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SINGAPORE: "None Should Perish. ACNS ignores ACNA/REC at Missions Conference
75 of 120 delegates were from ACNA and its affiliates
Discipleship is best way to counter extremism and terrorism, said Archbishop Hing
SE Asian Primate critical of the Primates' Meeting for ignoring ACNA
PHOTO: Archbishop Moon Hing addresses the Mission Consultation Roundtable in Singapore
ACNS
By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
October 26, 2017
The Church needs to change its mindset and focus with more urgency and passion on what will last forever - that was the key theme in the opening address by Archbishop Moon Hing to the Diocese of Singapore's Mission Consultation Roundtable. "When I talk about church planting, I'm not talking about buildings, I'm talking about people," he said. "The cathedral will not last forever -- the people in the cathedral will last forever."
Hing, who is Archbishop of the Church of the Province of South East Asia, said discipleship had to be intentional -- there needed to be planning and training and passion, or it would not succeed. He warned that mission always had times of discouragement and disappointments and suggested that these would be keenly felt in an era when the Church had become more results-orientated.
The Archbishop stressed that making disciples was the best way to counter extremism and terrorism and the best way to "stay above the water" in an atmosphere of secularism, atheism and capitalism. He said there would be enough money for mission if people were more prepared to let God have a share in their extra income.
The Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) filed this story to its global audience, but omitted the fact that of the more than 120 delegates from over 20 countries gathered at St Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore for the conference, 75 of the delegates were from the Anglican Church in North America and its affiliates.
"The Anglican Communion News Service (which wrote and ran the story) conveniently, or deliberately overlooked the fact that the vast majority of delegates were from the Anglican Church in North America and various agencies working in the region headed up primarily by ACNA laypeople: New Wineskins, SAMS-USA, SOMA-USA, E413, ARDF-US," a source told VOL.
The source wrote that Archbishop Hing was very critical of the Primates' Meeting in Canterbury recently, overlooking the ACNA, with Hing going into great detail about the deliberations where he felt ultimately ignored by the other Primates in trying to gain greater recognition for us (the ACNA). "He spent a considerable amount of time on this point during his address."
The ACNS reported none of this. There were only two observers from the Anglican Communion Office in Singapore for the Missions Consultation Roundtable.
"It's interesting how the ACNS continues to report without any mention of the ACNA. They think that if they ignore us, they will discredit us," another source told VOL.
The conference also heard about growth in the church across the Province of South East Asia. The Diocese of Singapore's director for mission, the Bishop Kuan Kim Seng, explained how people were coming to faith in Indonesia, Laos and Thailand. He said the English language had been a "phenomenal tool" in evangelism. But he said the key to future growth was the indigenization of church leadership in the Province.
Over the three days of the conference, delegates attended workshops focusing on the church in the nine countries in the province of South East Asia and hearing from various agencies working in the region.
It was the fifth Missions Consultation Roundtable staged by the diocese and the biggest so far.
You can read the ACNS report here: http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/10/urgent-need-for-discipleship-conference-told.aspx
