Several hundred former Episcopalians, meeting in a school gym near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, ratified a constitution Monday for the fledgling Anglican Church in North America as a direct challenge to the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada.
About 800 people jumped to their feet and sang the Doxology, a hymn of praise, after the ACNA’s new leader, Archbishop-designate Robert Duncan, told the group that it had “done the work.”
“The Anglican Province of North America has been constituted,” he said.
One man’s defector is another’s faithful stalwart. I prefer Peter Lee’s “Anglican Dissidents.”
Glad to be either defector or dissident.
It’s fine that the secular press categorizes this event how it wishes. From the Kingdom perspective, human language will fall short. The whole event has been an act of worship.
Fr Darin Lovelace+
Durant, Iowa
“Several hundred former Episcopalians, meeting in a school gym near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport,….”
I don’t prefer anything of Peter Lee’s.
[edited by Elf]
Is “defectors” the author’s word or the work of an editor? Defection means “conscious abandonment of allegiance or duty (as to a person, cause, or doctrine); desertion” (Merriam-Webster Collegiate) or “desertion from allegiance, loyalty, duty, or the like; apostasy†(Random House Dict.). If words mean anything, this is treason and apostasy, like the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. A bit strong for a graduate of Trinity (Episcopal) School for Ministry and a professional journalist reporting on an event.
I suggest that such inflammatory rhetoric does not advance Christ’s kingdom or eventual reconciliation within Anglicanism, let alone accurately reflect what is happening.
“Reconciliation?” The ONLY “reconciliation” that Schori and Company are even remotely interested in is that which is on THEIR terms.
ACNA’s has — or will have — perhaps 28+/- bishops serving 100,000 members. Those numbers certainly make for a tighter ratio than similar numbers — be they a high or low estimate — from the Episcopal Church. An yet … during the Lambeth Conference … it was frequently suggested — on this very website — that the Episcopal Church has too many bishops given its membership.
Oops … shouldn’t have added that ‘S to ACNA.
Probably because they have too many dioceses……..especially the tiny ones. Time for a major reorganization, I think……though I no longer am an Episcopalian.
#7, it’s not just members that are important, it’s also ASA. I think ACNA will have a much closer membership to ASA figure than ECUCA, and hence a greater demand for Bishops. ACNA will also be growing….
#10 … even on an average Sunday attendance basis it’s still a significantly tighter ratio.
BTW … ACNA’s ASA has officially been lowered … from 100,000 to 60,000-something.