A Conversation with The Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy

By Robert H. Lundy, Editor

The Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy is chairman of the Anglican Mission in The Americas (AMiA), a missionary movement of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda that is committed to reaching the unchurched in North America. He served as rector of All Saints Church, Pawleys Island, S.C. for over 20 years. He convened and later chaired the First Promise Movement that eventually led to the formation of AMiA by Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini (Province of Rwanda) and Moses my (Province of South East Asia) in 2000. In January, several members of the American Anglican Council staff attended the AMiA Winter Conference and recently, Encompass editor Robert Lundy followed up with a one on one interview with Bishop Murphy.

Robert Lundy (AAC):  I recently attended the Winter Conference, and it was amazing, I really enjoyed it. It seems like the AMiA is reenergized and re-focused on spreading the Gospel so my question to you is how were you able to refocus that attention on spreading the Gospel?

Bishop Chuck Murphy: I believe realistically what we basically did is, we tapped into a deep seated desire that is dormant I believe in many Christians and Christian leaders to do the things of the New Testament. We encouraged them to believe that God still wants that to happen, and there is a huge mission field right here in North America. We don’t need to travel across the ocean to do this work! … We’ve not been so much changing hearts as releasing people to do what they felt called to do, but didn’t think they could do, or didn’t have the tools to do. I think we’ve also … tapped into a wave of the Holy Spirit that is truly moving around the world right now. It’s God’s work, it is God’s initiative, it is God’s desire that we reach out and evangelize and plant churches and bring people into saving relationships with the Lord Jesus … Why should we have to read about it only taking place around the world in other places, in China and Africa? God wants that to happen in North America.
…One of the things that happens when you plant churches and when you step out and when you talk about building and growing, and you meet in cinemas and in elementary schools and makeshift facilities is … everything around you—the trappings—screams mission. This is what we think we do … And church historians and pollsters and those who evaluate things in the life of the church in our day … acknowledge that those churches that ask the most and, in a sense, raise the bar of expectation tend to be those churches that get the most and have the most effectiveness in the building of the church … So whatever lethargies can sometimes creep into your basic parish ministry that most of us grew up in 20-25 years ago is quickly overcome by the sheer force, passion, trappings and focus of the mission that we have undertaken in North America. And I believe that those that get excited about that and those that have stepped forward inevitably end up being, by definition, committed to mission.

AAC: What influence has the church of Rwanda had on AMiA? 

CM:  I believe leadership inevitably sets tone and direction and the province of Rwanda, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, the House of Bishops, have done that with reference to the mission. They’ve set a certain tone that is a bold and pioneering, risk taking initiative which, as you well know, met with a certain criticism and dismay in the part of the establishment. But that tone that they set has truly been a factor in shaping this mission here in the States and then the direction to be a missionary initiative, a missionary outreach of Rwanda. Not to be a new church, not to be another diocese or another province, but to be a mission.

AAC: Why should someone choose to join AMiA?

CM: I really believe that it depends on what their sense of call and passion really is. I do not pretend to believe that the Anglican Mission in America is for everyone. I believe it has a … certain DNA—a certain texture and call that is distinct and different, and I believe those that feel an excitement about what we are and what we’re doing pretty much self select. There are many other options for being a faithful Anglican in the world today. But what we have in the Anglican Mission is sort of an entrepreneurial DNA—kind of a pioneering—willing to get out there and cross into territory that has not recently been crossed into.

AAC: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing orthodox Anglicans in America?

CM: There’s a tendency at least, even for Christians, to have certain timidity, a certain discomfort, with standing apart, standing out and … being salt and light … and that can play into the challenge for orthodox. I’m assuming we all agree on the substance of the faith, but when you start talking about how that’s lived out at a time of enormous change as we’re undergoing in this country and around the world, those same challenges of needing to belong and timidity … can come into play….

AAC: What would you like to see come out of the Common Cause Partnership?

CM: … A fully functioning federation, something not too unlike CAPA, which is in Africa … where different jurisdictions, different groups, different entities are united in a meaningful way. A fully functioning federation that allows us to add strength as well as cooperation, collaboration, and communication to the work of our mission and our witness in North America. So, petty much what we see in the Federation document which is Common Cause is what I would like to see us move forward with.

AAC: GAFCON? Are you going to go?

CM: Yes

AAC: What are your hopes for that gathering?

CM: I would like to see that gathering of orthodox lay and ordained leaders shape a way forward for a global Anglican future, which is basically the title of GAFCON. I would like us to not just come together and share the concerns, the problems, the challenges; I would like to see us actually give some shape to a way forward for a global Anglican future. And if we don’t do that, if it’s just another gathering of faithful Anglican leaders … I think we’ll have missed a huge opportunity … That is what I think the greatest challenge before Anglicanism worldwide is—to shape their future—and it will require some kind of global gathering and global consensus … GAFCON provides the opportunity, meeting place, the moment.

AAC: As far as whatever that way forward might be, could it be different from what the Anglican Communion has been for the past 500 years?

CM: Absolutely. Yes. What is needed in this next chapter has got to be different from what it has been from at least the last 30-50 years. We’ve got to have another way forward. I mean, it’s wonderful that Tony Blair can appoint Rowan Williams to be our spiritual head and authority, but we need another model for how we order ourselves, and we need another model for what we most value and how [to] live it out in the 21st century. We need something more than just that common history, the British Empire, [to] shape us in this next chapter. And so the gathering at GAFCON—which is intended to be primarily those that feel they need to take action, they have a bias for action, they see a need for a clear way forward—I think is a gathering … that could shape a bold new way, that could provide a way to be connected globally along Gospel, missional values and passions that present structures don’t necessarily elevate or encourage. I just think it’s time. A house divided cannot stand. Jesus taught that, and He’s, of course, right. And when you can’t even agree on the basics, the person of Jesus, the uniqueness of Jesus, the basics of the authority of Scripture, whether we stand under Scripture or Scripture stands under us ... if you can’t even agree on the basics of the Gospel—and I’m talking much more than human sexuality issues, I’m talking about just the essentials, the person of God—that house cannot stand. And it takes more than a common British Empire heritage and history to hold it together. †