In 2009, at the investiture of Bob Duncan as the first Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, Archbishop Duncan challenged our newly forming province to aggressively pursue the work of church planting by starting 1,000 churches in the first five years of our existence.
From this call, Anglican 1000, the first provincial church planting initiative, was born to teach the value and importance of church planting and keep it at the forefront of conversation during our seminal years. Through the work of Anglican 1000 and our faithful dioceses, we planted almost 500 new churches in our first half-decade. In 2014, Foley Beach was elected as our second Archbishop to carry the leadership torch in our Province. At his investiture, Archbishop Beach very clearly called us to press onward with the Church’s mission and the call of planting new congregations. His clarion call was…
“Forward. Always Forward. Everywhere Forward.”
Archbishop Duncan’s challenge was to start something new and unknown. Archbishop Beach’s call is to carry on what we started toward continued maturity, effectiveness, and fruit. Thus, with a new leader and a new season within the Anglican Church in North America, Anglican 1000 has grown into our new church planting initiative, Always Forward. What began as an initiative focused on inspiration, education, and conviction regarding church planting has also expanded to include practical strategies, resources, systems, and collaborative work to support a long-term church planting effort.