under that motto, Archbishop Nzimbi launched the Anglican Church of Kenya's Microenterprise Development Network (ACK-MED) in August 2006 during the opening ceremonies of one of the Chalmers Center's Christian Economic Development Institutes. ACK-MED seeks to bring microenterprise development training and resources to the approximately 5 million members of the ACK.

ACK-MED originated in the minds of several visionary Kenyans, as they traveled back to Kenya following a Christian Economic Development Institute (CEDI) delivered by Chalmers in August 2005 at Uganda Christian University. As they reflected on the central concepts of this CEDI—that the local church can use microenterprise development to be an agent of transformation—these leaders decided to start a nationwide network to equip churches across the ACK with the training and resources needed to minister to the poor.

Brian Fikkert, Executive Director of the Chalmers Center (left) with Archbishop Nzimbi of the Anglican Church of Kenya (center) and Craig Cole, Executive Director of Five Talents International (right)

With technical and financial support from Five Talents International, a faithful partner of the Chalmers Center, ACK-MED has now hosted three CEDIs in the past year, and there are plans for more in the future. As a result, hundreds of churches are being equipped to minister in word and in deed to the poor across Kenya. In addition, the Anglican Churches of Uganda and Rwanda have embraced Chalmers' approach and are in various stages of bringing this training to their congregations. And the Anglican interest is spreading beyond Africa: Five Talents is working with Chalmers to bring CEDIs to the Anglican Communion in Asia and Latin America in the coming years. 

While the Episcopalian Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) continues its downward spiral, both theologically and numerically, the Anglican Communion around the globe continues to flourish. With 50 million members in the 1990s, the Anglican Communion now claims 78 million adherents and is expected to exceed 100 million members in the next fifteen years.

In an interview in Christianity Today (April 2007), Archbishop Orombi of the Anglican Church of Uganda states that the current growth in the Anglican church in Africa is part of a "third wave" in Anglican history, the first wave being the initial creation of the Church of England in the 16th Century, and the second wave being the spread of Anglicanism worldwide by the Christian Missionary Society in the 19th Century. The third wave, says Orombi, is a revival that is not going to stop in Africa.†

Please pray that God will provide all that ACK-MED needs to equip the church in Kenya. And please pray that God will enable the Chalmers Center and Five Talents International to continue to ride the Anglican wave so that more churches will be equipped to bring the healing of King Jesus to the poor around the world.

For more information about the Chalmers Center, visit us at www.chalmers.org.