Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2026
Pedagogical theology examines Church belief and practice through the lens of learning. The author examines Anglican ecclesial language and discipleship ministry recognition practice through the lens of learning. In this context, empirical parish learning community research findings indicate a link between ministry involvement, ministry leadership and growth in faith. This connection between doing ministry and growth in faith is strengthened when the word ‘lay’ is replaced by the word ‘disciple’ and the word ‘commissioned’ is emphasised. The importance of the sacrament of baptism informs these changes. Through baptism, people become disciples of Jesus; through baptism, disciples have equality of discipleship; through baptism and confirmation, disciples are commissioned. All disciples are given the best opportunity to grow in faith when they do ministry in a church culture which recognises that the primary ordering of ministry occurs in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.
1 John M. Hull, What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning (London: SCM Press, 1985); Mark Chater, Jesus Christ, Learning Teacher: Where Theology and Pedagogy Meet (London: SCM Press, 2020); Jen Smith, Disruptive Inclusion: Why and How Christian Adult Learning is for Everyone (London: SCM Press, 2024). A Review of Chater’s Book and A Review of Smith’s Book are available at https://www.tjhlittleton.com (accessed 11 October 2025).
2 John Littleton, Enhance Learning in Parishes: A Learning Community Approach for Church Congregations (Unley, Adelaide, SA: MediaCom Education Inc., 2017), pp. 13–15, 73; John Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together: Within and Beyond Church Communities (Unley, Adelaide, SA: MediaCom Education Inc., 2023), pp. 61–69, 94–96.
3 Rowan Williams, Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (London: SPCK, 2014), pp. 1–19. The President of Synod October 2021 Pastoral Address for the 44th Triennial Synod, Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, p. 12. Available at: https://www.adelaideanglicans.lbcdn.io%3Euploads%3E2021%3Esynod%3Epresidentaddress (accessed 18 October 2025). Ten Australian Christian Church traditions recognise each other’s baptism in a common certificate of baptism. John Littleton, ‘The Anglican Tradition, The ‘Sense of the Faith of the Faithful’ (sensus fidie fidelium): a focus on Christian Learning with examples from The Anglican Church of Australia’. https://www.tjhlittleton.com (accessed 26 February 2026), p.19.
4 Paul Avis, ‘The Roles of the Ecclesial Orders in the Governance of the Church’, Ecclesiology (7/2/2022), p. 1. Online.
5 A Prayer Book for Australia: The Anglican Church of Australia (Alexandria, NSW: Broughton Books, 1995), pp. 50–71; Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 59, 72–73; John Dunnill mentioned this commissioning in ‘Is Confirmation Necessary in Anglican Theology?’ and outlined four Theologies of Confirmation, listing as number four ‘Baptism confers salvation but confirmation is a ‘lay-ordination or commissioning for adult discipleship (a distinctively ‘twentieth-century’ view).’ John Dunnill, ‘Is Confirmation Necessary in Anglican Theology?’, Anglican General Synod Doctrine Commission Study Paper 1996, pp. 7, 10. from https://www.anglican.org.au (accessed 17 November 2025) under Our Work, Doctrine & Theology, Confirmation 1997, Study Paper Interim Copy.
6 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 38–39.
7 Hans-Ruedi Weber, ed. ‘A Living Church’, Laity, ‘This is My Church’, Bulletin of the Department on the Laity (Geneva: World Council of Churches, December 1958), p. 44.
8 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 14, 38, 75; also see John Littleton’s book review on Bradly Billings, Truly Called? Vocation in the Anglican Church (Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia: Broughton Publishing, Pty Ltd, 2023), pp. 2–3. https://www.tjhlittleton.com (accessed 22 October 2025).
9 A Prayer Book for Australia, pp. 50–71; Dunnill, ‘Is Confirmation Necessary in Anglican Theology?’ pp. 12–14. Dunnill endorsed confirmation for adults and ‘argues that confirmation, while subordinate to baptismal initiation, can retain a place in the changing circumstances of Anglican ecclesial life. It does so as a fully adult rite signifying the personal affirmation of a mature (which does not mean perfect) faith and a recognition of this by the bishop as representative of the Church both local and universal through the laying on of hands – the objective correlative provided by tradition for that personal encounter with God known in some circles as ‘conversion’, in others as ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’’.
