The Anglican Church of Rwanda (French: ''Église anglicane du Rwanda'') is a province of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

, covering 11 dioceses in Rwanda. The

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

of the province is Laurent Mbanda, consecrated on 10 June 2018.

Official names

The Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda was also known by its French name, Province de L'Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda (PEAR). The former name of the province, Province de L'Eglise Episcopal au Rwanda, was changed by action of an extraordinary meeting of the Provincial Synod at St. Étienne, Biryogo, on November 29, 2007. The province changed its name once again to Anglican Church of Rwanda in a decision taken at their Synod, in September 2019. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, in an official letter as vice chairman of GAFCON, explained the decision: "Removing the word ‘Province’ is a significant change. We are not subjects. Some want us to accept that it is essential to being Anglican that you are recognised by Canterbury, but we find our identity first and foremost through our Biblical and Anglican doctrinal inheritance in Christ. The Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008 concluded ‘We can only come to the devastating conclusion that ‘we are a global Communion with a colonial structure’’. We seek only to be a colony of heaven!"

History

The Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda traces its roots to two missionary doctors of the British

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

, Arthur Stanely Smith and Leonard Sharp, coming from Kabale, in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

, which began a mission movement in the Eastern area of Gisaka, in Rwanda, from 1914 to 1916. They would reach Rukira in 1922. Geoffrey Holmes, a captain from the British Army, would start an Anglican mission in Gahini, in 1925. In 1926, Harold Guillebaud baptised the first converts at Gahini. Guillebaud would later translate Christian books into Kinyarwanda. In the years that followed, more Anglican missions where created, including one started by Geoffrey Holmes in Kigeme, in 1931. Only after the independence of Rwanda from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, in 1962, the Anglican Church of Rwanda was created, in 1965, under the Province of Rwanda, Burundi and Boga Zaire. The first Diocese was initiated in 1966, with Adony Sebununguri serving as the first Anglican Bishop of Rwanda. The name, "Anglican Church of Rwanda" (Église Anglicane au Rwanda) was adopted on 18 October 1979, still at the Province of Rwanda, Burundi and Boga Zaire. On 7 June 1992, the Province of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda in the Anglican Communion was formed, consisting of seven dioceses, Kigali, Butare, Shyira, Byumba, Cyangugu, Kigeme and Shyogwe with the first Archbishop being Augustin Nshamihigo. In 1998, he was succeeded by Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, who would be in office until 2011. The 1994 genocide and war left the Church and the nation in ruins. Since peace has returned, the Church has embarked on a program of spiritual healing for thousands of traumatised people. Kigali Anglican Theological College (KATC) was started in February 2006 as a response to the training needs of the Anglican Church of Rwanda in post Genocide Rwanda and is staffed by pastors from several home dioceses, local staff, one CMS Britain Mission Partner and a number of visiting lecturers from partners from the UK and the USA. The college states that it strives to provide quality Christian training to the next generation of Christian leaders for Rwanda and, in turn, to assist in the development of the whole country. The School of Theology was the first to open in the custom-built buildings situated in an area of new development not far from Kigali. A Language School was opened in 2006 to meet the language needs of Francophone students who had to study in English. In 2008, there were around 40 students studying in both the School of Theology and the Language School.

Membership

Today, there are over one million Anglicans, of whom 85,000 are active members, out of an estimated population of 12 million (2013), making it one of the largest Christian denominations in Rwanda.

Structure

The polity of the Anglican Church of Rwanda is Episcopal church governance, which is the same as the other Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical parishes organized into 13 dioceses, each one headed by a bishop. The dioceses are currently: * Butare * Byumba * Cyangugu * Gahini * Gasabo * Kibungo * Kigali * Kigeme * Kivu * Shyira * Shyogwe * Karongi * Nyaruguru A new missionary diocese of Karongi (near Lake Kivu) was founded in 2020; the first bishop, Methode Rukundo, was consecrated on 26 July.

Archbishop of Rwanda

The Archbishop of Rwanda is both Metropolitan and

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

. Holders of the office have been: * Augustin Nshamihigo, 1992-1995 * Emmanuel Kolini, 1998–2011 * Onesphore Rwaje, 2011-2018 * Laurent Mbanda, 2018–present

Worship and liturgy

The Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

is used.

Doctrine and practice

The center of the Church teaching is the life and resurrection of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, include: *Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead. *Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe. *The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine. *The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and

Holy Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

. *Other sacramental rites are confirmation,

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform v ...

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

reconciliation of a penitent Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of one's sins (sinfulness) or wrongs. Christianity Catholicism In Catholic teaching, the Sacrament of Penance is the method of the Church by which individual men and women confess sin ...

, and

unction Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, or ot ...

. *Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus's return in glory. The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a sixteenth-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason.

Ecumenical relations

Unlike many other Anglican churches, the Anglican Church of Rwanda is not a member of the ecumenical

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

Anglican realignment

The Anglican Church of Rwanda is a member of the

Global South (Anglican) The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, formerly known as Global South (Anglican), is a grouping of 24 Anglican churches, of which 22 are provinces of the Anglican Communion, plus the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Ch ...

and the Global Anglican Future Conference, and has been involved in the

Anglican realignment The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States ...

. Their opposition to departures from the conservative Anglican faith taken in North America led them to start a missionary organization, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and to support the creation of the

Anglican Church in North America The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba ...

, of which the Anglican Mission in the Americas was a founding member, in June 2009. The AMiA changed its status to ministry partner in 2010, which it was until December 2011, when it disaffiliated from the Anglican Church of Rwanda. Archbishops Onesphore Rwaje and Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America issued a Joint Communiqué on April 28, 2012, to address the future of the AMiA. Meanwhile, the House of the Bishops of Rwanda decided the establishment of the Missionary District in North America ( PEARUSA) to pursue the same work in the United States, while it was given the AMiA members three alternatives: to join the PEARUSA, to join another Anglican jurisdiction through letters dimissory or remain in the AMiA. It was established the deadline of August 31, 2012, for the clergy and the congregations of the AMiA to decide their future. On April 29, 2012, Archbishop

Henri Isingoma Henri Kahwa Isingoma (born November 24, 1958) is a Democratic Republic of the Congo Anglican bishop. He was the third Primate and Archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Congo since his consecration in August 2009 until March 2016, when he resigne ...

expressed his official approval for the temporary admission of the AMiA at the Anglican Church of Congo until his future was clarified. On 21 June 2016, PEARUSA three networks were fully transferred to the

(ACNA), becoming two new dioceses. education: In PEAR thaere over 2000 schools of Anglican(primary, pre-primary, secondary, TVET, VTC and Univesrity) Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje attended GAFCON II, which took place in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

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, from 21 to 26 October 2013. The province was represented at GAFCON III, by a 47 members delegation, including Archbishop Laurent Mbanda.

References

External links

Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda Official WebsiteKigali Anglican Theological College WebsiteAnglican Communion Provincial NewsAnglican Communion Province Information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rwanda, Anglican Church of

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

Anglican realignment denominations Anglicanism in Rwanda Christian organizations established in 1992 Christian denominations established in the 20th century Religious organisations based in Rwanda Rwanda