Anglican Elders?: Locally shared pastoral leadership in English Anglican Churches. Revised and expanded edition

by Ed Moll

Anglican polity has traditionally favoured the incumbent as sole elder over a congregation. Biblical and missional imperatives press for eldership to be plural but how can this be done within an Anglican setting?

This study explores the biblical and historical background to plural eldership or locally shared pastoral leadership. It goes on to describe the experience of nine UK Anglican pastors who have established a team that functions as a plural eldership. While the focus is on the church's ministry of making disciples, lessons are drawn for other areas of pastoral leadership.

The revised and expanded edition includes additional chapters on the role of women and on the place of power in pastoral ministry.

ED MOLL is vicar of St George's Church Wembdon in Somerset. He is a trustee of Latimer Trust and is involved with training ministers through Langham Preaching and on the South West Gospel Partnership's Ministry Training course. He is married to Christa and they have two adult children.

139 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 29, 2023

Reviews

[Mark Riddell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful read providing the Biblical, historical and pastoral arguments for a plural approach to local church eldership in the Anglican denomination. It was fascinating to learn that this is not a novel argument (e.g. Bishop Ussher in the 16/17th centuries) and can function under a ‘normative principle’ approach to church. While there was some detail concerning the possible models of plural eldership in a local Anglican (complementarian) church, it would have been helpful for this to have been explored in greater detail. Specifically, further clarity on the relationship between a staff team and an eldership team in the various models would have proved beneficial.

[James Bunyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not exactly literature but a decent study with some sensible recommendations.