On the formation of the Anglican Church in North America
by David Anderson
American Anglican News
December 7th, 2008
Beloved in Christ,
There is very positive news coming out of Chicago this week: the launch of the new Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as an outgrowth of the Common Cause Partnership, which will keep everyone watching for further developments. Numerous planned meetings of Primates in smaller and larger groups, sometimes with the Archbishop of Canterbury and sometimes not, and together with laity in Jamaica as the Anglican Consultative Council, will be occurring over the next six months, guaranteeing that the issues brought forward by GAFCON, the formation of the GAFCON Primates’ Council, and now ACNA, will stay in the center of attention for some time to come.
The launch of the new Anglican Church in North America, an outgrowth of the Common Cause Partners Federation, has been positioned such that there is reasonable hope that Primates of the Anglican Communion, perhaps beginning with the GAFCON Primates’ Council, might begin to recognize the entity as a province in the Anglican Communion. The Jerusalem gathering of GAFCON gave a call for such a new province to be formed, and the approval of a provisional Constitution and Canons of the ACNA is seen as the beginning of this process.
The formation of ACNA, which is a coming together of Anglican judicatories under an Archbishop, leaves two of its sponsoring organizations in a here-and-there position. Both Forward In Faith-North America (FIFNA) and the American Anglican Council (AAC) are advocacy and affinity organizations that overlay actual ecclesial judicatories, and although both are presently headed by bishops, the bishops and the members are all embedded in separate actual church structures.
Since its inception in 1996, the AAC has worked for reform and renewal in the church. At first it was limited to reform and renewal in the Episcopal Church (previously referred to as ECUSA, and now more recently as TEC), but considering the theological troubles of the last five or so years, the AAC has broadened its scope to the entire Anglican Communion, since these are finally Anglican Communion issues.
Presently a fair number of our AAC Board of Trustees, parish affiliates and general membership of individual lay and clergy are in still in TEC, and some will most likely remain in TEC for the foreseeable future. The ministry and work of the AAC is built to encompass their needs as well as those who are not a part of TEC. Recently the AAC created a specific "Episcopal Church Desk" to handle the issues that were specific to TEC, provide a direct channel for questions and issues to be raised, and to
assist with planning for the AAC to have a presence at TEC’s General Convention in Anaheim this summer. Additionally the Vice President of the AAC, the Rt. Rev. Peter Beckwith, Diocesan Bishop of Springfield, will be the Bishop-liaison, having chaplaincy to the "Episcopal Desk."
Although the AAC is an original signatory to the Common Cause Partners document going back several years, it is in an unusual category because it is an advocacy organization that exercises a ministry of communication, education, ministry resource and parish advice and counsel and is not an ecclesial judicatory. Among the membership are bishops, priests, deacons and laity from a variety of Anglican affiliations, each of whom has an ecclesial home in an actual Anglican judicatory (parish, diocese, or denomination such as the Reformed Episcopal Church). The AAC’s co-sponsorship of the new hoped-for province does not automatically change anyone within the AAC’s membership. In time, the ACNA will expand as parishes and dioceses from all over have an opportunity to decide and enroll, but the AAC, as a ministry organization without an internal
ecclesial structure, does not obligate or move parishes or members into or out of TEC, into or out of Common Cause, or into or out of the new ACNA. Bishop Beckwith and myself and the other bishops on the AAC Board of Trustees do not have our episcopal orders through the AAC but are and will remain tied to the Anglican Provinces that hold our Letters. Some of our
AAC bishops and members who are in TEC might well remain in TEC for the long term, and those who are in other judicatories might do the same, or they might apply for membership with ACNA. In any event, the AAC will keep its distinct and separate life as an advocacy organization working for the reform and renewal of the church, both in TEC and in the entire Anglican Communion.
Because some TEC bishops are hostile to members or congregations joining or remaining a part of the AAC because of our clear stand against the increasing heterodoxy of the Episcopal Church, a new type of membership is available, called "In Pectore," which means in the heart. It will be an unpublished list of members who individually know that they are members,
and we know that they are, but no one else but God knows that. This list will be treated as Top Sacred, realizing the danger that is present for the orthodox today in many TEC dioceses.
Speaking of danger, however, is always relative, because as we receive more news of the slaughter of our brother and sister Anglicans in the Nigerian Diocese of Jos by Muslim activists, we are aware that lives and families and church communities are being shattered by genocide directed at those who believe in and follow Jesus. Pray for our Anglican family in Jos
and the surrounding areas. Pray also that the government will follow through and actually arrest the guilty and punish them instead of letting them go. Muslims killing Christians has to stop being acceptable by governments charged with keeping justice and peace.
The red doors on many Anglican churches in North America are a reminder that the blood of Jesus and the blood of the martyrs have purchased and maintained for us the faith and access to God our Father. We come to the Father through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and the faith is passed down to us and given to us by the faithful witness of those who give their life and blood for their faith in Jesus. May our Lord relieve their suffering, provide for their needs, and give them the courage to continue to stand, and may we be given the courage and faith to stand with them.
Blessings and peace in Christ Jesus,
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
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