Anglican Catholic Church

Anglican Catholic Church
Classification Continuing Anglican
Orientation Anglo-Catholic
Polity Episcopal
Associations Intercommunion with Anglican Province of Christ the King, United Episcopal Church of North America since 2007 and with the Diocese of the Holy Cross, Anglican Church in America, and the Anglican Province of America since 2017
Region United States, Canada, Latin America, United Kingdom, Haiti, Southern Africa, The Congo, South Sudan, and Colombia
Origin 1977
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Separated from the Episcopal Church in the United States and the
Anglican Church of Canada
Congregations 112
Members 10,000
Official website www.anglicancatholic.org

The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) is a body of Christians in the continuing Anglican movement, which is separate from the Anglican Communion centered on the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The continuing Anglican movement and the Anglican Catholic Church grew out of the 1977 Congress of St. Louis. The congress was held in response to the Episcopal Church's revision of the Book of Common Prayer, which organizers felt abandoned a true commitment to both scripture and historical Anglicanism.[1]

History

The decision to allow the ordination of women was one part of a larger theological position opposed by the congress. As a result of the congress, various Anglicans separated from the Episcopal Church and formed the "Anglican Catholic Church" in order to continue the Anglican tradition as they understood it. Its adherents have therefore claimed that this church is the true heir of the Church of England in the United States.

In January 1978, four bishops (Charles Doren, James O. Mote, Robert Morse, and Francis Watterson) were consecrated. What had provisionally been called the Anglican Church in North America (Episcopal), eventually divided. The Canadian parishes formed the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, and American parishes formed three separate bodies, the Anglican Catholic Church, the United Episcopal Church of North America and the Diocese of Christ the King. In 1984 the five dioceses of the Church of India (CIPBC) were received by the Anglican Catholic Church and constituted as its second province, but they rescinded communion in 2014 over issues of primacy between the provincial archbishops, John Augustine and Mark Haverland.

The congress's statement of principles (the "Affirmation of St. Louis") summarized the new church's reason for being as follows:

... the Anglican Church of Canada and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by their unlawful attempts to alter Faith, Order and Morality (especially in their General Synod of 1975 and General Convention of 1976), have departed from Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.[2]

Since 1990 the Anglican Catholic Church has expanded to twelve dioceses in the Americas, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Also during this period a number of parishes left the Anglican Catholic Church to merge with the American Episcopal Church and form the Anglican Church in America. Additional parishes left and formed the Holy Catholic Church (Anglican Rite). In October 2005 Mark Haverland of Athens, Georgia, replaced John Vockler, who was in charge from 2001 to 2005, as archbishop and metropolitan. On May 17, 2007, Haverland signed an intercommunion agreement negotiated with the United Episcopal Church of North America. At the 17th Provincial Synod, October 2007, Wilson Garang and his Diocese of Aweil in Sudan were received into the Anglican Catholic Church so that today the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province) has over 250 parish churches and missions worldwide. In October 2008 Presley Hutchens, a bishop of the ACC addressed the United Episcopal Church of North America's ninth triennial convention and discussed uniting the ACC and UECNA.

More recently, in 2015, the number of ACC dioceses in South Africa has grown to four.[3]

Province I

  • Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States
  • Diocese of the Midwest
  • Diocese of New Orleans
  • Diocese of the Holy Trinity
  • Diocese of the Resurrection
  • Diocese of the South
  • Diocese of the United Kingdom
  • Diocese of the Aweil (Sudan)
  • Missionary Diocese of Australia and New Zealand
  • Missionary Diocese of the Caribbean
  • Missionary Diocese of New Grenada (Colombia and Brazil)
  • Missionary Diocese of Kenya
  • Anglican Diocese of Southern Africa
  • Diocese of Christ the Redeemer
  • Diocese of the North East
  • Diocese of Blessed Nehemiah Tile
  • Diocese of the Kei

Province II

Province of South Asia

  • Diocese of Lucknow
  • Diocese of Assam
  • Diocese of Chota Nagpur
  • Diocese of Delhi
  • Diocese of Amritsar
  • Diocese of Nagpur
  • Diocese of Calcutta
  • Diocese of Bhagalpur
  • Diocese of Lahore
  • Diocese of Cochin Travancore

Leadership

  • Metropolitan of the Original Province and Acting Primate: Mark Haverland, Athens, Georgia[4]
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of Lahore, Pakistan: Mushtaq Andrew
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States: Donald Lerow, Jacksonville, North Carolina[4]
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Midwest: Rommie Starks, Indianapolis, Indiana[4]
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of New Orleans: Terry Lowe, Natchitoches, Louisiana[4]
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of New England: Rocco Florenza, Ansonia, Connecticut[4]
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the United Kingdom: Damien Mead, Lydd, Romney Marsh, Kent[4]
  • Bishop Ordinary, Missionary Diocese of Australia & New Zealand: Denis Hodge, New Zealand[4]
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of Aweil (Sudan): Wilson Gerang
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the South: Mark Haverland (Athens, GA)
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Holy Trinity: Stephen Scarlett (Newport Beach, CA)
  • Bishop Ordinary, Anglican Diocese of Southern Africa: Vacant
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of Blessed Nehemiah Tile (South Africa): Vacant
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of Christ the Redeemer (South Africa): Solomzi Mentjies
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Kei (South Africa): Dominic Mdunyelwa
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the North East (South Africa): Vacant
  • Bishop Ordinary, Missionary Diocese of Kenya: John Ndegwa
  • Bishop Ordinary, Missionary Diocese of the Congo: Steven Ayule-Milenge
  • Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Caribbean and New Granada: German Orrego-Hurtado (Pereira, Colombia)[5]

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ From the Affirmation of St. Louis in the ACC brochure "Who we are" Archived 2008-05-15 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ ACC adds two new Dioceses in South Africa; renames Second Province, The Anglican Catholic Church Official Website, 23 November 2015
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bishops, Contact Us, www.anglicancatholic.org
  5. ↑ "Archbishop Haverland visits Colombia; Enthrones Bishop Orrego-Hurtado and engages in ecumenical dialog". The Anglican Catholic Church. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
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