10 A Prayer Book for Australia, pp. 780–797. ‘The Ordinal: The Making, Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons’.
11 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 25, 39, 74.
12 Chater, Jesus Christ, Learning Teacher, pp. 20–21, 186–188.
13 Hull, What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning, p. 209.
14 Hull, What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning, p. 209.
15 Hull, What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning, p. 201.
16 Hull, What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning, pp. 202, 208.
17 Hull, What Prevents Christian Adults from Learning, p. 208.
18 Chater, Jesus Christ, Learning Teacher, pp. 183–193.
19 Smith, Disruptive Inclusion, pp. 53–54, 63.
20 John Littleton, ‘Enhanced Learning in the parish context: a learning community approach’, Practical Theology 11 4 (2018), pp. 320–333.
21 Littleton, Enhance Learning in Parishes, pp. 15, 50–51.
22 Littleton, Enhance Learning in Parishes, pp. 66–67; Thomas John Harvard Littleton, ‘Enhanced Faith Learning in Parishes’, Thesis (DM), Adelaide College of Divinity, South Australia, 2016, pp. 107–127 (p. 117, Table 7.7) https://www.tjhlittleton.com (accessed 23 October 2025)
23 Littleton, ‘Enhanced Faith Learning in Parishes’, pp. 117–118.
24 Littleton, Enhance Learning in Parishes, p. 67.
25 Littleton, ‘Enhanced Faith Learning in Parishes’, pp. 170, 175–176. ‘Your responses for you as an individual a. Over the last year, do you believe that you personally have grown in your Christian faith? b. Can you recall and remember an activity when you feel that you have learnt something new in your faith experience? This may be that you have acquired some new knowledge or understanding or practice of the Christian faith through your participation in an activity of the life of your parish. If yes, would you please name the activity when you felt that you learnt something new about the Christian faith, then briefly outline the activity and new learning?
26 Littleton, ‘Enhanced Faith Learning in Parishes’, p. 126. This quotation from the focus group is used with permission.
27 Littleton, ‘Enhanced Faith Learning in Parishes’, p. 123.
28 Littleton, ‘Enhanced Faith Learning in Parishes’, pp. 132–133; Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 87–88, 94–96.
29 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 95–96; Ruth Powell, Nicole Ward, John Bellamy, Sam Sterland, Kathy Jacks and Miriam Pepper, Enriching Church Life: A Guide to the Results from National Church Life Surveys for Local Churches (North Ryde BC NSW 1670: NCLS Research, 2022, Third Edition), p. 24.
30 The Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal Church, USA: The Church Hymnal Corporation and The Seabury Press, 1979), p. 855.
31 A New Zealand Prayer Book (Auckland, the Church of the Provence of New Zealand: William Collins Publishers, 1989), p. 931.
32 A Prayer Book for Australia, p. 795.
33 See Footnote 11.
34 Jos Moons, ‘Broadening the Baptismal Foundation of a Synodal Church: A Plea for a Baptismal Ethos’. Studia canonica 58 (2024), pp. 131–152. Rowan Williams also wrote about baptism: ‘We begin with baptism: with the fact that people are formally brought into the Christian community by being dipped in water or having water poured over them’. He then outlined how the baptised share in the life and death of Jesus, are open to the work of the Holy Spirit, care for human need, are reconcilers, seek justice and are vigilant about the vision of the Christian life and community, ‘…but still sinners’. Williams, Being Christian, pp. 1–16.
35 A Prayer Book for Australia, p. 69. ‘All who have been baptised and confirmed are called to study the Bible, to take part in the life of the Church, to share in the Holy Communion and to pray faithfully and regularly. We are called to share with others, by word and example, the love of Christ and his gospel of reconciliation and hope. We are called to love our neighbours as ourselves, to honour all people and to pray and work for peace and justice. I invite all of you to commit yourselves anew to this calling. We will gladly do so, in the strength of the Holy Spirit.’
