Everything about Continuing Anglican Churches totally explained
Continuing Anglican is a term used for a number of
Christian churches which follow more traditional
Anglican belief and worship. These churches have generally been formed by Anglicans who left one of the national churches of the
Anglican Communion because, in their view, those churches have departed from traditional or
orthodox Anglicanism.
The movement originated in the
Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) and the
Anglican Church of Canada. Related churches in other countries, such as the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia and the Church of England (Continuing), were founded later. The movement represents approximately 667 parishes across approximately 20 different continuing churches.
Anglicanism in general has always been a balance between the emphases of
Catholicism and
Protestantism. Clergy and laity from both of those factions were active in the formation of the Continuing Anglican movement. The issues that most contributed to the founding of the "continuing churches" were the approval of
women priests and the introduction of revised prayer books.
Development
In
1976, the
General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) voted to approve the ordination of women to the
priesthood and to the
episcopate and also provisionally adopted a new and doctrinally controversial
Book of Common Prayer, later called the 1979 version. During the following year,
1977, several thousand dissenting
clergy and laypersons responded to those actions by meeting in St. Louis, Missouri under the auspices of the
Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen
and adopted a theological statement, the
Affirmation of St. Louis (External Link). The Affirmation expressed a determination "to continue in the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship and Evangelical Witness of the traditional Anglican Church, doing all things necessary for the continuance of the same."
Out of this meeting came a new church with the provisional name of Anglican Church in North America (Episcopal). The first bishop of the church, the Right Reverend
Charles Doren, was consecrated by a retired bishop of ECUSA, the Right Reverend
Albert Chambers, along with Bishop
Francisco Pagtakhan of the
Philippine Independent Church as co-consecrator. Although expected to be the third bishop participating in Doren's consecration, the Right Reverend
Mark Pae of the Anglican Church of Korea sent a letter of consent instead. The newly-consecrated Bishop Doren then joined with Bishops Chambers and Pagtakhan in consecrating as bishops, the Reverend James Mote, the Reverend Robert Morse, and the Reverend Francis Watterson. Bishop Watterson left the movement shortly afterwards and became a Roman Catholic priest.
During the process of ratifying the new church's constitution, disputes developed which split its dioceses into two American churches and a separate Canadian church. These were the
Anglican Catholic Church led by Bishop Mote, the Diocese of Christ the King (now the
Anglican Province of Christ the King) led by Bishop Morse, and the
Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. In 1981, Bishop Doren and others left the Anglican Catholic Church to found the
United Episcopal Church of North America in opposition to the alleged inhospitality of the other jurisdictions towards
Low Churchmen.
Theological approach
The continuing churches are generally
Anglo-Catholic in approach, and their liturgies are usually more
high church than
low church. Most of them use the
1928 Book of Common Prayer that preceded the prayer book adopted by ECUSA in
1979, although some use Missals and other forms. The use of the
Authorized Version of Holy Scripture (also known as the
King James Version) as opposed to modern translations, is a distinguishing mark of most continuing churches.
The principles of the Affirmation of St. Louis and, to a much lesser extent, the
Thirty-nine Articles of Religion provide some basis for unity in the movement, but these jurisdictions are numerous and often splinter and recombine. Reports put their number at somewhere between 20 and 40, mostly in
North America, but fewer than a dozen of the churches popularly called "
continuing churches" can be traced back to the meeting in St. Louis. The 2005/06
Directory of Traditional Anglican and Episcopal Parishes, published by The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen, contained information on over 400 Continuing Anglican parishes which requested to be listed.
Other Anglican churches
Other Anglican bodies not in
communion with Canterbury include the
Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) in the United States, which left the Episcopal Church in
1873 in opposition to the advance of
Anglo-Catholicism; the
Free Church of England, which was founded in
1844 for similar reasons; and the Anglican Orthodox Church, another Low Church body that was founded in
1963.
These churches are not always considered to be Continuing Anglican churches, although the REC has recently moved to associate itself more closely with them by entering into agreements with a number of Continuing churches such as the
Anglican Province of America. Both of them also have formal agreements in place with several provinces of the Anglican Communion that have been critical of ECUSA. See
Anglican realignment.
List of churches
The following is a list of churches commonly called "Continuing Anglican," with the approximate number of North American parishes shown in parentheses. Some have additional affiliates in other countries.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Continuing Anglican Churches'.
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