Denton TX: New ACNA congregation swings doors wide to offer ‘holy life’

 Sunday, June 12, 2011
By Lucinda Breeding

Excerpt:
That something became Holy Trinity Anglican Church, a local congregation that is organizing for a Sept. 11 launch.

McGee is a priest serving the Anglican Church in North America, a reform movement that emerged nearly 10 years ago, when theologically conservative parishes left the Anglican Communion after the denomination struggled with the ordination of women and contentious debates about the place of gays and lesbians within the church. The ordination of the Rev. Gene Robinson to bishop of New Hampshire was the theological straw that broke the camel’s back for conservative Episcopalians. Robinson is openly gay and for many conservative parishes, his ordination was the tipping point away from the Anglican Communion. It wasn’t until 2009, though, that the Anglican Church in North America was established formally to serve congregations in America and Canada.

The new denomination hasn’t settled the issues that caused it to leave the Episcopal Church. On the denominational website, church officials have posted the body’s resolution on women and priesthood, a document that explains the steps leaders will take in studying the issue of women’s ordination.

For the vicar and his parishioners, the new Denton congregation is a touchstone for seekers, Anglicans and disaffected Christians who crave a religious community with a deep tradition and a call to live what McGee calls “a holy life.” the rest