36 Avis, ‘The Roles of the Ecclesial Orders in the Governance of the Church’, p. 1
37 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 18–20.
38 Lambeth Conference 1958, The Encyclical Letter from the Bishops together with the resolutions and Reports (London: SPCK and Seabury Press, 1958), p. 113.
39 Lambeth Conference 1968, Resolutions and Reports (London/New York: SPCK and Seabury Press, 1968), p. 93.
40 ‘Setting God’s People Free: Living as missionary disciples in the whole of life, bringing transformation to the church and the world’ (London, General Synod, The Church of England, GS 224, November 2021), p. 3.
41 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 13–14, 44–45, 76–78; Steven G Ogden, The Church, Authority and Foucault: Imaging the Church as a Open Space of Freedom (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), p. 119; Paul Collins, Recovering The ‘True Church’: Challenges for Australian Catholicism Beyond the Plenary Council (Baywater, Victoria, Australia: Coventry Press, 2022), pp. 43, 46–47, 70–82, 84. Collins wrote about Jesus establishing ‘a community of equal disciples’, p. 43. The authors of the Letter to the Colossians informed the reader of the letter that holding to Christ was the central attribute for discipleship. Vicky Balabanski, Colossians an Earth Bible Commentary: An Eco-Stoic Reading (London: T&T Clark, 2020), pp. 1, 140–144; ‘Lumen Gentium’ in The Documents of Vatican II, Ed. Walter M Abbott, SJ (London, Dublin: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966), Chapter IV, pp. 58–59.
42 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 6–7. In the ‘Foreword’ to this Littleton book Archbishop Geoffrey Smith, Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, mentioned the 1964 book by Mark Gibbs and T. Ralph Morton called God’s Frozen People – a book for and about ordinary Christians (Fontana). Archbishop Smith commented, ‘Gibbs and Morton argued that the church had become ‘minister centred’ with the clergy being ‘first class’ Christians and the laity ‘second class’ Christians, which obscures the fact that clergy and laity alike and together are the people of God. Nearly sixty years later that is sadly still true’. The author has also observed and heard about examples of behaviour in the Anglican Church of Australia where laity are considered to be of second-class status and unequal in discipleship; Gideon Goosen, Clericalism: Stories from the Pews – A Workbook for Parishes (Bayswater, Victoria, Australia: Coventry Press, 2020), p. 22. Goosen mentioned one effect of clericalism: ‘feelings of being second class members of the church’; Caroline Miley, when writing on the ‘One People of God? The Laity’ noted ‘There are far too many Christians who feel that they are only Christians in a private, inner, sort of way, and that the real work of Christian life should be undertaken by the clergy, who are, after all, ‘professional Christians.’’ In The Suicidal Church: Can the Anglican Church be Saved? (Annandale, NSW: Pluto Press, Australia, 2002), p. 152.
43 A Prayer Book for Australia, pp. 50–71; see Footnote 9, Dunnill, ‘Is Confirmation Necessary in Anglican Theology?’ pp. 12–14.
44 See Footnote 34.
45 The Letter 1 Peter is about Christian identity as God’s people in Christ. It is addressed to ‘all of you’ (1Peter 5.5) and ‘all of you are in Christ’ (1Peter 5.14). The author of the letter draws on Old Testament metaphors (Exod.19.6, Isa 43.20–21) to describe the church. ‘Christians are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people’ and their vocation is to proclaim, ‘the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2.9). Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 72–73, 76; ‘The laity are the royal priesthood God ordains at baptism to bring Christ to the world, and ‘out in the world’ to transform the bread and wine of life’. Scott Cowdell, God’s Next Big thing: Discovering the Future Church (Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia: John Garratt Publishing, 2004), p. 168.
46 Hendrik Kraemer, A Theology of the Laity (London: Lutterworth Press, 1958), p. 137; Susan Wood made a similar point about the whole people of God when discussing the ‘Baptismal Foundations of a Synodal Church’. She wrote, ‘Baptism establishes the fundamental equality and unity of the people of God prior to divisions into various ministries and states of life and prior to a division between ordained ministers and lay people’. Susan K Wood, A Synodal Church: The Christian Faithful on Pilgrimage (New York, London, Dublin: Rowman & Littlefield, 2025, Kindle Book), p. 18.
