Anglican Church in North America

Not to be confused with Anglican Church in America.
Anglican Church in North America
Classification Anglican
Orientation Anglo-Catholic, Charismatic and Evangelical orientations
Polity Episcopal
Archbishop Foley Beach
Associations Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Global South
Region Canada, United States, Mexico and Cuba
Origin June 22, 2009
Bedford, Texas, United States
Separated from Anglican Church of Canada and Episcopal Church in the United States
Merger of Common Cause Partnership
Congregations 983 (2013)[1]
Members c. 112,504 (2013)[1]
Official website anglicanchurch.net

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes some parishes in Mexico and a missionary district in Cuba.[2] Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reports that it has 30 dioceses and 983 congregations serving an estimated membership of 112,504.[1] The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.

The ACNA was founded in 2009 by former members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada who were dissatisfied with increasingly liberal doctrinal and social teachings in their former churches, which they considered contradictory to traditional Anglican belief. Prior to 2009, these conservative Anglicans had begun to receive support from a number of Anglican churches (or provinces) outside of North America, especially in the Global South. Several Episcopal dioceses and many individual parishes in both Canada and the United States voted to transfer their allegiance to Anglican provinces in South America and Africa. In 2009, many Anglican groups who had withdrawn from the two North American provinces united to form the Anglican Church in North America.

Unlike the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, the ACNA is not a member province of the Anglican Communion.[3][4][5][6] From its inception, however, it has sought full membership in the Communion,[7] and the church does maintain full communion with seven Anglican Communion provinces.[8]

The ACNA has attempted to incorporate the full spectrum of conservative Anglicanism within Canada and the United States. As a result, it accommodates Anglo-Catholic, charismatic, and evangelical theological orientations. It also includes those who oppose and those who support women's ordination. Women can serve as clergy members in some dioceses, while other dioceses maintain an exclusively male clergy. Women are ineligible to serve as bishops. The ACNA defines Christian marriage exclusively as a lifelong union between a man and a woman and consequently condemns homosexual relationships that are non-celibate as sinful.[9][10] The church holds a pro-life position on abortion and euthanasia.

History

The Anglican Church in North America was founded by Anglicans who had left the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the United States over concerns that the teaching of those churches had grown more liberal.[11][12][13] The new body charged that the two existing churches "have increasingly accommodated and incorporated un-Biblical, un-Anglican practices and teaching".[14] Two major events which contributed to ACNA's formation both involved human sexuality. The first was the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions; the second was the General Convention's ratification of the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man,[15][16] as Bishop of New Hampshire the following year.

The new Anglican group also charged that the existing churches had abandoned the traditional Christian belief that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.[13] In particular, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church from 2006 to 2015, was strongly criticised for her comments to that effect.[17]

Conservative opposition to both the Episcopal Church's 1979 edition of the Book of Common Prayer and to the ordination of women priests led to the founding of an earlier wave of independent Anglican churches, often called the Continuing Anglican movement.

Common Cause Partnership

In June 2004, the leaders of six conservative Anglican organizations — the Anglican Communion Network, the Reformed Episcopal Church, the Anglican Mission in America, Forward in Faith North America, the Anglican Province of America, and the American Anglican Council —sent a public letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, pledging "to make common cause for the gospel of Jesus Christ and common cause for a united, missionary and orthodox Anglicanism in North America".[18] They called their alliance the Common Cause Partnership and drafted a theological statement in 2006.[19]

In September 2007, fifty-one bishops met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to discern direction and to bind themselves constitutionally, saying they intended to found an "Anglican union". Some of the bishops present were foreign bishops, including a retired archbishop.[20][21] Features of note from the result of the initial meeting include a broad sharing of clergy between the varied groups, an intention to be a "missionary" or church-planting entity,[22] and an intention, after a brief time, to seek international organizational recognition.[23]

Key members of the partnership participated in the June 2008 meeting of conservative Anglicans in Jerusalem, the Global Anglican Future Conference, which in turn prompted the formation of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. A final statement issued by the conference stated that: "we believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership to be recognised by the Primates’ Council" of the Anglican Communion.[24]

Establishing the province

In December 2008, the Partnership met at Wheaton, Illinois, as a constitutional convention to form a "separate ecclesiastical structure in North America" for Anglican faithful distinct from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.[25][26] There the Partnership's executive committee approved a constitution and canons for the new Church which were to be submitted for formal adoption at the new Church's first Provincial Assembly.[25][27]

The members of the Common Cause Partnership at the founding of the ACNA were:

The Anglican Province of America participated in the Partnership until July 2008.

