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Anglican realignment |
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The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate [note 1] man, [2] as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure. [3]
The current realignment movement differs from previous ones in that some Anglicans are seeking to establish different ecclesiastical arrangements within the Anglican Communion rather than separating themselves from it; and, other Anglicans that had previously separated are being gathered into the new realignment structures along with those who were never Anglican/Episcopalian before. Some Anglican provinces, particularly in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and the Southern Cone of South America, are seeking to accommodate them. [4] A number of parishes that are part of the realignment have severed ties with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada and associated themselves with bishops from these other national Anglican provinces. Some other American dioceses and parishes (approximately 800 out of some 7,000 Episcopal Church parishes[ citation needed ]) still officially remain within those two provinces whilst exploring their future options.
The conventions of four dioceses of the Episcopal Church voted in 2007 and 2008 to leave that church and to join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America. Twelve other jurisdictions, serving an estimated 100,000 persons at that time, formed the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) on December 3–4, 2008. ACNA is seeking official recognition as a province within the Anglican Communion. [5] The Anglican Church of Nigeria declared itself in communion with the new church in March 2009 and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans has recognized it as well. [6] [7] In June 2009, the Anglican Church of Uganda also declared itself in full communion with ACNA, and the Anglican Church of Sudan followed suit in December 2011. [8] [9]
The movement that involves secession from local dioceses or provinces and yet seeks to remain within the Anglican Communion has been criticised by opponents who claim that, under historic Anglican polity, such a move is not possible. The concept of alternative episcopal oversight first arose a generation ago with the debate over the ordination of women. At that time, the movement manifested itself as an effort to accommodate conservative parishes and dioceses that did not want to accept the authority of women consecrated as bishops or bishops who ordained women, by providing pastoral oversight from a bishop who shared their conservative theology. The most thoroughly developed example of this involved the appointment of provincial episcopal visitors in the Church of England, beginning in 1994, who attend to the pastoral needs of parishes and clergy who do not recognise that holy orders can or should be conferred on women. The movement continues today primarily because of a very similar controversy regarding gay and lesbian members of the church, particularly the church's role in same-sex marriage and the ordination of homosexual clergy.
Under canon law a diocese and a province have geographical boundaries and no other diocese or province can exercise jurisdiction within those boundaries. If the Anglican realignment movement succeeds, some dioceses will be defined by a common theological perspective: thus, a geographically distinct area may have multiple Anglican dioceses recognized by the Anglican Communion.
Since 1785, there have been disputes within the Episcopal Church that have led to departures of clergy and congregations. An early and notable example is King's Chapel, a historic church in Boston that was Anglican when founded in 1686. A century later, in 1785, a clergyman with Unitarian ideas took his congregation and formed an independent Unitarian church. [10] To this day, King's Chapel believes itself to be both a Unitarian church and an extramural Anglican church as it uniquely uses the Book of Common Prayer According to the Use in King's Chapel in its worship. [11]
In Canada, the first rupture with the incipient national church came in 1871, with the departure of the dean of the Diocese of British Columbia, Edward Cridge, and many of the congregation of Christ Church Cathedral over the issue of ritualism. Cridge and his followers founded a church under the auspices of the US-based Reformed Episcopal Church and continued to use the Book of Common Prayer .
For the most part, extramural Anglican churches are linked by the common use of forms of the Book of Common Prayer in worship. Like the example of King's Chapel, some use unique or historical versions. Over the years, various parallel Anglican denominations have broken with Anglican Communion churches over many, sometimes transient, issues.
Initial developments for the Anglican realignment started through the progressive tendencies of the Lambeth Conference. Beginning with the Lambeth Conferences, international Anglicanism has wrestled with matters of doctrine, polity, and liturgy in order to achieve consensus, or at least tolerance, between diverse viewpoints. Throughout the twentieth century, this led to Lambeth resolutions allowing for contraception and divorce, denouncing capital punishment, and recognising the autonomy of provinces in the ordination of women to the diaconate and priesthood. Despite the determination of the 1897 conference that communion provinces were autonomous and that no other province had jurisdiction within another, some provinces have sought to associate with others. Although Lambeth had not indicated support for the ordination of women to the priesthood at the time, some provinces began ordaining women to this order before Lambeth reconsidered the matter in 1978, just as some provinces have begun consecrating women bishops although there is likewise no international consensus.
