Anglican Leaders Welcome Anglican Church in North America

from the ACNA website

Document Actions The leaders of eighty percent of the World’s Anglicans from 20 Anglican provinces have affirmed that the Anglican Church in North America is “a faithful expression of Anglicanism” and welcomed them as “partners in the Gospel.” These leaders called for all provinces to “be in full communion with the clergy and people of the ACNA.” These statements were part of a larger communiqué from the Fourth Anglican Global South to South Encounter held at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore, April 19–23.

Archbishop Robert Duncan, who attended the meeting on behalf of the Anglican Church in North America, was grateful for the result and commended the communiqué to the people of the Anglican Church in North America. “We are moving forward in mission and relationship with Anglicans all over the world. Our unity and shared commitment to the work of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ is a reason for great joy,” said Archbishop Duncan.

The communiqué also called for provinces in the Global South to “reconsider their communion relationships with The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada until it becomes clear that there is genuine repentance.” Leaders from the 20 provinces in the Global South openly rebuked the actions of The Episcopal Church, calling them, “a total disregard for the mind of the Communion…[and] contradict the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures on matters so fundamental that they affect the very salvation of those involved.”

Global South Anglican leaders welcomed two Communion Partner bishops from within The Episcopal Church: The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence (Diocese of South Carolina) and The Rt. Rev. John Howe (Diocese of Central Florida). They recognized that these two bishops represent “many within TEC who do not accept their church’s innovations.”

The statements by the Global South come on the heels of a decision by the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA/GAFCON) to seat Archbishop Duncan on their Primates Council and to accord status to the Anglican Church in North America as the replacement province for both The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.