Inaugural assembly

On June 22, 2009, delegates of the ACNA's founding bodies met at St. Vincent's Cathedral in Bedford, Texas, for an inaugural provincial assembly to ratify its constitution and canons.[29] At this meeting a number of major steps were taken to officially establish the new province, including the election of Robert Duncan, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, as archbishop.[30][31][32]

Rick Warren, a leading American evangelical, and Metropolitan Jonah, leader of the Orthodox Church in America, addressed the audience. There were nine provinces in the Anglican Communion which sent official representatives to the assembly, namely the Church of the Province of West Africa, the Church of Nigeria, the Church of Uganda, the Anglican Church of Kenya, represented by Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, including Archbishop Gregory Venables, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Church of the Province of Myanmar, the Church of the Province of South East Asia and the Church of the Province of Rwanda.[30]

Other ecumenical observers included Bishop Walter Grundorf of the Anglican Province of America, Samuel Nafzger of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, and Bishop Kevin Vann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.

Leaders from three Anglican provinces, the Most Reverend John Chew of the Church of the Province of South East Asia, Archbishop Peter Jensen of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and Mouneer Anis, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, formally announced support for the ACNA.[33] From England, Bishop Wallace Benn and Archdeacon Michael Lawson sent greetings from the Church of England Evangelical Council.[33]

Withdrawal of the Anglican Mission

The Anglican Mission in the Americas was a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America and, at the same time, maintained its status as a mission of the Church of the Province of Rwanda. This "dual citizenship" was defined by protocol between the Province of Rwanda, the Anglican Mission, and the ACNA.[34]

However, in a May 18, 2010 communiqué, the Anglican Mission announced its decision to transition from full ACNA membership to "ministry partner" status, a designation provided for in the governing structure of the ACNA, and remain a part of the Rwandan province. Reasons cited for the change were that the "dual citizenship" model had caused "significant confusion within the Anglican Mission and the ACNA regarding membership in two provinces, and more importantly, is inconsistent with the Constitution and Canons of the Province of the Anglican Church in Rwanda".[35]

On December 20, 2011, Archbishop Duncan announced that, due to the resignation of the majority of Anglican Mission bishops from the Province of Rwanda on December 5, the Anglican Mission had lost its "ministry partner" status with the ACNA and that most of AMiA's bishops had lost their status in the ACNA's College of Bishops.[36] Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje of the Anglican Church of Rwanda and Archbishop Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America issued a Joint Communiqué on April 28, 2012, to address the future of the AMiA. Meanwhile, the House of the Bishops of Rwanda decided to establish the Missionary District in North America (PEARUSA) to pursue the same work in the United States. The AMiA members were given three alternatives: to join the PEARUSA, to join another Anglican jurisdiction through letters dimissory, or remain in the AMiA. A deadline of August 31, 2012, was established for the clergy and the congregations of the AMiA to decide their future.[37] In April 29, 2012, Archbishop Henri Isingoma expressed his official approval for the temporary admission of the AMiA at the Anglican Church of Congo until its future was clarified.[38] Bishop Chuck Murphy, of the AMiA, expressed his will that the fracture between the AMiA and the ACNA could be solved in an answer letter to Archbishop Duncan, on 8 September 2012.[39]

On August 14, 2014, it was announced the reopening of conversations between ACNA and AMiA "to discuss broken relationships, and to find ways that produce a faithful witness to Christ that has been undermined in the past." The meeting in which these conversations were started was attended by representatives of both ACNA and AMiA, including Archbishop Foley Beach and Bishop Philip Jones, who replaced Chuck Murphy on December 2013.[40]

