Updated Friday evening
The press release about the Anglican Church in North America says
“The movement unites 700 orthodox Anglican congregations, representing roughly 100,000 people…”
“The Common Cause Partnership is a federation of Anglican Christians that links together eight Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America, including the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Communion Network, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, Forward in Faith North America, the Reformed Episcopal Church, and the bishops and congregations linked with Kenya, Uganda, and South America’s Southern Cone.”
Estimates of the numbers of parishes by jurisdiction are shown below. Some of these figures come directly from the Common Cause database, others were supplied to me, and others are my own estimate. I would welcome corrections to any of these figures. The table does not include any contribution from the 75 Forward in Faith North America congregations listed by Common Cause, most of which as I understand it are still within The Episcopal Church.
Friday update
Forward in Faith North America has published Forward in Faith NA responds to Q & A on the new ACNA which may answer some of the questions raised here about the status of FiFNA congregations in ACNA.
| Reformed Episcopal Church (includes 7 in Canada) | 135 |
CC
database |
| Anglican Mission in the Americas (Rwanda) (includes 12 in Canada ) |
140 |
CC
database |
|
subtotal
|
275
|
|
| Convocation of Anglicans in North America (Nigeria) | 68 |
CC
database |
| Missionary Convocation of Kenya | 36 |
Bp Atwood
|
| Missionary Convocation of Uganda | 51 |
Bp Guernsey
|
|
subtotal
|
155
|
|
| Missionary Convocation of the Southern Cone |
|
|
| – Ex San Joaquin |
30 |
SS
estimate |
| – Ex Pittsburgh | 55 |
SS estimate
|
| – Ex Quincy | 20 |
SS estimate
|
| – Ex Fort Worth | 45 |
SS estimate
|
| – Ex Canada ANiC | 19 |
CC database
|
| – Individual congregations affiliated to Bolivia, Argentina and Recife | 45 |
SS 2007 est.
|
|
subtotal
|
214
|
|
|
Grand
Total |
644
|
|
Simon, in response to a poster on a thread on SF – http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/18602/ – Matt Kennedy claimed the number of congregations in ACNA was 656, although he didn’t provide evidence for that. Quite a bit less than the stated 700. I seem to remember that Bolivia handed its parishes over to CANA, so you might be counting them twice. Figures for the Ugandan and Kenyan ‘missions’ is hard to come by, but the ACN’s website differs from the figures given to you by their bishops – http://www.acn-us.org/icon/ – It gives Kenya as having 19 and Uganda as having 31, plus… Read more »
MJ First, my figures fromthe CC database were collected on 7 December, I have not rechecked today, and no doubt the database will change regularly. The figures from Kenya and Uganda were received over the weekend in email correspondence. I regard them as more accurate than the database. I am aware of the plan to hand over some of the Bolivian congregations to other jurisdictions, but do not have firm figures for that, so stuck with my earlier estimate which was in a Church Times article last year, see http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=44288 I now believe that my aggregate estimate then of 135… Read more »
FiFNA states that its full, “affiliate” membership is open to parishes from five church organizations – “Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA); Anglican Church of Canada (ACC); Anglican Mission in America (AMIA); Anglican Province of America (APA); Traditional Anglican Church (TAC)”. Only the first two of these five groups are members of the Anglican Communion. C of E Anglo Catholics with whom I have been in communication appear to regard TAC with suspicion. FiFNA also has an “Associated” member category. This includes, but seems not to be confined to, members of five additional “Anglican” denominations – Anglican Catholic Church of… Read more »
In Christianity Today on Dec 4, Timothy Morgan wrote from Wheaton:
“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.”
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/decemberweb-only/149-43.0.html
It didn’t take long for 656 to become 700, and ‘100,000 people in regular worship’ to become ‘100,000 ASA’.
There are many problems with the accuracy of the Forward in Faith members. There are two churches in Baltimore, Maryland that FIFNA lists as “friendly” because the “priest is a member … and requested his parish belisted.” The priest, Walter Burgess, has not been at at St. Luke, Franklin Square for over five years and that parish currently has a woman as interim priest. He left St. Paul the Apostle in the Fall of 2005, and the church was closed by the diocese in 2007. I know about this because I was a former member of both parishes. FIFNA was… Read more »
For what it is worth, I am aware of at least one church that is a member of CANA but still an active member of TEC – indeed it is actively involved in a search for a new Bishop in TEC (talk about a conflict of interest there!!) – This church may never leave TEC yet I assume it is counted among the membership of CANA. I wonder if there are others in such a twilight zone and therefore assume some of the numbers quoted by the putative, alleged new province are quite soft – regardless of the “stand firm”… Read more »
There are actually twelve Reformed Episcopal parishes in Canada. Seven are in the Diocese of Central and Eastern Canada and five are in the Diocese of Western Canada.
Nice work, Simon.
One of the questions I have is how many of these congregations are house churches.
