Timothy C. Morgan, writing in Christianity Today, reports:
In a history-making gesture, conservative evangelical
Anglicans, deeply alienated by the decline
of the U.S. denomination,
sounded a shofar to herald the creation of the Anglican Church of North
America.
On a snowy Wednesday evening, about 1,000 worshipers, mostly from the U.S. and Canada, gathered in Wheaton, Illinois, for a worship service to celebrate the creation of the new entity, which comprises 656 congregations, 800 clergy, 30 bishops, and 100,000 people in regular worship. They represent the evangelical, charismatic, and Anglo-Catholic traditions within Anglicanism. Read more. . . ]
David Virtue, of VirtueOnline, offers continuous coverage of all things Anglican. He writes:
It is historic and unprecedented, said Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan moderator of the Anglican Communion Network. "It is an extraordinary day for us. We have reversed 40 years of
Anglican history and years of division among The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada. Today we bring together 11 jurisdictions in Canada and across the US. Today marks 5 years of labor and attempts to come together."
. . . Asked by Tim Morgan, reporter with "Christianity Today" if the goal of the new province is to displace or form a parallel province, Bishop Duncan replied that the new province is displacing The Episcopal Church which is in "extraordinary decline. TEC is losing 1000 a week in Average Sunday Attendance. Today what we are focusing on in our mission together. . . Questioned if this is a formal schism, Duncan said that what happened here is "unprecedented and extraordinary". He said the American Episcopal Church no longer holds to the same faith enshrined in Scripture and has moved away from that revelation." [Read more. . .]