Beliefs

In its Fundamental Declarations, the Anglican Church in North America declares itself part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, confessing Jesus Christ to be the only way to God the Father.[41] Consistent with this, it identifies the following seven elements as characteristic of the "Anglican Way" and essential for membership:

In addition to the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the ACNA has authorized the use of later versions, including the 1928 and 1979 editions produced by the Episcopal Church and the 1962 edition produced by the Anglican Church of Canada.[42] In 2013, the College of Bishops approved on a trial basis Texts for Common Prayer, a collection of liturgies made specifically for the Anglican Church in North America. Texts for Common Prayer includes morning prayer, evening prayer, the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, and an ordinal.[43] In 2014, the ACNA also approved a catechism for trial use, To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism.[44]

The ACNA has Anglo-Catholic, evangelical, and charismatic members and is considered to be more theologically conservative than the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.[45] The Church allows dioceses to decide if they will or will not ordain women as priests, although it does not permit women to become bishops.[32] Concerning marriage, it holds that it is between one man and one woman; therefore, it opposes same sex unions.[9][10] Concerning abortion and euthanasia, the ACNA holds a pro-life stance, proclaiming "all members and clergy are called to promote and respect the sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death".[46] The ACNA is associated with Anglicans for Life for promotion of the pro-life ministry.[47]

Structure

ACNA's provincial flag

The Anglican Church in North America is structured as a self-governing, multinational ecclesiastical province. The province's polity is described in its constitution and canon law. The basic level of organization is the local congregation. Each congregation is part of a diocese led by a bishop. Dioceses are self-governing bodies that operate according to their own diocesan canon law (as long as this is consistent with the provincial constitution), and they are able to leave the province at any time if they so choose.[48]

The ACNA is a conciliar church where both clergy and laity participate in church governance. Every five years, between 250 and 300 diocesan delegates meet as a representative body called the Provincial Assembly.[49] Each diocese is represented by its bishop, two clergy delegates, and two lay delegates. In addition, a diocese receives one additional clergy delegate and one additional lay delegate for every 1,000 constituents, calculated by average attendance at Sunday church services. Dioceses also send youth representatives between the ages of 16 and 26, and these representatives have full voting rights. The Provincial Assembly must approve all constitutional amendments and new canons before they go into effect. Other duties of the assembly include deliberating on church affairs and making recommendations to the provincial governing bodies on such matters.[50]

The ACNA's governing body is the Provincial Council. The council meets every June and is responsible for enacting policy, approving a budget, and recommending changes to the constitution and canons. Each diocese selects a bishop, a clergy member, and two lay persons to represent it on the council. The council itself may also appoint up to six other persons as members, bringing the total number to around 140 members. Council members serve five year terms. The Provincial Council is led by an executive committee, which sets the council's agenda and serves as the church's board of directors. The executive committee's 12 members are divided equally between clergy and laity. In addition to meeting three times a year in person, they communicate regularly by conference call.[51][49]

All bishops in active ministry are members of the College of Bishops. The college elects the archbishop, the presiding officer of the Church, who convenes the Provincial Assembly, the Provincial Council, and the College of Bishops. The college also has authority to approve diocesan elections of bishops, or in some cases actually elect bishops. There are 50 active bishops sitting in the college. The archbishop has a cabinet composed of leading bishops within the church which functions as a council of advice.[52] The Provincial Tribunal is an ecclesiastical court empowered to rule on constitutional and canonical disputes.

Local congregations hold their own property and the province disavows any claim on the property of local congregations. Existing property-holding arrangements within the founding member entities are not affected by their relation to the province. The province also disavows any authority to control the member entities' policies regarding the question of the ordination of women as deacons or priests.

The constitution and canons specify that other non-member groups (such as a seminary, monastic order or ministry organization, or a diocese, congregation or other entity) may be considered for association as ministry partners.[53] Ministry partners may have representation in provincial and sub-provincial bodies as determined by the archbishop or bishop with jurisdiction. Ministry partners may withdraw from affiliation or have their affiliation ended with or without cause. ACNA affiliated ministries include Anglican Global Mission Partners (a missionary organization), Anglican Relief and Development Fund, and Anglican 1000 (a church planting initiative).

