Christianity Today: Conservative Anglicans Create Rival Church

Top leader Duncan expects to see Episcopal Church 'displaced.'
Timothy C. Morgan in Wheaton, Illinois
12/04/2008

In a history-making gesture, conservative evangelical Anglicans, deeply alienated over the decline of the U.S. denomination, sounded a shofar to herald the creation of the Anglican Church of North America.

On a snowy Wednesday evening, about 1,000 worshipers, mostly from the U.S. and Canada, gathered in Wheaton, Illinois, for a worship service to celebrate the creation of the new entity, which includes 656 congregations, 800 clergy, 30 bishops, and 100,000 people in regular worship. They represent evangelical, charismatic, and Anglo-Catholic traditions within Anglicanism.

During a pre-service press conference, Bob Duncan, the former Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh and now archbishop-designate for the new church, told news media that he expects the Episcopal Church (TEC) to continue in its decline and that in time, the new province will come to replace it.

He said, "The Lord is displacing the Episcopal Church." the rest