THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA (ACNA)
*via Verne Strickland -- a former Episcopalian who finally understands
September 4, 2015
Not to be confused with Anglican Church in America.
| Anglican Church in North America | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Classification | Anglican |
| Orientation | Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic orientations |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Archbishop | Foley Beach |
| Associations | Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Global South |
| Region | Canada, United States, Mexicoand Cuba |
| Origin | June 22, 2009 Bedford, Texas, United States |
| Separated from | Anglican Church of Canada and Episcopal Church USA |
| Merge of | Common Cause Partnership |
| Congregations | 983[1] |
| Members | c. 112,504[1] |
| Official website | anglicanchurch.net |
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. It also includes some parishes in Mexico and a missionary district in Cuba. The church reports that it has 29 dioceses and 983 congregations serving more than 112,000 members in North America. The first archbishop of ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.
The ACNA was founded in 2009 by former members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada who were dissatisfied with increasingly liberal doctrinal and social teachings in their former churches, which they considered contradictory to traditional Anglican belief. Prior to 2009, these conservative Anglicans had begun to receive support from a number of Anglican churches (or provinces) outside of North America, especially in theGlobal South. Several Episcopal dioceses and many individual parishes in both Canada and the United States voted to transfer their allegiance to Anglican provinces in South America and Africa. In 2009, many Anglican groups who had withdrawn from the two North American provinces united to form the Anglican Church in North America. This process of Anglican realignment has created disagreement within the worldwide Anglican Communion over the status of these realigned dioceses and parishes.
From its inception, the Anglican Church in North America's stated goal has been to establish a fully recognized Anglican province as an alternative to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, which are the only provinces of the Anglican Communion in North America recognized by theArchbishop of Canterbury and the other instruments of unity. Nevertheless, friendly relations exist between ACNA and some Anglican provinces outside North America, including the Church of England in some respects. The ACNA is in full communion with three provinces in the Anglican Communion: the Church of Nigeria, the Church of Uganda, and the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan. It has also received recognition and support from the Global South Anglican churches, a grouping of 24 Anglican Communion provinces.
The ACNA has attempted to incorporate the full spectrum of conservative Anglicanism within Canada and the United States. As a result, it accommodates Anglo-Catholic, charismatic, and evangelical theological orientations. It also includes those who oppose and support women's ordination. Women can serve as clergy members in some dioceses, while other dioceses maintain an exclusively male clergy. Women are ineligible to serve as bishops. The ACNA affirms Christian marriage as being found exclusively within the context of a lifelong union between a man and a woman and is generally more socially conservative than either the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church of Canada on questions surrounding homosexual relationships. The church holds a pro-life position on abortion and euthanasia.
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