Dioceses

The Anglican Church in North America is organized into the following 30 dioceses:[54]

  1. Missionary Diocese of All Saints
  2. Special Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy
  3. Anglican Network in Canada
  4. Diocese of the Carolinas
  5. Diocese of Cascadia
  6. REC Diocese of the Central States
  7. Anglican Diocese of Christ Our Hope[55][56]
  8. Missionary Diocese of CANA East
  9. Diocese of Fort Worth
  10. Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes (Not to be confused with the older Diocese of the Great Lakes, an autonomous Continuing Anglican jurisdiction.)
  11. Gulf Atlantic Diocese
  12. International Diocese
  13. REC Diocese of Mid-America
  14. Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic
  15. Anglican Diocese in New England
  16. REC Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
  17. Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh
  18. Anglican Diocese of the Rocky Mountains[55][56]
  19. Diocese of Quincy
  20. Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others
  21. Diocese of San Joaquin
  22. Anglican Diocese of the South
  23. REC Diocese of the Southeast
  24. Anglican Diocese of the Southwest
  25. CANA Missionary Diocese of the Trinity
  26. Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest
  27. Missionary Diocese of CANA West
  28. Diocese of Western Anglicans
  29. REC Diocese of Western Canada and Alaska (includes the Missionary District of Cuba)
  30. Anglican Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast

PEARUSA was a missionary district with equivalent status to a diocese. Upon the unanimous vote of ACNA's Provincial Council on 21 June 2016, PEARUSA was fully transferred to ACNA with two of the three former PEARUSA networks [Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, West] becoming full ACNA dioceses known respectively as the Anglican Diocese of Christ Our Hope and the Anglican Diocese of the Rocky Mountains.[55][56] The former PEARUSA Southeast network did not become a full, separate ACNA diocese. According to a decision that had been reached at their clergy meeting and released on 8 February 2016,[57] the 20 parishes of PEARUSA Southeast has folded into the already existing ACNA dioceses. This has raised ACNA number of dioceses to 30.[58]

The Reformed Episcopal Diocese of the West became a convocation at the Missionary Diocese of All Saints, in April 2016, due to their small size.

A unique aspect of ACNA polity is the possibility that a diocese or group of dioceses may be under the dual jurisdiction of the ACNA and a province of the Anglican Communion. The dioceses of Quincy, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, and Fort Worth were formed when majority factions in the corresponding dioceses of the Episcopal Church voted to secede from that body in order to align themselves with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. The Anglican Mission, a founding member of the ACNA but later a ministry partner, until December 2011, during its membership possessed "dual citizenship" with the ACNA and the Church of the Province of Rwanda.

Statistics

The Anglican Church in North America has grown since its founding. In June 2009, the church had 703 congregations and an average Sunday attendance of 69,167.[59][60] It experienced a set back in 2010 when the Anglican Mission in the Americas ceased being a full member of the province. In June of that year, member congregations fell to 614.[61]

As of June 2014, the church had 983 congregations with a reported membership of 97,444 and a reported average attendance of 70,811. Because some congregations did not report any membership data, the ACNA released projections of membership and average attendance data as well. The projected membership was 112,504, and the projected average attendance was 80,471.[62]

Ecumenical relations

Anglican churches

The ACNA's constitution expresses the goal to seek recognition as a province of the Anglican Communion.[63] A total of nine Anglican provinces sent formal delegations to the inaugural assembly.[33] The Anglican Church in North America has not yet requested formal recognition by the Anglican Communion office as a province recognized by the Anglican instruments of communion. The office of the Archbishop of Canterbury has said it would possibly take years for the ACNA to gain official recognition from the rest of the Anglican Communion.[25]

ACNA's relations are not friendly with the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada, despite the presence of theologically conservative Anglicans in both churches. Many ACNA parishes, bishops, and other clergy were originally members of these churches. The re-alignment process has seen both sides charge each other with heresy and schism.[64] In several cases there have been protracted legal disputes over church property (for example, when the ACNA's Diocese of Fort Worth split from the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Fort Worth), with some of these lawsuits continuing for years.