The ordination of women priests in the United States in 1976 led to the founding of the Continuing Anglican Movement in 1977. Its Affirmation of St. Louis declared the ordination of women (by the Episcopal Church in the US and the Anglican Church of Canada) to be a matter of schism and to have caused a break with apostolic succession. The "Anglican Continuum", therefore, saw itself as perpetuating (i.e. continuing) the line of valid ordination considered essential to Anglicanism. In 1992, the Episcopal Missionary Church was established after its leaders first attempted to reform ECUSA from within. It is usually considered to have joined the Continuing Anglican Movement. Unlike the Anglican realignment movement, the churches of the Anglican Continuum do not seek to be accepted into the Anglican Communion.
Further developments within Anglicanism led the province of Rwanda, along with the province of Southeast Asia, to form the Anglican Mission in America (now called the Anglican Mission in the Americas) as a mission jurisdiction.
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The Anglican Communion Network currently lists ten dioceses of The Episcopal Church as members. [139] Five dioceses remain affiliated with TEC:
Four dioceses have declared independence from TEC and claimed membership in the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. None of these was listed by the Anglican Communion office as being part of the Province of the Southern Cone. They joined the Anglican Church in North America as founding dioceses in June 2009 [140]
The Diocese of South Carolina disassociated itself from the national Episcopal Church on October 17, 2012, and called a diocesan convention for November 17 to "iron out the necessary changes to our Canons and Constitution, and begin to discern the best way forward into a new Anglican future." [141] On August 22, 2014, they were accepted into the Global South on an interim basis. On March 10, 2017, the Diocese announced its intent to join the Anglican Church in North America.
There are a number of other Episcopal / Anglican churches in the United States and Canada. Those that play a role in the Anglican realignment debate are listed in the next section:
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The traditional origins of Anglican doctrine are summarised in the Thirty-nine Articles (1571). The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, recognised as primus inter pares, but does not exercise authority in Anglican provinces outside of the Church of England. Most, but not all, member churches of the communion are the historic national or regional Anglican churches.
The Church of Ireland is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second-largest Christian church on the island after the Roman Catholic Church. Like other Anglican churches, it has retained elements of pre-Reformation practice, notably its episcopal polity, while rejecting the primacy of the pope.
The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership, after the Church of England. In 2016 it stated that its membership was “over 18 million", out of a total Nigerian population of 190 million. It is "effectively the largest province in the Communion." As measured by active membership, the Church of Nigeria has nearly 2 million active baptised members. According to a study published by Cambridge University Press in the Journal of Anglican Studies, there are between 4.94 and 11.74 million Anglicans in Nigeria. The Church of Nigeria is the largest Anglican province on the continent of Africa, accounting for 41.7% of Anglicans in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is "probably the first [largest within the Anglican Communion] in terms of active members."
Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." In 2017, clergy within the Church of England indicated their inclination towards supporting same-sex marriage by dismissing a bishops' report that explicitly asserted the exclusivity of church weddings to unions between a man and a woman. At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition. In 2023, the Church of England announced that it would authorise "prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and for God's blessing for same-sex couples."
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history since the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788, the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.
The Church of the Province of West Africa is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 17 dioceses in eight countries of West Africa, specifically in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ghana is the country with most dioceses, now numbering 11.
