Anglican or Independent Catholic? Province-in-Formation or New Denomination?

By Robin G. Jordan

I have been a long-time observer of developments in the Anglican Church in North America from its beginning as the Common Cause Partnership to the present. Very early in the life of the new denomination I recognized that the ACNA was not developing into an Anglican Province committed to the classic Anglican formularies and authentic historic Anglicanism but into an Independent Catholic Church.

An Independent Catholic Church is a denomination that shares the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches but has its own succession of bishops and is not under the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff or any of the Orthodox patriarchs.

I am well aware that the ACNA at the present time contains clergy and congregations that describe themselves as Protestant and evangelical or charismatic with a liturgical bent. However, the official doctrine of the emerging denomination is unreformed Catholic.

The rites and services that the ACNA’s College of Bishops have endorsed to date are unreformed Catholic in doctrine or open to an unreformed Catholic interpretation. The catechism that has received the bishops’ endorsement teaches unreformed Catholic doctrine or allows the teaching of unreformed Catholic doctrine.

The denomination’s form of government is closer to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox prelatical forms of government than Anglican synodical ones.

I have watched the rise to ascendancy of a special interest group that can be described as the High Church party. Another description would be the Independent Catholic party.

This special interest group is made up of traditionalist Anglo-Catholics and others who have similar views but came to them by a different route. It has firmly ensconced itself in a number of key institutions in the Anglican Church in North America, establishing itself in a strong position to influence the direction of the denomination and to shape its future.

This special interest group appears to be intent upon imposing a rigid uniformity upon the ACNA--uniformity in doctrine, worship, and form of government at the judicatorial and local congregational levels. Among the evidence of the latter is this statement in the guidelines for the recognition of new ACNA dioceses:

Article IV recognized the right of each grouping to establish and maintain its own governance, constitution and canons not inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution and Canons of the Province. While not required at this time, future canons may require each grouping to write a constitution and canons in support of the Provincial Constitution and Canons [emphasis added].

These guidelines were prepared by the Governance Task Force, which is one of a number of main loci of influence of this special interest group in the ACNA.

The lack of any organized opposition has emboldened this special interest group to further push its agenda on the ACNA.

In my latest article series I examine how the ACNA is creating obstacles to its own growth. Among the conclusions that I draw from my examination of ACNA’s self-imposed growth barriers is that this special interest group’s aggressive pursuit of its aims is playing a very large role in the erection of these barriers.  

Articles in this series that I have posted to date are:

Episcopacy Out of Control in the Anglican Church in North America

Introducing the ACNA's High Church Party

“But Are They Bible Christians?”

How the Anglican Church in North Americ Is Creating Obstaclesto Its Own Growth – Part 1