A Further Look at the ACNA Canons

By Robin G. Jordan

In this article I examine some of the implications of the provisions of the provisional canons of the new Anglican Church in North America (ACNA)

Canon 1 of the provisional canons of the ACNA states:

"A diocese, cluster or network is a grouping gathered for mission under the oversight of a bishop consisting of a minimum of twelve congregations with an Average Sunday Attendance (‘ASA’ calendar year) of at least fifty each and a collective ASA of at least 1,000. These requirements may be modified on a case-by-case basis by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members of the Provincial Council."

In order to qualify for admission to the ACNA a judicatory (diocese, cluster, or network) must have in addition to a minimum of 12 congregations with an ASA of at least 50 a collective ASA of at least 1000. To meets this requirement a judicatory must have 19.5 congregations with an ASA of at least 20, 13 congregations with an ASA of at least 30, 9.75 congregations with an ASA of 40, or 7.8 congregations with an ASA of at least 50.

The USA Churches directory classifies as a medium-sized church a church that has an average weekend attendance between 51 and 300 people. The average weekend attendance of a church is approximately how many people attend church services on a typical weekend. In its classification system a megachurch has an average weekend attendance of more than 2000 people, a large church between 301 and 2000 people, and small church less than 50 people. The USA Church directory classifies church size by average weekend attendance because some churches have services on Saturdays, as well as Sundays. Other churches have services on Saturday only (e.g. Seventh Day Adventists). Canon 1 is requiring a minimum of 12 medium-sized churches according to this classification system plus a variable number of small, medium-sized, and large churches for a new judicatory. In 2001 the medium-sized church with an ASA of between 51 to 100 represented 25.5% of the churches in The Episcopal Church.

These requirements effectively limit new judicatories to breakaway dioceses from The Episcopal Church since only they can realistically be expected to meet the requirements. Even a breakaway diocese might not meet them if some of its clergy and congregations choose to remain in The Episcopal Church and form a new diocese. As we shall see, all they need is 6 priests and 6 parishes. The Office of the Presiding Bishop now has a special office that has been set up to offer them whatever assistance they require.

I combed the constitution and canons of a number of Common Cause Partners in hopes of finding the source of the formula in Canon 1 of the provisional ACNA canons. I also searched the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church. This is what I found.

The canons of the Province of the Southern Cone contain the following provisions for the formation of new judicatories:

"3.2.2.2 The New Diocese should comply with the internal requirements for the formation of a new Diocese with the following guidelines:

"3.2.2.2.1 The Diocese should have at least eight formed congregations and eight congregations in formation.

"3.2.2.2.2 The Diocese should have at least eight priests and eight lay leaders capable of leading the congregations, all of them being legitimately licensed and having at least one year of residence and service in the area comprising the new Diocese.

"3.2.2.2.4 The New Diocese should have adequate means of financial independence and administration.

"3.3 Transitory Canon
In the specific case of Bolivia and by virtue of understanding of that entire land, the requirements 3.2.2.2.1 and 3.2.2.2.2 shall not be applied, as there exist only three formed congregations and three presbyters and three lay leaders, who are properly licensed and counted with at least one year of residence and service in the named republic."

I found no reference to ASA.

The constitution and canons of the Reformed Episcopal Church did not require a minimum number of congregations for the formation of a new judicatory.

Canon 48, Section 8 states:

"Where the membership of legal voting age of a Parish is between twelve (12) and thirty-nine (39) members [or between twelve and twenty-nine members if so determined by the Canons of any Diocese or Missionary Diocese], such Parish shall be designated a Mission Parish.

Canon 48, Section 10 (a) states:

"In the event that the communicant membership of a Parish falls below the number of forty for two consecutive years [or the number thirty, if so determined by vote in the Synod or Council or any Diocese or Missionary Diocese], that Parish shall revert to the status of a Mission Parish with all the limitations to which Mission Parishes may be subject under these Canons and the Canons of the Diocese or Missionary Diocese. It shall thereafter be necessary for the Vestry of such a congregation to apply for reinstatement with the Diocese or Missionary Diocese as a Parish should it subsequently qualify by reason of subsequent increase in communicant membership.