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans primates' council has said that the new church is "fully Anglican" and called for its recognition by existing provinces of the Anglican Communion.[65] Archbishop Robert Duncan was present at the Global South Fourth Encounter that took place in Singapore, from 19 to 23 April 2010, where he presided at the Eucharist and met primates and representatives from 20 Anglican provinces. The Global South Encounter final statement declared: "We are grateful that the recently formed Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a faithful expression of Anglicanism. We welcomed them as partners in the Gospel and our hope is that all provinces will be in full communion with the clergy and people of the ACNA and the Communion Partners."[66]

In March 2009, the Anglican Church of Nigeria declared itself to be in full communion with the Anglican Church in North America,[67] followed by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Uganda in June 2009 and the Episcopal Church of Sudan in December 2011.[68][69] Inasmuch as these churches report approximately 30,500,000 members,[70][71] and the Anglican Communion reports over 80,000,000 members,[72] the ACNA is in communion with churches comprising somewhat over one-third of the membership of the Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Diocese of Sydney passed on the final day of its 2009 synod a resolution welcoming the creation of the ACNA and expressing a desire to be in full communion.[73] The resolution also called for the diocese's standing committee to seek a general synod motion affirming the Anglican Church of Australia to be in full communion with the ACNA. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney declared itself to be in "full communion" with ACNA during its synod on 13 October 2015.[74]

In 2010, the General Synod of the Church of England affirmed "the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family" and called upon the archbishops of Canterbury and York to report back to the synod after further study in 2011.[75][76] Published in December 2011, the archbishops' follow up report recommended "an open-ended engagement with ACNA on the part of the Church of England and the Communion" but also stated that a definitive outcome would be unclear for sometime.[77][78]

Archbishop Robert Duncan met following his invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in May 2013, to discuss the recognition of the ACNA ordinations in the near future.[79] Welby announced on 16 January 2014 that Tory Baucum, Rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia, a parish of the ACNA, had been elected unanimously to serve as one of the Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral.[80] Baucum was installed on 14 March 2014, attended by both Justin Welby and Robert Duncan.[81] In October 2014, Welby stated that Tory Baucum had been ordained before ACNA's inception and because of that his Anglican orders were valid, so he was eligible to be elected to that office. He further stated that ACNA was a separate church and not part of the Anglican Communion.[82]

In October 2014 the Diocese of North West Australia passed a motion recognizing the ACNA as a "member church of the Anglican Communion".[83]

On 9 October 2014, following the ceremony of investiture of Foley Beach as archbishop and primate of ACNA, an official statement, which recognized Beach as "a fellow Primate of the Anglican Communion", was signed by the seven Anglican archbishops present: Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Eliud Wabukala of Kenya, Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria, Stanley Ntagali of Uganda, Onesphore Rwaje of Rwanda, Stephen Than Myint Oo of Myanmar, and Héctor "Tito" Zavala of the Southern Cone of America.[84][85]

The ACNA and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, which withdrew from the Episcopal Church in October 2012 and is under the provisional primatial oversight of the Global South, held a two-day meeting on 28–29 April 2015 at St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center in South Carolina for conversations and examining the "possible compatibility of the ecclesiologies" of both churches.[86] The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina Affiliation Task Force recommended the affiliation to the ACNA at their 225th Diocesan Convention, held in Bluffton, at 12 March 2016. The affiliation would have to be approved by two future conventions of the diocese.[87]

At a meeting of the Anglican Primates of the Global South (a coalition representing the majority of the world's Anglicans) on 14–16 October 2015 in Cairo, Egypt, ACNA was declared to be an official partner province of the Global South by representatives of 12 churches, with Archbishop Beach being seated as a member of the Global South Primates Council with voice and vote.[88]

Despite the ACNA not being recognized as a province of the Anglican Communion, Welby invited Beach to attend a gathering of primates in the communion in January 2016.[5][6][89] While not permitted to vote, Beach was allowed to attend the first four days of the five-day session.[6][90] The prospect of the ACNA joining the communion was discussed and it was recognized that if the ACNA were to apply for admission to membership in the communion, the consideration of their application would be within the purview of the Anglican Consultative Council.[6][89]

