Bishop Minns
Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns
In view of his many years of personal involvement in mission partnerships throughout the Anglican Communion, Martyn Minns was elected to serve as the founding Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) on June 28, 2006. He was duly consecrated a bishop on August 20, 2006 and installed as bishop May 5, 2007.
As CANA’s Missionary Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns provides leadership, pastoral support, and encouragement to a growing movement of faithful Anglican clergy and congregations in North America. CANA is a duly constituted convocation initiated by the largest Province of the Anglican Communion (in terms of active membership the Church of Nigeria has about 18 million members) and endorsed by Primates of the Anglican Communion. Thus, CANA has established its own indigenous episcopate and office in the USA and provides Americans an authentic connection to the Anglican Communion. At this time, CANA is larger than nearly 50 dioceses in The Episcopal Church in terms of weekend worship attendance.
Bishop Minns grew up in Nottingham, England. He graduated with honors from Birmingham University, and became a rising star in the Mobil Oil corporation. Minns sensed God’s call to ordained ministry in the late 1960s, while working for Mobil in New York City and attending St. Paul’s in Darien, Connecticut. With four young children, Martyn and Angela Minns relocated to Virginia Theological Seminary where Martyn earned the M.Div.
The Minns family returned to St. Paul’s where Martyn served as an associate rector (1979-1982), under the mentorship of the Rev. Terry Fullam. Martyn and his family then led a vibrant church plant in the bayou, Holy Spirit in Lafayette, Louisiana (1982-1988). Their years serving All Angels in New York City (1988-1991) was an exciting time of seeing God’s radical inclusion and transformative love work in the lives of marginalized people, drug addicts, urban professionals, and Broadway artists.
In 1991 Martyn was installed as rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia. He continued Truro’s decades-long emphasis on partnering with Anglican leaders in the majority-world to work for social justice and to spread the good news about Jesus Christ. In recognition for his work in worldwide missions, Minns was installed as an Honorary Canon of All Saints Cathedral, Mpwapwa, Tanzania.
Having a holistic view of Christianity, Bishop Minns helped to found Five Talents International, which grew out of the call of Anglican bishops at the 1998 Lambeth Conference to fight poverty in majority-world nations through micro-enterprise. Minns has also been active in the leadership of the Anglican Communion Network, the American Anglican Council, Church Army, and other Christian boards and agencies.
Under his leadership, Truro Church established the Lamb Center as a day-center for the homeless in Fairfax; expanded the work of Truro’s International Programs and Services (TIPS) for immigrants and international students; planted several new daughter churches; and fostered ministries for Spanish-speaking, Arabic, and Chinese ethnic groups.
Martyn and Angela are the proud parents of five children and twelve grandchildren. Martyn has recently stated:
In every place and in all our years of ministry, my wife Angela and I have attempted to lead and build communities of faith where the radical message of Galatians 3:28 is lived out: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ CANA is no different. It is a place where people of diverse backgrounds show the world that true unity is possible when we are connected by ‘one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Ephesians 4:5).
