Unionville Maryland church joins ACNA

The Anglican Church in North America unites 700 Anglican parishes in 12 Anglican jurisdictions in North America into a single church, according to an ACNA press release sent out last spring after recognition by the Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). The jurisdictions coming together include the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the dioceses of Fort Worth, Texas, Pittsburgh, Quincy and San Joaquin, Calif., the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, the Reformed Episcopal Church and several missionary initiatives.

By forming the new Anglican Church in North America and seeking recognition from African provinces, the province of the Southern Cone of South America and other Anglican provinces, the ACNA hopes to join the worldwide Anglican Communion, but separately from the Episcopal Church U.S.A.

The Most Rev. Robert William Duncan Jr., former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Episcopal Church U.S.A.), now serves as the first archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America.

In mid-June, at a conference in Texas attended by about 900 church leaders, the ACNA formally adopted a constitution and canons. Zampino attended and when he returned, he said, his small congregation unanimously voted to join the movement, joining an estimated 100,000 church members in the U.S. and Canada.

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