Via email:
Largo, Florida ”“ By a vote of 174 to 13, the membership of St. Dunstan’s Church today voted to sever its ties with The Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) as a parish within the Anglican Diocese of Quincy, Ill. The vote took place during a special meeting convened following regularly scheduled church services this past weekend.
The ACNA unites some 100,000 Anglicans in 700 parishes into a single church. Jurisdictions which have joined together to form the 28 dioceses and dioceses-in-formation of the Anglican Church in North America include four former Episcopal dioceses (the dioceses of Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy and San Joaquin); the Anglican Mission in the Americas; the Convocation of Anglicans in North America; the Anglican Network in Canada; the Anglican Coalition in Canada; the Reformed Episcopal Church; and the missionary initiatives of Kenya, Uganda, and South America’s Southern Cone. Additionally, the American Anglican Council and Forward in Faith North America are founding organizations. The ACNA is headed by the Archbishop Robert Duncan, Archbishop and Primate.
Diocese of SW Fla, ASA about 200, 500 baptized, plate and pledges about 200K. All best wishes.
Ah, but why so far as Quincy? We are forming a diocese of the Southeast up here in N. Fla/S. Ga.
Libraryjim, I’m guessing we’re it’s not angloc-catholic enought; but hust a guess, though. Keep in mind that not all of the ex-TEC churches in the N.FL/S.GA area have signed on either.
What will be interesting will be the reaction of Dio SW Fla. — I live about 6 miles from the parish, but haven’t had much contact with them, and I don’t know how Bishop Smith will react — has anybody heard anything?
Actually, the news above prompted some curiosity, and I checked out their website, including the following link to sermons. There is a reference to the pending vote (which apparently took place on Sunday) near the end of the sermon . . .
http://stdunstansfl.com/page.aspx?id=49665
As a snowbird, attending St.Dunstan’s for the past 6 years, I am pleased with the 90+% vote to realign with the Diocese of Quincy. I am a life long member of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, ACNA, and am extremely proud that our own Bishop Bob is the ACNA Archbishop. The Lord led us to St.Dunstan’s when we first became snowbirds, we found that St.Dunstan’s position was the same as ours ( Bishop Duncan and Church of the Atonement, Carnegie, PA.), so we found our southern church home immediately, and the Clergy and parishoners made us feel at home right from the begining. May God continue to bless St. Dunstan’s Angilcan Church. †(I found the three closest Episcopal Churches to our Pinellas County location on the internet, one of which was closer than St. Dunstan’s, however it was the lord leading us to St.Dunstan’s). Quincy Retired Bishop Keith Ackerman, when in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, was rector of St.Mary’s Charleroi, PA)
News that they have been kicked out of their church this week. God has provided for them according to Virtueonline story today.