Rival Anglican Body Approves Dioceses; Finalizes Plans

By Lillian Kwon|Christian Post Reporter

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A splinter group in Canada has been approved as a diocese in an emerging body of orthodox Anglicans in North America.

The Anglican Network in Canada – a group of Anglican parishes that broke from the Anglican Church of Canada over theological differences – is now one of 28 dioceses in a province that is still in formation.

Last week, Canadian and U.S. Anglican leaders who severed ties with The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – and the Anglican Church of Canada announced the approval of applications for 28 dioceses and dioceses-in-formation as part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

"It is a great encouragement to see the fruit of many years’ work," said the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, who is expected to head the ACNA, on Saturday. "Today 23 dioceses and five dioceses-in-formation joined together to reconstitute an orthodox, Biblical, missionary and united Church in North America."

The ACNA is an emerging province uniting around breakaway 700 parishes – representing 100,000 conservative Anglicans – in North America into a single church. The conservative leaders began forming the "separate ecclesiastical structure" in 2007 in an attempt to remain faithful to the global Anglican Communion, citing that the two existing North American bodies have departed from traditional Anglicanism and orthodox teaching.

The Episcopal Church had widened rifts in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion in 2003 when it consecrated the first openly gay bishop. Before that, the Anglican Church of Canada's Diocese of New Westminster stirred controversy when it sanctioned same-sex blessings.

The move for a new national Anglican province in an area where a national church already exists is unprecedented. While some have criticized it as a means for further division, disaffected Anglicans see it as a way of preserving unity in an already splintering communion.

Conservative bishops mainly from the Global South have formally recognized the ACNA as part of the Anglican Communion. Recognition from the rest of the global body, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, has not yet been given.

Plans for the launch of the ACNA have been finalized and an inaugural provincial assembly has been scheduled for June 22-25 in Bedford, Texas.

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mlreader »

Tue May 05, 2009 4:28 pm Agree: 0 Disagree: 0

thanks st. john. good to know.
St. John »

Sat May 02, 2009 8:48 pm Agree: 0 Disagree: 0

mlreader, no, the Province of Nigeria is not the largest in the Anglican Communion. Though they are large, they are also a young church, and troubled with a variety of issues. Still the Church of England, for example, is twice as large. The conservatives in the Anglican Communion remain a small, but divisive group, that has lost power and influence in the last few years, leading them to desperate and independent actions, outside the Anglican Communion, though they like to think otherwise.
mlreader »

Sat May 02, 2009 4:58 pm Agree: 0 Disagree: 0

Isn't the province of Nigeria the biggest in the communion?
St. John »

Sat May 02, 2009 2:11 pm Agree: 0 Disagree: 0

mlready, also note that the Province of the Southern Cone, which extends over six countries in South America, is one of the smallest Anglican Provinces, while The Episcopal Church (of America) has congregations in 10 countries and has 100 times the membership, not the members the Canadian Anglican Church, which again has about 100 times the membership!
St. John »

Sat May 02, 2009 2:06 pm Agree: 0 Disagree: 0

mlreader, this group does not seem to have the backing of the rest of the Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury has consistently not acted in the manner they wished, so they have talked about ignoring him. The Lambeth Conference of Bishops last year was not what they wanted so a small number of them chose not to come in protest. The Anglican Consultative Council vote three years ago was 34-32 to ask the Canadians and Americans to withdraw for one cycle of meetings, and this vote was accomplished only with the voluntary withdrawal of the Canadians and Americans prior to the vote, or the vote would have gone the other way. The ACC meets again this summer, but the mood has switched as the Canadians and Americans have kept to the Windsor recommendations, while the conservatives have refused to abide by them as far as they were concerned in a self-righteous manner that has lost them support.
mlreader »

Sat May 02, 2009 11:06 am Agree: 0 Disagree: 0

St. John,

They may be small in the U.S. but they have the support of much of the rest of the Anglican Communion don't they? The global south Anglicans outnumber other provinces and they're fully backing, actually they're the ones who encouraged this break.
So for the the worldwide Anglican Communion, this doesn't seem insignificant.
St. John »

Sat May 02, 2009 7:38 am Agree: 0 Disagree: 0

This group, with even its most exaggerated numbers, represents less than 3% of the current size of the Episcopal Church in the US and the Anglican Church in Canada, and gets 98% of the press coverage. They also include the surviving remnants of groups that split off from the Anglican churches in North America in the 1970's over women's ordination AND in the 1870's over broad church tendencies. Some will view them as a faithful remnant, but they are insignificant in reality.
FlaGator »

Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:49 pm Agree: 3 Disagree: 0

The Global South and the majority of the Southern Cone are a lot closer to real Christianity than the current incarnations of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. Perhaps it is TEC and ACC who should leave since they are the ones who are rewriting sacred scripture in order to faciliate their heretical agenda. The Anglican Communion would be a lot more unified with out them.
MickeyC »

Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:44 am Agree: 5 Disagree: 5

Flagged as inappropriate. show It is high that the Anglican communion be dissolved. It was a construct of the 1930s to include groups barely recognizable as Anglican. It's time to cut this "Global South" nonsense out the let them go their own way like so many schismatic groups have done. hide

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