I am continuing to read through Dr. John Maiden’s paper Renewing the Body of Christ: Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) USA and Transnational Charismatic Anglicanism, 1978-1998. He writes:
After the decision to establish SOMA USA in 1985, the American national body maintained close links with SOMA International but was also able to operate unilaterally, with particular responsibility for advancing renewal in Latin America. The organization was closely integrated with ECUSA. It attended General Conventions and from 1990 participated in the Episcopal Council for Global Mission. The early support base came from two clusters of “renewed” parishes: Truro Church and Church of the Apostles, Fairfax; Church of the Word, Manassas; and All Saints, Dale City, all in northern Virginia near Washington, DC, and St, James’, Newport Beach; St. Margaret’s, South Gate; and All Saints, Bakersfield, in southern California (another key supporter was St. Bartholomew’s, Nashville). Church of the Apostles, which had recently experienced rapid growth and was an outreach-oriented church (since its beginnings it gave 50 percent of its income to mission), and which, like its mother church, Truro, attracted members of Washington’s elite, was particularly influential. In 1986 the Rev. David Harper, a New Zealander and member of SOMA International Board, became its rector; and the Rev. Brian Cox, the first US national director, joined him from St. James’, Newport Beach as assistant rector the same year. By 1992, seventeen partner parishes were associated with the organization. SOMA USA was a small organization, but some supporting parishes were influential in charismatic renewal circles.
When the Episcopal Charismatic Fellowship was first formed in 1973 it was recognized that charismatic renewal involved both the denomination’s “catholic” and “evangelical” streams. By the1980s and 1990s, the Episcopalian renewal movement, in which SOMA emerged, was increasingly evangelical in emphasis. By the beginning of the 1980s many evangelicals had joined the denomination from outside (at the ECUSA General Convention in 1982 it was reported that 58 percent of members originated in other Christian denominations, including 17 percent from Baptist churches), and many were drawn to larger “renewed” congregations. Miranda Hassett describes the growing strength of a “conservative charismatic/evangelical movement,” emphasizing the extent to which the streams co-occurred. There was increasing cross-fertilization in the theology and practice of charismatic and conservative evangelical Episcopalians, particularly following the opening of the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in 1976 as a “rallying point of the evangelical/charismatic renewal in the Episcopal Church.” Importantly, charismatic Episcopalians increasingly looked to the “power” ministry and evangelism teaching of John Wimber of the Californian Vineyard churches; developed links with charismatics from the English Anglican evangelical resurgence such as Bishop David Pytches, the Rev. David Watson and the Rev. Michael Green; and were influenced by Singaporean Archbishop Moses Tay. It became common for theologically conservative Episcopalians of various hues to utilize “evangelical” as an umbrella adjective, particularly to contrast with the liberal impulses of the wider Episcopal Church.
Again the links to the later groups of the early 2000s stand out to me. David Pytches and Moses Tay were among the earliest supporters of AMiA. Truro was the epicenter of CANA and Bishop Minns ministry. Much of this was simply a continuation of what had been germinating in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
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