The Anglican denomination is one of the biggest in Kenya along with Roman Catholic Church and Seventh Day Adventist Church. I was raised an Anglican, baptized as an infant and confirmed at age twelve. I hardly ever attended the Anglican church though in my childhood and early teens and ea was congregating with the Seventh Day Adventists through the latter part of my primary education and all through my secondary and university education.It is not until I graduated from college that I started attending the Anglican Church, drawn mainly by their youth targeted programmes, strong congregational ties and a tradition of orderliness and structure.
The Anglican church of Kenya has undergone a subtle but profound change over the years. It has been so slow and discreet and has escaped the notice of many congregants. But many people will confess that the Anglican church as it is today is not anything like it used to be in the 90s and early 2000s. The worship is more charismatic and evangelical in outlook, and the preaching leans ever so slightly towards "word of faith". The whole church service tend to be one long emotional roller-coaster, where ecstatic praise music accompanied with heavy instrumentals and dim lighting gives way to a sombre, almost grim, mood during worship music.
The choir which used to be an integral part of worship finds itself increasingly alienated, neglected and forgotten
.When I was coming up, the Anglican Church was known for singing of hymns, liturgical worship and a strong sense of order in service. All that has given over to spontaneous and rather chaotic prayer melees, chants and all manner of disorderly behavior. More tellingly, the Anglican Church in Kenya is becoming more and more "charismatic" in tendency. While there is nothing specifically wrong with Charismatic Christianity per se, it tends to set a congregation or church on a steep slope towards Word of Faith, Dominionism or Dominion theology, Progressive Christianity and a path to full blown evangelicalism.
A major tendency in these movements is the neglect of doctrine, the elevation of emotions, personal experiences and feelings and a gradual drift towards "prosperity theology". Praise and worship music, vigorous dancing, chanting akin to an altered state of consciousness is now commonplace in many Anglican churches. These were not "Anglican practices" and were frowned upon by staunch Anglicans in the past. The choir which used to be an integral part of worship finds itself increasingly alienated, neglected and forgotten. I felt uncomfortable and out of place. This is not the Anglican I grew up in. False doctrines such as the pre-tribulation rapture, name-it-and-claim it doctrine and an unhealthy focus on prosperity have crept into the church. The alarm bell began ringing for me when the Anglican Church started congregating with Catholics and Pentecostal churches in ecumenical services. This for me represented a huge departure from tradition, for a church which some of her influential figures in the past identified the papacy as the seat of the Antichrist.
This is not an attack on the Anglican Church of Kenya but a call to self-reflection. In an attempt to keep pace with the times and draw in youthful congregants, the church risk alienating the older generations who are not at all into the charismatic tendencies and praise and worship music. The leadership of the church need to tread carefully in its attempt to create a bridge to make it easy for the world-loving, unconverted youth to feel entertained and happy in the church, because bridges go both ways. For a church which has for many years taken pride in her tradition, I think the Anglican Church of Kenya has departed from the core of what ultimately makes it "Anglican".
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