Canon 48, Section 10 (b) states:

"In the event that the communicant membership of a Mission Parish falls below the number twelve for two consecutive years, that Mission Parish may be disbanded by the Bishop, with the approval of the Standing Committee, and the members assigned to the pastoral care of a neighboring Parish or Mission Parish."

I found no reference to ASA.

Article V (a) of the Organization Charter of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes states:

"The Network shall consist of participating dioceses and convocations. A convocation will serve as the entity within which individual parishes and congregations not part of a Network
diocese and wishing to affiliate with the Network will unite.

Convocations shall be of two types: geographical and non-geographical. The Network will initially include five geographical and one non-geographical convocation. The five geographical Convocations, whose boundaries shall be specified by the Steering Committee, will be known as the New England Convocation, the Mid-Atlantic Convocation, the Southeastern Convocation, the Mid- Continental Convocation, and the Western Convocation. The non-geographical Convocation will be known as the Forward in Faith North America (FiFNA) Convocation.

The Steering Committee shall ensure that the congregations of each convocation shall come under the spiritual authority of a bishop approved by the Steering Committee.

A convocation shall be considered active when it consists of at least six worshiping congregations."

Once more I found no reference to ASA.

Article V, Section 5 of the constitution of The Episcopal Church states:

"No new Diocese shall be formed unless it shall contain at least six Parishes and at least six Presbyters who have been for at least one year canonically resident within the bounds of such new Diocese, regularly settled in a Parish or Congregation and qualified to vote for a Bishop."

In combing through The Episcopal Church’s constitution I did not find any reference to ASA. I did, however, come across Article VIII:

"No person shall be ordained and consecrated Bishop, or ordered Priest or Deacon to minister in this Church, unless at the time, in the presence of the ordaining Bishop or Bishops, the person shall subscribe and make the following declaration:

I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church."

It was clearly one of the sources of Canon 7 of the provisional ACNA canons:

"No person shall be ordained a Deacon or Presbyter in the Church until such person shall have subscribed without reservation the following declaration:

‘I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation, and I consequently hold myself bound to conform my
life and ministry thereto, and I do solemnly engage to conform to the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of the Anglican Church in North America.’ "

While the Episcopal Church’s constitution requires bishops to subscribe to the declaration, the ACNA canons do not. Perhaps, since it did not prevent Episcopal bishops from teaching doctrines contrary or repugnant to Scripture, the drafters of the ACNA constitution and canons decide not demand subscription from ACNA bishops since it would not keep them from doing the same thing. But the absence of this requirement together with the absence of any provisions for the preferment, investigation, trial, suspension, and removal of clergy spell trouble.

While I could not find a copy of the proposed constitution of the Anglican Missionary Province in North America on the Internet that contained Article IV, its provisions, if my memory serves me, required a minimum of three congregations for a missionary jurisdiction and 10 congregations for a diocese. The Anglican Missionary Province in North America is the name that the Anglican Mission in America proposed for a new province in North America in Kampala in 1999. The constitution was not enacted since the AMiA is not a province but a missionary movement under the authority of another province. I do not recall if Article IV contained any reference to ASA.

What strikes me about the foregoing documents is that none of them, even Southern Cone’s canons with their 8 formed congregations and 8 congregations in formation, set as high a bar for a new judicatory as does the provisional ACNA canons. Canon 1 requires the equivalent of almost 20 medium-sized churches with an ASA of at least 50.

The problem with ASA is that it measures how successful a church may be in attracting worshipers but it does not distinguish between first time visitors, return visitors, regular attenders, and church members in attendance on Sunday morning. It does not measure the extent to which a church is reaching and evangelizing the unchurched. A large percentage of those in attendance may already be Christians making the rounds of the churches of the community in what is known as "the circulation of the saints." In areas that are experiencing high population growth, it is a measure of how much a church is benefiting from an area’s high population growth. Churches in high population growth areas tend to have a higher ASA than churches in low population growth areas. In certain denominations the growth of a church is tied to the growth of the area in which the church is located. This was the case in The Episcopal Church and it appears to be the case in a number of the Common Cause Partners that now comprise the ACNA.

