Dr. John Maiden traces the history of SOMA in a paper titled Renewing the Body of Christ: Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) USA and Transnational Charismatic Anglicanism, 1978-1998. He writes:
In April 1985 leaders of the Episcopal charismatic renewal movement gathered in the flagship charismatic evangelical Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia to discuss the formation of a new mission body in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA; also known as the Episcopal Church or TEC). In attendance was a visiting Englishman, the Rev. Michael Harper, a leading figure in the transnational renewal movement. A charismatic evangelical and committed Anglican, Harper was the international director of Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA), an organization dedicated to promoting Spirit-filled renewal, particularly within the Anglican Communion. He shared exciting news of worldwide developments – stirrings of the Spirit in Kenya, India, and the South Pacific islands – and then his vision to extend the organization’s scope to “reach and testify in every Anglican Diocese in the world by 1990.” The strategy was to form SOMA “national bodies” to coordinate cross-cultural missions which nurtured minis-try in the power of the Holy Spirit. SOMA would not achieve the ambitious coverage which Harper envisaged, but nevertheless became a conduit for charismatic renewal within the Anglican Communion. The American national body was particularly active: between 1987 and 1994 it coordinated approximately seventy short-term missions, more than any other group. (…)
Charismatic Christianity is now a major block within global Anglicanism and a key dynamic in the complex identity politics of the Anglican Communion. While SOMA was a relatively low-key organization, during the 1980s and 1990s it played a vital role not only in the growth and development of charismatic renewal in various contexts, but also in the establishment of long-term linkages between conservative, Spirit-filled Anglicans in the global North and South. Indeed, the present-day Anglican Communion and its internal politics cannot be fully understood without a historical perspective on the transnational charismatic and evangelical networks to emerge from the 1970s. What follows, which is based on access to SOMA USA’s own archive, its magazine, and interviews with a selection of its missionaries, is divided into three sections. First, the background to SOMA USA is discussed. This describes the Anglo-American dimensions of SOMA’s development out of the Anglican International Conference on Spiritual Renewal (1978), scrutinizing also the milieu of Episcopalian renewal in which SOMA USA emerged. Second, with reference to various dioceses – particularly in South America and East Africa – it explores SOMA USA’s approach to mission. Finally, it looks briefly at the organization in the context of the growing divisions within global Anglicanism over sexuality in the 1990s, and the tensions between the American national body’s solidarity with evangelicalism in the global South and its own relationship with ECUSA. (…)
In 1975, Everett “Terry” Fullam, Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Darien, Connecticut, went to Rome. With Michael Harper, he was invited to take a place amongst ten thousand delegates at the International Conference of Catholic Charismatic Renewal. The experience led the two leaders to discuss the idea of a similar event for Anglicans. Planning began for an Anglican International Conference on Spiritual Renewal (AICSR) in Canterbury, England, to precede the decennial international gathering of Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference in 1978. AICSR was largely an Anglo-American initiative, with the Episcopal Charismatic Fellowship (ECF) collaborating with Harper and Anglican members of the Fountain Trust, a largely British renewal network. At the “Leaders of Leaders” conference, 110 delegates were registered from Britain and sixty-one from the USA. Fullam, Rev. Charles “Chuck” Irish of the ECF, and William C. Frey, Bishop of Colorado (later Dean of the evangelical Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry near Pittsburgh),were amongst the main speakers, and plans were made for two jumbo jets to transport American delegates to a final “open” conference of clergy and lay charismatic leaders. One feature of the conference was widely publicized: a Eucharistic finale where various bishops were photo- graphed “dancing” before the altar of Canterbury Cathedral. Harper described the event as “strangely reminiscent of the day of Pentecost.”
I will post more of this paper later, but it is fascinating to see the origins of the realignment movements of the early 21st century in these organizations of the 70s-90s. For example, Chuck Irish was influential on now Archbishop Steve Wood. Phil Ashey said: “For those of you who are involved in charismatic renewal and Holy Spirit ministry, Steve, Bishop Steve, is a protege of Chuck Irish, and so he has a deep, deep conviction of the need for our church to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (youtube) (Report from ACNA Provincial Council 2024)
In 1984 Episcopalians United for Revelation, Renewal, and Reformation (EURRR or EU) was founded by Rt. Rev. William Frey, Bishop of Colorado and Bishop Michael Marshall. It later became Anglicans United. Todd Wetzel and John Rodgers were also leaders of the group. The threads all tie together.
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