“The Anglican Communion Network exists to provide a united voice for orthodox Anglicans in North America as well as a connection to the vast majority of the global Anglican Communion who have rejected last summer’s unity-destroying actions of our Episcopal Church,” said Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the Network, “It’s wonderful to see so many faithful Episcopalians and other members of our Anglican family standing up to be counted.”

Many of parishes and clergy connected to the Anglican Communion Network are affiliated through nine Episcopal Dioceses: Albany, Central Florida, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy, Rio Grande, San Joaquin, South Carolina and Springfield. Two other dioceses, Dallas and Western Kansas, are provisionally affiliated until they have an opportunity to consider formal affiliation at their diocesan conventions this autumn. Individual parishes or clergy in affiliated dioceses do not separately apply to affiliate with the Network. Instead their diocese’s decision connects them.

Scores of parishes and clergy outside of Anglican Communion Network dioceses are also joining in. According to recent figures, a total of 240 churches with their clergy or individual clergy not in an affiliated diocese or parish have become part of the Anglican Communion Network’s six convocations. Five of the convocations are regional groupings of parishes and individual clergy that link together those not in Anglican Communion Network dioceses. Forward in Faith North America also has a convocation. Together, affiliates come from more than 60 Episcopal Church dioceses, more than half the total number of dioceses in the Episcopal Church.

Anglican Communion Network churches include congregations like Church of the Redeemer, an Episcopal parish in Jacksonville, Florida that is part of the South East Convocation. “Being in the Network has enabled many of us to be patient with the process of discernment that the Anglican Communion is going through and strengthen our relationships both nationally and internationally,” said the Rev. Neil Lebhar, rector. Network affiliation, he added, has also given Church of the Redeemer a broad circle of faithful Anglican friends and ministries. “It reminds us that we’re not alone in our desire to be an orthodox parish connected with the majority of the Anglican Communion,” he added.

Also included in the Anglican Communion Network is a small but growing group of non-Episcopal Anglican congregations. “The vast majority of our affiliates are part of the Episcopal Church and remain under the constitutional and canonical structures,” said Bishop Duncan. At the same time, he added, the Network is committed in its charter to building the greatest possible unity among orthodox Anglicans in the United States. With that in mind, the Network is welcoming in those parishes and clergy within the U.S. that come under the jurisdictional leadership of an overseas Anglican bishop.

In its effort to broaden the foundation of support for Anglican orthodoxy in the U.S., the Network is also working with others in the Anglican tradition. That group includes the Reformed Episcopal Church, the Anglican Province in America and the Anglican Mission in America. All three groups, who count around 40,000 members between them, joined with the Network in pledging “common cause” for orthodox Anglicanism in the U.S in a letter that was sent to Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, this June.

“Even in the midst of much uncertainty, both in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole, we’re hopeful as we look forward,” said Bishop Duncan. “The Network continues to gather together Episcopalians and other American Anglicans in unprecedented numbers. We have the good news of Jesus Christ to share with those around us. The rest we trust to God.”

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