47 Kenan Osborne, Orders and Ministry: Leadership in the World Church (New York: Orbis Books, 2006), p. 173; Wood, A Synodal Church, p. 41. Wood wrote that ‘the entire body of the faithful shares in various ways Christ’s triple office: as priest, as prophet (teacher, witness), and as king (servant, leader)’.
48 Madeleine Barot and Ralph C. Young eds. ‘Christ’s Ministry and The Ministry of the Church’ in Laity, 15 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, May 1965), pp. 14–29.
49 Osborne, Orders and Ministry, p. 174.
50 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 59, 61–62. A Prayer Book for Australia, pp. 779–797. ‘The Ordinal: The Making, Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons’.
51 Ruth Powell et al., Enriching Church Life, p. 24; Dunnill, ‘Is Confirmation Necessary in Anglican Theology?’ pp. 8, 11. Dunnill wrote about the ‘motif of development’, growth in faith, ‘commitment’ and ‘growth in the power of the Spirit’ as important elements in the rite of confirmation. The word confirmation derives from the Latin word confirmare, to confirm, to strengthen, to make firm or firmer. Confirmation is about growth in faith.
52 For example, John Littleton’s Book Review of Bradly Billings, Truly Called? Vocation in the Anglican Church, p. 2. https://www.tjhlittleton.com (accessed 20 October 2025). On the colourful cover of Truly Called? The words Vocation in the Anglican Church are printed as the sub-title. This significant and helpful book is mainly about the very important vocation of the clergy. The topic ‘Vocation in the Anglican Church’ includes all disciples. Even though Billings briefly mentioned that through baptism all disciples have a vocation to ministry the cover sub-title does not represent the contents of the book. It could read ‘Vocation of the Ordained Ministry in the Anglican Church’.
53 See pages 5–8.
54 Roger L. Walton, ‘Ordinary Discipleship’ in Exploring Ordinary Theology, Eds. Jeff Astley and Leslie Francis (Surrey, England/Burlington, USA; Ashgate, 2013), p. 179.
55 Walton, ‘Ordinary Discipleship’, p. 179.
56 Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 12–13. For example, the Anglican Communion document ‘Intentional Discipleship and Disciple-making: An Anglican Guide for Christian Life and Formation’ (London: The Anglican Consultative Council, 2016). ‘Intentional Discipleship’ under the heading of Mission available from https://www.anglicancommunion.org (accessed on 21 October 2025).
57 Fredrica Harris Thompsett, ‘The Laity’ in The Study of Anglicanism, Stephen Sykes, John Booty, Jonathon Knight (London: SPCK, 1998, Revised edition), p. 288.
58 Bruce Kaye, Frozen Institutions: Questions for the Church after Christendom (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2022), p. 99; Littleton, Learners-Disciples-Together, pp. 11, 39, 82; Miley, The Suicidal Church, pp. 152–153; Anne Benjamin & Charles Burford, Leadership in a Synodal Church (Mulgrave, Melbourne: Garratt Publishing, 2021), p. 4; Richard R. Gaillardetz, ‘The Ecclesiological Foundations of Ministry within an Ordered Communion’ in Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood: Theologies of Lay and Ordained Ministry, Ed. Susan K. Wood (Collegeville, Minnesota, USA: Liturgical Press, 2003), pp. 26, 43–44, 47; Geoffrey Robinson, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus (Mulgrave, Melbourne, Australia: John Garratt Publishing, 2007), pp. 293–295; Wood, A Synodal Church, p. 10.
59 Weber, ‘A Living Church’, Laity, p. 44
60 See Footnote 42.
61 Church attendance in the Australian Anglican tradition has been in general decline during the last few decades. A recent example of this trend is found in the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, South Australia, where Diocesan Church Attendance Statistics showed a declining attendance amongst worshippers across the four Archdeacon Regions. https://www.adelaideanglicans.com (accessed 22 October 2025) under Governance, Synods, 2025 Synod Papers, pp. 19–20.
