Anglican Church in North America: new church or new province?

Leigh Anne Williams
staff writer
Dec 5, 2008

Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a coalition of conservative Anglicans in the U.S. and Canada, released a draft constitution on Dec. 3 for a new Anglican province that they propose would be defined by theology rather than a geographic location. Gathered in Wheaton, Ill., leaders of the partnership, which represents about 100,000 Anglicans (3,000 in Canada) – those who have left the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the U.S. largely over blessing same-sex unions and the ordination of an openly gay bishop – outlined their vision for the new Anglican Church in North America.

According to Bishop Robert Duncan, who led the diocese of Pittsburgh out of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and is the provisional leader of the new province, the future of this body may go further than being a parallel province operating in the same geographic regions as the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada; it may become a rival church. “I think what the Lord is doing is that the Lord is displacing the Episcopal Church,” Bishop Duncan said. “The Episcopal Church has been in extraordinary decline … over the last 50 years,” he added. “What we are focused on is our mission together. We are a body that is growing, that is planting new congregations, that’s concerned to be an authentic Christian presence in the U.S. and Canada.” the rest