Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy

Last updated
Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy
Special Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy Seal.png
Location
Ecclesiastical province Anglican Church in North America
Statistics
Parishes10 [1]
Members222 [1]
Information
Rite Anglican
Current leadership
Bishop Derek Jones (diocesan)
Mark Nordstrom, Michael Williams (suffragan)
Website
Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy Official Website

The Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC) is a jurisdiction that provides canonical residence for all chaplains requiring professional ecclesiastical endorsement for the Anglican Church in North America, for the Church of Nigeria North American Mission and other Anglican groups. With more than 300 chaplains as of 2024, 187 of them serving as active-duty military chaplains, the JAFC is the principal endorser of Anglican military chaplains in the United States. [2]

Contents

History

The JAFC was created in 2007 as the Deanery of the Chaplaincy as part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), later becoming the Diocese of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy of the Church of Nigeria in September 2011. When provisions for a "Special Jurisdiction" in the ACNA canons was created in June 2014, the Diocese of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy, renamed the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC) in 2013, and by a protocol agreement between the Church of Nigeria and the ACNA, became the entity fulfilling the canonical role of the "Special" Jurisdiction for the ACNA, but remains a diocese of the Church of Nigeria. Just as other cooperative diocesan entities of the ACNA, the JAFC remains its own ministry corporately formed in the State of Alabama and is a 501(c)(3) organization. The founding bishop and first bishop of the JAFC is Derek Jones, affirmed unanimously at the Chaplains' first Convocation held in Orlando, FL in 2007. [3] He remains a bishop of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and the ACNA.

Purpose

The JAFC, as the Special Jurisdiction for the ACNA, supports the endorsement and care of chaplains serving in the United States Armed Forces, with federal and local governments, hospitals, law enforcement and other professional chaplaincies requiring formal ecclesiastical endorsement. There are currently 39 chaplain-led parishes in the United States and abroad (Guatemala, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan). [4] The JAFC is also partnered with other ministries to help with their mission.

Leadership

The JAFC elected on 11 January 2018 two new suffragan bishops, Michael Williams and Mark Nordstrom. Bishop Nordstrom had been Vicar General of the Diocese since the previous year. [5] Bishop Williams served as the Archdeacon of the JAFC prior to his consecration. The new bishops' consecration took place on 12 April 2018, at St. Peter's Anglican Church, in Mountain Brook, Alabama. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of Nigeria</span> Nigerian Anglican church

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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity School for Ministry</span>

Trinity School for Ministry (TSM), formerly known as Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, is an Anglican seminary in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. It is generally associated with evangelical Anglicanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Missionary Church</span>

The Episcopal Missionary Church (EMC) is a Continuing Anglican church body in the United States and a member of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas.

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 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 man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Church in the Philippines</span> Ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion

The Episcopal Church in the Philippines is a province of the Anglican Communion comprising the country of the Philippines. It was established by the Episcopal Church of the United States in 1901 by American missionaries led by Charles Henry Brent, who served as the first resident bishop, when the Philippines was opened to Protestant American missionaries. It became an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion on May 1, 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Church in North America</span> Anglican realignment province

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth</span> Anglican diocese in the United States

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. The diocese comprises 56 congregations and its headquarters are in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America since June 2010. It has 42 congregations in the American states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It was previously the Anglican District of the Great Lakes of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, since August 2008, which was a founding diocese of the Anglican Church in North America in June 2009.

Roger Copeland Ames is an American Anglican priest. He is the first bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes in the Anglican Church in North America, after being a suffragan bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. He is married and has two adult children and three grandchildren.

The Anglican Diocese of All Nations is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America and formerly of the Church of Nigeria North American Mission. It was one of the four missionary dioceses of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, which was founded in 2005. As such, it had a dual church body of the ACNA and the Church of Nigeria in the United States, until May 2019. It comprises 35 parishes in 11 American states, California, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Washington and in 3 Canadian provinces, Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The state with most parishes is Texas, with 14.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Lines</span> British Anglican bishop (born 1960)

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 Diocese of the Trinity (ADOTT) is a diocese of the Church of Nigeria and formerly of the Anglican Church in North America and a sub-jurisdiction of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). It is the first missionary diocese of CANA launched by the Church of Nigeria in the United States and Canada, working as an evangelical church planting movement.

The Order of St Cuthbert is an international Anglican monastic order that follows a historic Celtic monastic tradition and rule, which is similar to that of a Franciscan rule. The order currently has monastics in the United States, Canada, and Nigeria. Intentionality and certain disciplines have long been recognized for their value in aiding sojourners along the way of a monastic life. Prayer, fasting, community, work, and study are mainstays of a life consecrated to Christ and His Church. These disciplines, intentionally practiced, form the rule by which the members of the order's lives are guided. The Order of Saint Cuthbert is an Anglican religious community that invites every Christian to live in the sacred life they have been called.

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.

Michael R. Williams is an American bishop of the Anglican Church in North America. A retired U.S. Air Force chaplain, he was consecrated in 2018 as bishop suffragan in the ACNA's Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Nordstrom</span> American bishop of the Anglican Church in North America

Mark Nordstrom is an American bishop of the Anglican Church in North America. A retired U.S. Army chaplain, he was consecrated in 2018 as bishop suffragan in the ACNA's Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Lowenfield</span> American Anglican bishop (born 1957)

Clark Wallace Paul Lowenfield is an American Anglican bishop. Since 2013, he has been the first diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast, which has jurisdiction in southeast Texas and Louisiana, in the Anglican Church in North America.

Felix Clarence Orji is a Nigerian-born American Anglican bishop. A former Episcopal priest who left the Episcopal Church as part of the Anglican realignment, Orji was consecrated a bishop in Nigeria in 2011 to serve the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Since 2013, he has been the diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of All Nations, which was a dual member of both the Church of Nigeria and the Anglican Church in North America from 2013 to 2019, a member of the Church of Nigeria North American Mission from 2019 to 2022, and a sole member of the ACNA since 2022.

Scott Andrew Seely is an American Anglican bishop. Consecrated in 2020 in the Church of Nigeria North American Mission (CONNAM), he currently serves as bishop suffragan of the Anglican Diocese of All Nations in the Anglican Church in North America.

References

  1. 1 2 "Congregational Reporting: 2022 in Review" (PDF). Anglican Church in North America. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  2. Walton, Jeffrey (March 7, 2024). "Episcopal Chaplains Sought for 'Identity-affirming Spiritual Care'". Juicy Ecumenism. Retrieved 13 March 2024. 'The Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, told the bishops that there are 104 Episcopal chaplains, including 94 in active military duty, seven ministering in Veterans Affairs, and three ministering in federal prisons. She emphasized the need to encourage vocations in military chaplaincy, particularly to ensure that LGBTQ+ service members have access to identity-affirming spiritual care.' To place these numbers in context, the Anglican Church in North America's Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (the endorsing agency and canonical residence for professional chaplains with the ACNA and other participating Anglican bodies) has more than 300 chaplains, of which 187 are active duty military. This is despite being a smaller denomination than the Episcopal Church as measured by membership.
  3. Special Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy, Provincial Report June 2015, Vancouver, British Columbia
  4. Chaplain Led Parishes at the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy Official Website
  5. Michael Williams elected Bishop in ACNA, Virtue Online, 12 January 2018
  6. Two Suffragan Bishops Consecrated, ACNA Official Website