As a province-in-formation within the worldwide Anglican Communion, ACNA unites 100,000 Anglicans in nearly 1,000 congregations across the United States and Canada. The province represents 11 organizations and 4 former Episcopal dioceses.

Anglicanism has begun a global and local reformation, according to Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). He recently delivered his annual state of the church address, describing the growth and challenges faced by orthodox Anglicans.

As a province-in-formation within the worldwide Anglican Communion, ACNA unites 100,000 Anglicans in nearly 1,000 congregations across the United States and Canada. The province represents 11 organizations and 4 former Episcopal dioceses. Duncan serves as both head of the ACNA and bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Deep disagreements have strained the Anglican Communion, which represents 77 million Christians worldwide. “The North American Anglican Church, chiefly represented by the Episcopal Church, was in a drift away from classic Christian orthodoxy for nearly five decades,” Duncan said. As a result, Anglicans have split into more than 40 different groups since the 1960s. “Around the year 2000,” he explained, “Anglicans began to determine that it was time to bring these fragments together.”

Many distressed congregations left the Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and joined with Anglican churches in Africa and Asia. Beginning in 2000, provinces in Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and South America took in these refugee parishes. The Anglican Church of Rwanda, for example, commissioned the Anglican Mission in the Americas (the AMiA) in 2000. The 20-million member Anglican Church of Nigeria sponsors the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).

Because the provinces in the global south have faced persecution, “the Churches in Africa and Asia know what they stand for,” Duncan said. “They have been clear about what constitutes the Christian faith.”

In 2008, five primates from Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and South America met with the archbishop of Canterbury to formally propose that ACNA become the 39th province in the Anglican Communion. Although two provinces in the same geographic region upsets the Communion’s traditional governing structure, North Americans desired to add a province rather than break away from the church entirely.

Archbishop Duncan hopes that the Anglican Church will serve as a bastion for orthodoxy in North America. In his June 21 “State of the Church” address at the Provincial Council in Long Beach, Calif., the archbishop gave encouraging indicators. In spite of property lawsuits, ACNA grew from 706 to 952 congregations during its first 18 months. Of the nearly 250 new churches, at least 130 were new church plants. (Editor’s Note: Former PCA Teaching Elder John Hall is active overseeing the church planting movement in the ACNA southeastern region)

Within the emerging ACNA province, debate has arisen surrounding women’s ordination. Duncan said, “We agreed when we came together that North American Anglicans would reflect global Anglicanism, which is disagreed on this matter.”

While Anglicans agree that women can serve as deacons, they differ on the question of women’s ordination to the presbyterate (priesthood). Anglicans do not believe that women should ascend to the episcopate (bishop). “I personally have ordained women to the diaconate and priesthood,” said Archbishop Duncan. “The issue is not first order in doctrinal import.”

@Copyright 2011 World Magazine – used with permission