2. Had no female clergy

3. Was doctrinally based on the historic Anglican Formularies [interpreted through their own St Louis Affirmation], rejecting the new ones in the 1976/79 TEC prayer book

4. Used the BCP 1928 for Daily Office and Public Worship

5. Rejected the innovations of the late 1960s and early 1970s (e.g. the canons on marriage of 1973) and continued the ethos and traditions of the 1950s and early 1960s.

This secession found that outside TEC there were few "extra-mural" Anglicans - a few mostly in the South that had protested the civil rights era, and the older and small Reformed Episcopal Church which seemed to be as much Presbyterian as Anglican in its theology and ethos.

For various reasons, this initially united secession and movement soon found it very difficult to stay together and it split into several Anglican denominations/jurisdictions, and the continuations of these are still in existence. They still oppose female ordination and use the BCP 1928 or "enrichments" of it. In general, it is fair to say that this Continuing Anglican Movement is not growing numerically at all in the new millennium. However, the ACA is seeking to become an Anglican Use type of church under the general canon law and rule of the Vatican.

Recent Seceders

To call the seceders from TEC over the last decade and specifically over the last year or two as Continuing Anglicans will be a shock and an offense to some people. However "The Anglican Church in America" came into existence on Dec 3, 2008, because of schism and secession. Within this Church are four former dioceses of TEC and many congregations which are either former TEC parishes or splits from TEC parishes. Obviously there are some participants who had not been involved in secession, the Reformed Episcopal Church for example, but the majority of the claimed 100,000 members were formerly of the TEC.

The creators of "The Anglican Church in America" intend to create an expression of the Anglican Way which:

1. Is in communion with some if not all the provinces of GAFcon, as a starter.

2. Accepts the Formularies of 1662 (as do the founding provinces of GAFcon).

3. Accepts the Jerusalem GAFcon Declaration of June 2007.

4. Affirms female ordination.

5. Allows a large variety of Liturgies for Public Worship.

6. Uses "Province" in a wholly innovatory way, causing it to mean "a hybrid of differing groups working in a specific, geographical territory in a semi-competitive way but cooperating in major matters."

Significantly, and not wholly taken into consideration both in the USA and abroad, there are, apart from these 100,000 or so Continuing Anglicans existing wholly outside TEC, around 400,000 who also protest the innovations and revisionism of TEC within TEC itself in dioceses like South Carolina and Springfield, and in many large and small parishes over all the country. Whether this number is growing or contracting is difficult to ascertain in this period of crisis and chaos.

Conclusion

Regrettably there is very little dialogue and cooperation between the two expressions of Continuing Anglicanism in the U.S.A.

This is easily understandable in that the 1970s form uses the traditional language of public prayer ("Thou, Thee, Thine etc.) and traditional liturgies, while the recent form uses primarily the contemporary language (You etc.) and post 1970s liturgies. They are of course differences of ethos and piety behind and through these different languages of prayer. Then there are differences over ordination-opposition to female priests being very strong in the 1970s form-and in attitudes to evangelization, mission, canon law and many other areas.

It would seem that in the long term there is the possibility that the new Continuers will find their way back to the Canterbury connection via the GAFcon movement, but that the older Continuers will always find the question of women's ordination a total barrier.

What HOPE is there for an united Anglican Way in North America in the short term?

The Revd Dr Peter Toon
drpetertoon@yahoo.com
St Nicholas, Bishop, December 06, 2008