Other churches

At the ACNA's inaugural assembly in June 2009, Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America, while recognizing theological differences, said that he was "seeking an ecumenical restoration" between Orthodox and Anglicans in the United States.[91] An agreement was announced between Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and Nashotah House, an Anglican seminary, to guide ecumenical relationships and "new dialogue" between the two churches.[91] Archbishop Foley Beach met Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, Chairman of the Department of External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, at an ecumenical meeting that took place at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, New York, on 8 November 2014. The main purpose of the meeting was the prosecution of the Anglican and Orthodox dialogue in the United States and other parts of the world. Metropolitan Tikhon of the Orthodox Church in America was also present and invited Archbishop Foley Beach to the Orthodox All-American Council, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia, in July 2015.[92] At the invitation of Patriarch Kirill, Archbishop Beach led a nine-member ACNA delegation to Moscow, Russia, to participate in formal ecumenical meetings with the Russian Orthodox Church. The delegation met Metropolitan Hilarion and was officially received by Patriarch Kirill on 23 August 2015. Both churches expressed their desire to develop and deepen the ecumenical relationships between Orthodox and faithful Anglicans through the world. Archbishop Beach delivered a letter of greeting from Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Archbishop of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON.[93] The ACNA is about to start ecumenical relationships with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, due to the mediation of Greek Orthodox Bishop Kyrillos Katerelos.[94]

The ACNA representatives had a meeting with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, during his visit to the United States, on 23 October 2015, during which he was presented with a letter of Bishop Todd Hunter, welcoming him and celebrating the recent ecumenical dialogue held between Anglican and Coptic Orthodox churches.[95] Pope Tawadros II met Archbishop Foley Beach and Bishop Charlie Masters, of ACNA, during his meeting with several Global South representatives, in Cairo, in November 2015.[96]

The ACNA established dialogue with several Lutheran groups. In March 2010, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod announced that it and the ACNA would hold discussions to "explore dialogue". The ACNA is the first non-Lutheran denomination to enter into any sort of dialogue with LCMS.[97] The ACNA has approved a request from the North American Lutheran Church to share clergy where there are vacancies. In addition, there is a Lutheran group which has requested to be admitted into the ACNA as a diocese.[98]

It was held a "Marriage Summit", in Dallas, Texas, from 3 to 5 May 2013, with representatives of ACNA and three Lutheran denominations, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Lutheran Church-Canada and the North American Lutheran Church, which resulted in an official joint document, "An Affirmation of Marriage", approved by the heads of all the four church bodies and described as "a strong example of biblical ecumenicism at work", defining the divine nature of "marriage to be the life-long union of one man and one woman".[99]

The ACNA has held three ecumenical dialogue meetings with the Polish National Catholic Church, being the most recent at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Snows, in Belleville, Illinois, at 15–16 July 2013.[100]

The ACNA has been involved with evangelical movements such as the Lausanne Conference on World Evangelism and has observer status with the National Association of Evangelicals. It has also established dialogue with the Charismatic Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Assemblies of God USA and the United Methodist Church.[101] The ACNA is also partnering with Messianic Jewish groups.[98]

The ACNA has established friendly ecumenical relationships with the Roman Catholic Church. The RCC was represented by Bishop Kevin Vann at their inaugural Provincial Assembly, in Bedford, Texas, on 22 June 2009. In October 2009, ACNA's leadership reacted to the Roman Catholic Church's proposed creation of personal ordinariates for disaffected traditionalist Anglicans by stating that although they believe that this provision will not be utilized by the great majority of its laity and clergy, they will happily bless those who are drawn to participate in this proposal.[102] The ACNA expressed his support for the RCC in her opposition to the HHS mandate, with Archbishop Robert Duncan being one of the signatories of the statement of the Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, representing 26 Christian denominations, on 13 April 2012.[103] Archbishop Duncan and Bishop Ray Sutton were also invited to the weekly private audience by Pope Benedict XVI, which took place in Rome, on 28 November 2012, whom they meet and greet afterwards on behalf of the ACNA and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.[104] The ACNA Provincial Assembly, which reunited more than 900 participants, and their College of Bishops conclave, which elected Foley Beach as the second Archbishop of the province, took place at the Roman Catholic Benedictine St. Vincent Archabbey Basilica, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from 19–21 June 2014, due to the kind permission of Archabbot Douglas Robert Nowicki, a personal friend of Archbishop Duncan.[105] Archbishop Wilton Daniel Gregory of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta offered Foley Beach an African-made crozier, which he used at his investiture ceremony, that took place at the Church of the Apostles, in Atlanta, Georgia, at 9 October 2014. Former Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America read at the ceremony a message by his personal friend Pope Francis, who sent Archbishop Foley Beach his "personal greetings and congratulations as he leads his church in the very important job of revival" and asked Archbishop Venables to embrace him on his behalf.[106][107]