Using ASA as the basis for the acceptance of a new judicatory into the ACNA and the basis of its representation in ACNA bodies (Canon 2) is simply rewarding those churches that are successful at attracting their share of the circulating "saints" or which are located in a high growth area. ASA does not measure the extent to which a church is assimilating and retaining new members. It does not measure the extent to which it is training and equipping its members and releasing them into ministry. It does not measure the extent to which the church is impacting the community. All it does is measure the number of people who come through the church front door on Sunday morning. It tells us which congregation is ahead in the church popularity contest in a particular area or benefiting the most from an area’s population boom.

ASA figures are as misleading as are giving and membership figures. In an established church an ASA of at least 50 may represent less than half of the members of a congregation with a substantial percentage of that figure representing "saints" checking out a new church as they circulate from one community church to the next. In a new church or a high expectations church an ASA of at least 50 may represent two-thirds or more of the members of the congregation.

I am sojourning with a church that has an ASA of 250 people, largely young adults. We have a hot band, a state of the art high tech video projection and sound systems, exciting graphics, snappy sermons, and a great children’s ministry. A much smaller group of people volunteer for the church’s ministry teams and even smaller group of people participate in the church’s small groups. Are we a successful church? It depends upon how you measure success. If you measure it in terms of ASA, you might say we are. We pack them in every Sunday. But if you measure it in terms of small group participation, we have a long way to go. Part of the church’s design is that those coming through the front door should end up in a small group. It is the small group environment in which individuals move from seeker to new believer to fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

Using ASA as the basis for the acceptance of a new judicatory into the ACNA leaves too many small churches out in the cold. Small churches have an ASA of less than 50 but this ASA usually represents a larger percentage of the members of the congregation than churches that have an ASA of 50 or more. As in new churches and high expectation churches, the number of church members in attendance on Sunday morning is higher in small churches than larger ones. Small churches are generally located in Indian reservations, rural areas and other areas of low population density, small towns, and inner city neighborhoods. They may also be found in areas in which the demographics of the area or the psychographics of the population segments represented in the area are not friendly to the denomination with which the small church is affiliated. In 2001 small churches—those with an ASA of less than 50—accounted for 33.4% of the churches in The Episcopal Church.

With the provisions of Canon 1 the Common Cause Partners have established a virtual monopoly for themselves in the ACNA. Congregations outside of the ACNA that wish to affiliate with the ACNA are forced to join one of the existing judicatories, one of the Common Cause Partners, with which they may have no theological affinity.

Another implication of the requirements of Canon 1 is that the established leadership of the Common Cause Partners comprising the ACNA do not have to share power with newcomers. Under the provisions of Canon 3 and Canon 4 they also get to pick the leadership of a new judicatory that does meet the requirements of Canon 1.

As I noted in my previous article, "The ACNA Constitution and Canons: An Analysis," the provisional constitution and canons of the ACNA contain no provisions for the transfer of clergy and congregations from one judicatory to another. They also contain no provisions for establishing new judicatories from existing ones. Canon 1 appears to refer only to dioceses, networks and clusters seeking admission from outside of the ACNA. There appear to be no provisions for clergy and congregations within the ACNA forming a new judicatory. It can be anticipated that a number of clergy and congregations will discover that they have no real theological affinity with the judicatory with which they are presently affiliated and will wish to form a new judicatory that reflects their particular theological outlook.

The lack of these provisions, as well as the inequitable formula in Canon 1, suggest that the drafters of the ACNA constitution and canons really did not welcome the addition of new judicatories to the ACNA. A power structure had already been established and they were intent upon preserving that structure. It suggests that their provision for the formation of new judicatories is largely cosmetic. The 2009 General Convention was bound to adopt legislation that would make it much more difficult for dioceses to break away from The Episcopal Church. Should a diocese with a substantial number of clergy and congregations break away from that denomination, however, there would be provision for its admission into the ACNA. But beyond the admission of breakaway dioceses the drafters of the ACNA constitution and canons appear to have seen no reason to encourage the formation of new judicatories—hence the high bar for a new judicatory.

It looks like the new province will not be what many of us had hoped it would be—a fresh start for Anglicanism in North America.