Back in 2010, the Anglican Church in North America set up the snappily named ‘Catechesis Task Force’ to advise the House of Bishops of the ACNA on the ‘training and instruction of the faithful and, most especially, the making of disciples of Jesus Christ … The Task Force understands the critical role of catechesis in the ministry of the Church and aims to strengthen ACNA’s commitment to calling, forming, equipping and sending followers of Jesus.’

The Task Force was charged with (among other things) developing ‘a comprehensive catechumenal vision and framework…’. Why did the ACNA set up this Task Force? In it’s own words, ‘the contemporary Church has failed to train up her children in the admonition of the Lord … Moreover the Church as done a very poor job of teaching, training and forming disciples of adult converts. Many people live for years without noticeable growth in their doctrinal understanding, and the implications of that doctrine lived out - and so with little victory over the sin and brokenness of their lives. A consistent and focussed path has not been provided for them to learn, grow and mature as Christians, so that the contemporary Church is often filled with believers more formed by the culture of the world than by the Church and the Holy Scriptures she treasures and teaches. This is a fundamental lack of the Gospel transformation everyone needs’ (Vision doc, pp.2-3)

‘The ancient Church had a model for raising up believers and helping them to mature in their faith. Though actual practice may have varied through the centuries, catechesis always included training in the three areas of believing, praying and living (or to put it another way: Doctrine, Worship and holy living).’ (p.3).

The Vision Paper finishes with the rather remarkable claim: ‘The Church of God will never be preserved without Catechesis’.

Whether that is the case or not, I though you might appreciate knowing that as we pursue this agenda, we are in fact in step with the wider Anglican Church - or at least aspects of it.

the full documents (including a PDF of the Approved Anglican Catechism) can be found at https://anglicanchurch.net/catechism/