Interfaith

In August 2010, the executive committee approved the creation of a task force on "Islam and interfaith engagement". Regarding the task force, Julian Dobbs, a member of the ACNA College of Bishops and Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, stated, "we need to undertake a prayerful, sensitive and honest approach to the issues involved".[108]

Archbishop Foley Beach and Bishop Charlie Masters, of ACNA, met the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, when he welcomed a delegation of several Global South representatives during their visit to Egypt in November 2015. Ahmed el-Tayeb expressed the "importance of the partnership and collegiality between religious leaders for the common good of humanity" and his solidarity with the Anglican realignment. He also stated that Christians and Muslims should be united in their opposition to the pressure for the acceptance of same-sex marriage and homosexual practise, specially in the western world.[109]

See also

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Provincial Meeting Journal (June 2014), Anglican Church in North America, p. 81. Accessed June 19, 2014.
  2. ↑ The Missionary District of Cuba, Diocese of Western Canada and Alaska Official Website
  3. ↑ "Member Churches". Anglican Communion Office. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  4. ↑ Brittain 2015, pp. 185–186: "On 3 October 2014, Archbishop [Justin] Welby was asked during an interview with the Irish Times Gazette to comment on the present relationship between the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and the Anglican Communion. He replied, 'Well, the ACNA is a separate church; it is not part of the Anglican Communion'. The interviewer, Canon Ian Ellis, then followed up by asking, 'Can it be in the Anglican Communion, or is that something for the future?' The Archbishop answered, 'Well, it's clearly for the future, because it's not part of the Communion.'"
  5. 1 2 Bernardelli, Giorgio (January 10, 2016). "Anglican primates hold meeting to avert schism". Vatican Insider. La Stampa. Turin. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Forget, André (January 20, 2016). "Hiltz: Despite controversy, Primates' Meeting a 'success'". Anglican Journal. Toronto. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  7. ↑ Anglican Church in North America (2009). Constitution and Canons. Article III.
  8. ↑ "About the Anglican Church in North America" (PDF). Anglican Church in North America. Anglican Church in North America. p. 3. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  9. 1 2 http://www.anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/1012
  10. 1 2 http://www.virtueonline.org/acna-archbishop-foley-beach-nixes-same-sex-marriage-blessings
  11. ↑ Staunton, Denis (2008-12-05). "Anglicans escalate split with plan for rival group". Irish Times. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
  12. ↑ Helfand, Duke (2008-12-04). "Conservatives who fled liberal views of Scripture have formed a breakaway church in North America". LA Times. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
  13. 1 2 Nowicki, Sue (2010-11-20). "Breakaway Anglican diocese wins appeal". LA Times. Archived from the original on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  14. ↑ ACNA: Our Genesis
  15. ↑ "BBC NEWS - Americas - US Church 'unfairly criticised'". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Gays among candidates for Episcopal bishops - Christian News on Christian Today". christiantoday.com. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "The Heresies of Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori - Virtueonline – The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism". virtueonline.org. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  18. ↑ http://www.sc-acn.net/images/61622/6-6-04CCLettertoABC.pdf
  19. ↑ Theological Statement and Articles of the Common Cause Partnership. Revised March 28, 2007. Accessed April 15, 2010.
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