Move Over Continuers. Make Room for the ACNA.

By Robin G. Jordan

Does North America really need another Anglo-Catholic Continuing Anglican jurisdiction? If former ACNA Archbishop Robert “Bob” Duncan and other ACNA leaders who are Anglo-Catholic-philo-Orthodox in their leanings have their way, the Anglican Church in North America will become just that—another Anglo-Catholic Continuing Anglican jurisdiction. It will differ from the other Anglo-Catholic Continuing Anglican jurisdictions in only the following ways:

• It won’t be quite as traditional as the other Anglo-Catholic Continuing Anglican jurisdictions.


• It will have an unreformed Catholic catechism like the Roman Catholic Church and its own equivalent of the Roman Catholic Church’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).


• It will have an unreformed Catholic service book, The Book of Common Prayer 2019, instead of using the 1928 Prayer Book and the Anglican Missal.


• It will enjoy the recognition of the GAFCON and global South Primates, not because of its adherence to the Jerusalem Declaration and the historic Anglican formularies but due to its position on marriage and human sexuality.


• It will have women priests. The latter will set it apart as the most liberal of Anglo-Catholic Continuing Anglican jurisdictions. It will be Catholic but liberal Catholic. It won’t be so liberal that it accepts the ordination of openly LGBTQ clergy and same sex marriage but it still be liberal—at least as far as the other Anglo-Catholic Continuing Anglican jurisdictions are concerned.

A number of ACNA’ers with whom I am acquainted and who left the Anglican Church in Canada or the Episcopal Church had hoped that the Anglican Church in North America would move more in the direction of historic Anglicanism. Their vision of the ACNA they discovered was not shared by the ACNA leaders wielding the most influence when it comes to the direction of the province. These leaders have been intent upon turning the ACNA into an unreformed Catholic church. They are disappointed in the direction in which these leaders are taking the province. It is not really the kind of church that they left the ACC or TEC to become part of. They feel that their views have been discounted or ignored.

I can sympathize with these ACNA’ers. They have left one bad situation to find themselves in another. The Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church did not tolerate diversity of opinion and practice. With To be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism and The Book of Common Prayer 2019 the Anglican Church in North America is doing the same thing. Both formularies favor the opinions and practices of one theological school of thought over the others represented in the province. To make matters worse it is a school of thought that has been eroding the doctrinal foundation of historic Anglicanism. It would appear that in the North American Anglican Church one cannot escape from those set on dismantling historic Anglicanism.