God, history, and provinces representing the overwhelming majority of the members of the Anglican Communion were on the side of the ACNA, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan told the 234 delegates drawn from the ACNA’s 28 founding jurisdictions including four former dioceses of the Episcopal Church, representing some 700 congregations and 100,000 Anglicans in the US and Canada.
The break with the Episcopal Church was now complete, Bishop Duncan said. “There is no one here who will go back.”
Delegates attending the June 22-25 convocation formally adopted the ACNA’s Constitution and Canons and were also addressed by Bishop Duncan — who was elected archbishop on June 21 by a meeting of the ACNA’s House of Bishops — and California megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and Metropolitan Jonah, the head of the Orthodox Church in America.
Archbishop Duncan lauded the comprehensiveness and unity of the new province, which bridged the traditional theological divide between High and Low churchmen, Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals, in addition to the modern question of the ordination of women.
Death and Resurrection
A Church dies; a Church is born!
The Episcopal Church implodes.
The Anglican Church in North America commences.
Two Anglican provinces occupy the same territory.
The curtain in the temple is rent asunder again,
As schism divides worshippers into two armies of God.
One calls itself progressive; the other traditional.
Labeling their opponents revisionist vs. reasserter.
The media ascribes the split as to whether homosexual mores
Shall be accepted in all offices and rites of the Church.
Scholars say it is a struggle for truth, for the revealed Word,
As being fixed, or open to reinterpretation in changing times.
Alas, there once was a dear old church, formally known
as The Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.
We were proud that it functioned as a big tent,
Encompassing a wide range of theological differences.
The rector of the parish was called mister,
Wearing a cassock, surplice, and stole,
Conducting Morning Prayer with its canticles and psalms.
Celebrating Holy Eucharist monthly with prayerful preparation.
We were known as God’s frozen people, The Republican Party
at prayer,
The movers and shakers, the country club members.
Guilty of the great sins of pride, arrogance, indifference
and snobbery.
We enjoyed the majesty of the prayers, the beauty of the hymns,
and chatting at the coffee hour.
“Alas, there once was a dear old church, formally known
as The Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.
We were proud that it functioned as a big tent,
Encompassing a wide range of theological differences.
The rector of the parish was called mister,
Wearing a cassock, surplice, and stole,
Conducting Morning Prayer with its canticles and psalms.
Celebrating Holy Eucharist monthly with prayerful preparation.
We were known as God’s frozen people, The Republican Party
at prayer,
The movers and shakers, the country club members.
Guilty of the great sins of pride, arrogance, indifference
and snobbery.
We enjoyed the majesty of the prayers, the beauty of the hymns,
and chatting at the coffee hour. ”
And what all that had to do with Gospel of Jesus Christ remains shrouded in mystery. It’s hard to celebrate Holy Communion when you can’t even agree on what Holy Communion is. But gathering for Holy Communion and Morning Prayer brought out the finest clothes and the sense of membership in the club.
That headline will ruffle a few liberal’s feathers.