Anglican Province of America


The Anglican Province of America is a Continuing Anglican church in the United States. The church was founded by former members of the Episcopal Church in the USA in order to follow what they consider to be a more truly Christian and Anglican tradition. It comprises three dioceses: Diocese of the Eastern United States, Diocese of Mid-America, and the Diocese of the West. The combined dioceses total 60 congregations, with an estimated 6,000 members.

History

In the 1960s, the Episcopal Church in the United States increasingly involved itself with the Civil Rights Movement. Some in the church began to question areas of ECUSA's involvement which seemed to them to be supporting radical causes. At the same time, revisions made in Roman Catholic liturgies caused many within the ECUSA leadership to champion an updating of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.
Opposition to these actions led to the founding of the American Episcopal Church in March 1968. At a meeting held in Mobile, Alabama, it was agreed that a new body was needed in order to preserve traditional Anglicanism.
In 1974, the Episcopal Bishop of Kentucky, David B. Reed, suggested talks between representatives of the Episcopal Church and the American Episcopal Church. The talks were, however, postponed and they did not resume until 1978 following the Congress of St. Louis at which the Continuing Anglican movement was founded.

"Continuing Church" movement

The 1976 General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States approved the ordination of women to the priesthood and the first reading of legislation to adopt a new Prayer Book. Traditionalists within the Episcopal Church made plans for the Congress of St. Louis. The Congress brought together nearly 2000 Episcopalians and members of the Anglican Church of Canada and succeeded in launching the Continuing Anglican movement—but without representatives from the American Episcopal Church.
In the early 1990s, the leadership of the AEC began unity talks with the leadership of the Anglican Catholic Church, the largest of several church bodies that had come from the work of the Congress of St. Louis. These talks eventually led to the merger of around 33% of the ACC with the AEC to form the Anglican Church in America. Some of the remainder later formed the Anglican Province of America after the resignation of Bishop Anthony F. M. Clavier as bishop ordinary of Diocese of the Eastern United States.. The diocese and most of its thirty parishes chose to leave the Anglican Church in America and her worldwide affiliate, the Traditional Anglican Communion.

