ACNA reports 15% growth in number of congregations in its first year

This article was originally published in The Church of England Newspaper and was written George Conger.

Predictions of the death of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) appear to have been premature, as the leaders of the third Anglican province-in-waiting in North America report that in its first year of operations it has added 106 congregations.

Archbishop Robert Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh and leader of ACNA, last week reported that since the Church’s founding convocation in June 2009, 106 new churches have either been planted or joined the ACNA, bringing its total number of congregations to 809 comprising an estimated 100,000 Anglicans in the United States and Canada.

“When we began in June of 2009, I issued a challenge that we plant 1,000 new churches in the five years of my service as your Archbishop. It is wonderful to see how much progress has already been made,” Archbishop Duncan said.

In Virginia, the Convocation of Anglican Churches in North America (CANA) reported on April 12 that it had added one congregation and three missions to its membership.

The Rev Patrick Ware, the founding pastor of Winchester Anglican Church, stated his congregation was planted in response to local needs and he hoped it would “spread the Gospel” in its corner of the state.

“We are excited about the growth we’re seeing in the Anglican District of Virginia and welcome this congregation and these mission fellowships,” spokesman Jim Oakes said. “We look forward to partnering with them to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the state of Virginia and beyond.”

The Anglican Mission in America’s (AMiA) new congregation in Addison, Texas, meets in a restaurant on Sunday mornings, but since its start in October draws 100 to 120 to its services.

“We just want to do church for the sake of others. We really feel we have a calling for those who are broken, those who are lost and those who are looking for a place where they can walk through life together and grow in faith with other believers,” said the Rev Jed Roseberry, Resurrection’s founding priest.

Both Winchester and Resurrection were plants, or churches sponsored by existing congregations — The Falls Church in Falls Church, Virginia and Christ Church in Plano, Texas — two of the largest congregations in the Episcopal Church before their secessions, that are drawing the ‘un-churched’ into their fellowships. However, other congregations are being formed by disaffected Anglicans who have quit the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church in Canada.

The Church of the Epiphany in Hamilton, Ontario, led by the Victoria Hedelius, opened its doors on January 31 and was formed by separatists from the Diocese of Niagara’s Church of the Holy Trinity. “We left everything behind, and we started fresh,” Mrs Hedelius said.

Meeting in the chapel of St John’s United Church, the new congregation has weathered well its exit from the Anglican Church of Canada. “We stepped out naked, and he has clothed us… All you have to do is take the first step, and he guides you on to the next,” she explained.

Mrs Hedelius said that being “part of this movement of God’s Spirit in our church is exciting. It’s humbling, it’s such a blessing.

I would be interested in seeing some statistics on these 106 congregations–for example how many are re-organized Anglican Church of Canada or Episcopal Church congregations, how many are composed of former Canadian Anglicans and US Episcopalians, and how many are composed largely of unchurched Canadians and Americans who have not previously attended any church or have not attended any church for a number of years, that is, the hard-core unchurched. When evaluating the growth of a new denomination or a new congregation, how much of the growth is due to transfers and how much is due to conversions are important factors. If the Anglican Church in North America is growing by conversions, it show that ACNA congregations are effective in evangelism. But if the growth is largely from transfers, then it shows that ACNA congregations are attracting only their share of the circulation of the saints, drawing people from existing churches or the recently unchurched, those who have left an existing church for various reasons. They are not reaching the hard-core unchurched.