Episcopal Press and News
ESA Observer Recommends Cooperation with New 'Continuing Church'
Episcopal News Service. October 18, 1991 [91201]
Members of two of the self-proclaimed "continuing churches" organized by disaffected Episcopalians in the late 1960s and 1970s formed a new denomination -- the Anglican Church in America.
Representatives of the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) and the American Episcopal Church (AEC) voted at an October 5 meeting in Deerfield Beach, Florida, to form the Anglican Church of America (ACA). The new denomination -- like the former ACC and AEC -- will oppose what it describes as unacceptable developments in the Episcopal Church, including the 1979 revision of the Book of Common Prayer and the ordination of women.
The new denomination, estimated to have between 10,000 and 20,000 members, will be led by Archbishop Louis Falk, former head of the Anglican Catholic Church.
Although Falk was elected primate of all America by the new denomination, it is unclear how many members of his former church will join the new denomination. Falk had resigned as head of the ACC in mid-September over a dispute with other ACC bishops regarding the movement to merge with other continuing churches.
An Episcopal priest who attended the meeting as an observer of the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA), a traditionalist group within the Episcopal Church, is recommending that the ESA explore ways to cooperate with the new denomination. The Rev. Garrett Clanton of Quincy, Illinois, an ESA observer of the meeting, suggested that the ESA consider cooperative theological education programs and a joint mission arrangement with the ACA that would preclude the two groups from competing for members.
"Certainly the hope of the leadership of the Anglican Church of America is that the Episcopal Synod [of America] will in the future take certain actions which will separate them from the authority of the Episcopal Church," Clanton said.
Clanton also speculated that the ESA's synodical council may consider some controversial proposals to further their own goals within the Episcopal Church at a November meeting.
Clanton told reporters that the council might consider the consecration of traditionalist bishops by the synod without following normal canonical procedures, or the establishing of traditionalist congregations in dioceses headed by bishops who do not support the traditionalist point of view.
"There is a growing recognition that the Episcopal Synod of America will have to take 'uncanonical action' if it is to survive," Clanton said.