North America: new Anglican Church in U.S. and Canada draws conservative dissenters

Richard Cimino
15 Dec 2008

The formation of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) in early December (still to be ratified in 2009) is seen as a fulfillment of a declaration signed in Jerusalem last summer by the same prelates calling for a new era of the Anglican Communion. The organizers of the denomination seek the approval of leaders in the global Anglican Communion as a separate yet connected “province” of the church. It is not known if the new church will ask the Archbishop of Canterbury to recognize the ACNA as an official member of the Anglican Communion.

But the idea is that the ACNA will serve as a non-geographical province for orthodox Anglican alongside the mainline Episcopal and Anglican bodies in the U.S. and Canada. Episcopal and some international Anglican leaders are likely to resist recognizing such a province, although there may likely be a gradual and defacto recognition by a segment of bishops, writes journalist David Virtue on his website Virtue Online.

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