The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, formerly the Church of the Province of New Zealand, is a province of the Anglican Communion serving New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. Since 1992 the church has consisted of three tikanga or cultural streams: Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia. The church's constitution says that, among other things, it is required to "maintain the right of every person to choose any particular cultural expression of the faith". As a result, the church's General Synod has agreed upon the development of the three-person primacy based on this three tikanga system; it has three primates, each representing a tikanga, who share authority.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are located in South Africa, and one each in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Saint Helena. In South Africa, there are between 3 and 4 million Anglicans out of an estimated population of 45 million.
The Anglican Church of South America is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, formerly known as the Episcopal Church of Sudan, is a province of the Anglican Communion located in South Sudan. The province consists of eight Internal Provinces and 61 dioceses. The current archbishop and primate is Justin Badi Arama. It received the current naming after the inception of the Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, on 30 July 2017.
The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) is a province of the Anglican Communion, and it is composed by 41 dioceses. The current Leader and Archbishop of Kenya is Jackson Ole Sapit. The Anglican Church of Kenya claims 5 million total members. According to a study published in the Journal of Anglican Studies and by Cambridge University Press, the ACK claims 5 million adherents, with no official definition of membership, with nearly 2 million officially affiliated members, and 310,000 active baptised members. The church became part of the Province of East Africa in 1960, but Kenya and Tanzania were divided into separate provinces in 1970.
The Church of Nigeria North American Mission (CONNAM) is a missionary body of the Church of Nigeria (CON). It has been in a ministry partnership with the Anglican Church in North America but no longer affiliated with it beyond mutual membership in GAFCON. Founded in 2005 as the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, it was composed primarily of churches that have disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). CANA was initially a missionary initiative of the Anglican Church of Nigeria for Nigerians living in the United States. It joined several other church bodies in the formation of the Anglican Church in North America in 2009. In 2019, the dual jurisdiction arrangement with the ACNA came to an end, and CANA was reformed as CONNAM, with a special focus on serving Nigerian-American Anglican churches in North America.
The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), formerly known as Global South (Anglican), is a communion of 25 Anglican churches, of which 22 are provinces of the Anglican Communion, plus the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Church in Brazil. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is also officially listed as a member.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 977 congregations and 124,999 members in 2022. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.
The Anglican Church of Rwanda is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 13 dioceses in Rwanda. The primate of the province is Laurent Mbanda, consecrated on 10 June 2018.
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the Anglican Communion, the rise of secularism, as well as concerns with HIV/AIDS and poverty. As a result of the conference, the Jerusalem Declaration was issued and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was created. The conference participants also called for the creation of the Anglican Church in North America as an alternative to both the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada, and declared that recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury is not necessary to Anglican identity.
The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is a communion of conservative Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative Anglicans met in 2008 at the Global Anglican Future Conference, creating the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), which was rebranded as GAFCON in 2017.
Foley Thomas Beach is an American bishop. He is the second primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, a church associated with the Anglican realignment movement. Foley was elected as the church's primate on June 21, 2014. His enthronement took place on October 9, 2014. He is married to Alison and they have two adult children.
Andrew John Lines is a British Anglican bishop. Since June 2017, he has been the Missionary Bishop to Europe of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a province outside the Anglican Communion. In 2020, he became the first presiding bishop of the Anglican Network in Europe, a "proto-province" recognized by the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. Since 2000, he has been Mission Director and CEO of Crosslinks. He is also the chairman of the executive committee of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), the missionary arm of GAFCON in England. In June 2017, it was announced that he would be made a bishop for ACNA and GAFCON; he was consecrated on 30 June 2017.
The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) is a small Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition with churches in Europe. Formed as part of the worldwide Anglican realignment, it is a member jurisdiction of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) and is under the primatial oversight of the chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council. ANiE runs in parallel with the Free Church of England (RECUK). GAFCON recognizes ANiE as a "proto-province" operating separately from the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and other Anglican Communion jurisdictions in Great Britain and the European continent. ANiE is the body hierarchically above the preexisting Anglican Mission in England; the former is the equivalent of a province whilst the latter is a convocation, the equivalent of a diocese.
He [Robinson] is alone in being the only gay partnered bishop who's open about that status.
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