Recent developments

The presiding bishop of the APA from its founding until the present has been Walter Grundorf. Grundorf was a signatory to the Bartonville Agreement of 1999 which outlined a plan for cooperation between some of the Continuing Anglican churches and conservatives in the Episcopal Church. A concordat of intercommunion has also been achieved with the Church of Nigeria and the Reformed Episcopal Church. The Anglican Province of America has been a ministry partner organization of the Anglican Church in North America since its foundation in 2009.
Through the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas , the APA is associated with the Common Cause Partnership, an organization seeking to unite various Anglican jurisdictions to form a new conservative province of the Anglican Communion in North America. But when, in July 2008, the APA voted to delay a decision on its membership until a number of contentious issues were resolved in the Common Cause Partnership, including whether or not to accept the practice of ordaining women, the APA's Diocese of the West disaffiliated. It subsequently joined the Reformed Episcopal Church and, through her, the Common Cause Partnership. On March 4, 2009, the Anglican Province of America reorganized its Diocese of the West with parishes that had chosen not to follow Richard Boyce out of the APA.
On June 10, 2010, The Rev. Canon Chandler Holder Jones, SSC, was elected Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of the Eastern United States at the 42nd Annual Synod of the diocese, held in Orlando, Florida. He was consecrated on September 18, 2010 at Saint Alban's Cathedral in Oviedo, Florida. On July 18, 2019, Bishop Chandler Jones was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of the Eastern United States at the 51st Annual Synod, held in Orlando, Florida.
On July 19, 2012, The Rev. Robert Todd Giffin was elected Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Mid-America at the 3rd Annual Synod of the Diocese, held in Lima, Ohio. He was consecrated on October 6, 2012, by The Most Rev. Walter Howard Grundorf, assisted by The Rt. Rev. Chandler Holder Jones, SSC, The Most Rev. Brian Richard Marsh, and The Rt. Rev. Dr. Larry Lee Shaver. On February 22, 2014, The Rt. Rev. Robert Todd Giffin was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Mid-America at an Election Synod held in Merrillville, Indiana. On Saturday, June 20, 2015, The Rt. Rev. Robert Todd Giffin was installed and enthroned by The Most Rev Walter Howard Grundorf, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Province of America, as the new Bishop Ordinary of the DMA at the Diocese's 6th Annual Synod. The Synod, installment and enthronement were held at the Pro-Cathedral of St. Andrew the Evangelist in Merrillville, Indiana. Bishop Giffin succeeds The Rt. Rev. Dr. Larry Lee Shaver as the Second Bishop of the Diocese, which was formed in 2010.
There have recently been discussions of unifying elements of the Anglican Church in America with the Anglican Province of America. The Traditional Anglican Communion, including its American branch, the ACA, has long sought unity with the Roman Catholic Church. In October 2009, the Vatican responded with Anglicanorum Coetibus, which allows for the establishment of Anglican personal ordinariates under papal authority. Some members of the ACA have agreed to join the ordinariate, while others have not. Instead the latter will continue as the Anglican Church in America and have pursued establishing closer relationships with other Continuing Anglican jurisdictions, particularly their former brethren, the APA. In July 2011, the APA's provincial synod voted unanimously to approve an intercommunion agreement with the ACA, anticipating a formal reunion of the two bodies at some time in the future.
In January 2016, the APA reached a formal accord with the ACA, the Anglican Catholic Church, and the Diocese of the Holy Cross.
The Indigenous Pastorale of the Anglican Province of America in Ecuador comprises thirty-two communities totaling about 20,000 people. This Global Partnership was established and recognized by the government of Ecuador in July 2016. The communicants of the IPAPAE were formerly under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Riobamba.
On October 6, 2017, at a joint synod in Atlanta, Georgia, the primates of the Anglican Province of America, the Anglican Church in America, the Anglican Catholic Church, and the Diocese of the Holy Cross signed a concordat of full communion. The Most Rev. Brian R. Marsh, the Most Rev. Mark D. Haverland, the Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf, and the Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett signed the following document, called the Atlanta Concordat:
"We acknowledge each other to be orthodox and catholic Anglicans in virtue of our common adherence to the authorities accepted by and summarized in the Affirmation of St. Louis in the faith of the Holy Tradition of the undivided Catholic Church and of the seven Ecumenical Councils. We recognize in each other in all essentials the same faith; the same sacraments; the same moral teaching; and the same worship; likewise, we recognize in each other the same Holy Orders of bishops, priests, and deacons in the same Apostolic Succession, insofar as we all share the episcopate conveyed to the Continuing Churches in Denver in January 1978 in response to the call of the Congress of Saint Louis; therefore, We welcome members of all of our Churches to Holy Communion and parochial life in any and all of the congregations of our Churches; and, We pledge to pursue full, institutional, and organic union with each other, in a manner that respects tender consciences, builds consensus and harmony, and fulfills increasingly our Lord’s will that His Church be united; and, We pledge also to seek unity with other Christians, including those who understand themselves to be Anglican, insofar as such unity is consistent with the essentials of Catholic faith, order, and moral teaching."

Liturgy

According to the Constitution of the Anglican Province of America, these books, in addition to "other traditional Anglican liturgies as may be authorized by the Bishop Ordinary, are "permitted for general use" in the worship of the Church:
1. The Book of Offices, Third Edition, 1970, or earlier editions thereof;
2. The Calendar and the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels contained in the Lesser Feasts and Fasts and Special Occasions ;
3. The Priest's Manual;
4. The Book of Occasional Offices ;
5. The Hymnal, 1940, and other hymns and music authorized by the incumbent;
6. The Anglican Missal;
7. The American Missal.