You should probably reduce the Pittsburgh number by about 7-1/2. Just under 30 parishes are expected to be represented at the reorganizing special convention in Pittsburgh, which begins this evening. The 1/2 comes from the fact that Trinity Cathedral is attempting to be part of both the Episcopal diocese and the “realigned” group. They are actually sending assessment money to each entity. I doubt this is a viable long-term status for Trinity, however.
Even though the REP might have chosen to throw its lot with ACNA, I do not believe it is fair to include their numbers without making clear that they departed in 1873, and that their departure had nothing to do with the current issues.
And the REP will continue their affiliation with ACNA as long as it continues to be a loose federation of overlapping “my-own-kind-of-church” groups.
I believe there were 74 parishes in Pittsburgh before the goers got on. My understanding is those of remaining might be possible 28 (and remember the Cathedral, Trinity is suppose to be a member of both groups). The remaining parishes have our diocesan convention this weekend. Numbers should be more firm. So 644-8 more.
How does one gain access to the “CC database”? I have long wanted to see a list of CANA congregations; and the only one I have seen, from some years ago, continued to list some of the “original” CANA congregations (the ones that were essentially “language ministries” largely to Igbo-speaking Nigerians, and which operated with the approval and cooperation of the Episcopal dioceses) Not all of these congregations went along with the Minns’ version of CANA.
What about the 2 million members of TEC?! Uh, yeah…
This is how the conservatives do maths….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q52peCKBLLQ
Tobias, I went to this URL
http://www.united-anglicans.org/
Having just looked over the issues that caused the Reformed Episcopal Church to split from the larger body some 135 years ago, how does a church that “rejects the following erroneous and strange doctrines as contrary to God’s Word: First, that the Church of Christ exists only in one order or form of ecclesiastical polity; Second, that Christian Ministers are “priests” in another sense than that in which all believers are a “royal priesthood”; Third, that the Lord’s Table is an altar on which the oblation of the Body and Blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father; Fourth,… Read more »
In my secular life, I am often required to take detailed numbers and express them as round (ballpark) numbers. A cost of $9,968 or a donation of $10,114 would both be described to a reporter as “around $10,000.” A membership of 9,957 would be described as “nearly 10,000” or “fewer than 10,000” depending on my agenda. But there are conventions to be observed. In general, a bald assertion of “700” would normally mean “at least 700,” while 690 would be described as “almost 700,” “fewer than 700” or “about 700” depending on one’s particular bias / agenda. Even “almost 700”… Read more »
“They represent the evangelical, charismatic, and Anglo-Catholic traditions within Anglicanism.” This is not true. They represent CONSERVATIVE Evangelicals, charismatics, and Anglo-Catholics. I have no idea how many members of each of these groups do NOT sign on to the “New Province”, but there are some, even Evangelicals, and my understanding is that many, if not most, TEC Anglo-Catholics are pretty gay friendly, actually. Besides, the Arians were once in the majority, as were the iconocalsts, but it took 1500 years for the iconoclast heresy to rear its ugly head, and until the last century for Arianism to reappear. So, what’s… Read more »
Hmm. Didn’t we have an ACNA (Anglican Church in North America) about thirty years ago? The issue then was mostly the ordination of women, but with some whining about the Prayer Book. It fell apart fairly quickly, as I recall, but there are remnants still around. We referred to it as “acne,” but then we were young and rude.
From “Why Join the Reformed Episcopal Church” on the website of the diocese of Eastern Canada:
“The Reformed Episcopal Church Is A Small Denomination
The Reformed Episcopal Church, being a small denomination, offers the great advantage of Christian fellowship among its communicants so that all members can come to know one another. The detriment of bureaucracy, so often present in larger organizations, is greatly reduced.”
http://www.rececan.org/WhyJoinREC.dsp
Small is good. May as well turn reality into a virtue.
WSJM
Yes, to be precise it was in September 1977, and the New York Times article about its formation is here:
http://jawbones.typepad.com/jawbones/files/76638973.pdf
Thank you Simon. It is a very helpful resource.
Hmm, Pat O’Neill, you are definitely on to something. It seems to me that any church that “rejects the … erroneous and strange doctrines as contrary to God’s Word: … that the Church of Christ exists only in one order or form of ecclesiastical polity …” fails to meet the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral test on the matter of the Historic Episcopate.
Simon, so that Anglican Chuch in North America morphed into the Anglican Catholic Church?
“This new province is bringing order out of the recent Anglican chaos, and ensuring a vibrant united Anglican voice in North America. Eleven founding Anglican partners are coming together, some of which have been in existence for over 130 years.” – Anglican Coalition in Canada web-site – This really is the amorphous Never-Never-Land of the re-Asserters. The ‘recent Anglican chaos’ is more aptly a description of what has been happening with the Sola Scriptura crowd under Bobby Duncan. They are schizophrenic about whether they need the protection of the umbrella of an Anglican Church whose spirituality, theology and diversity they… Read more »
“Small is good.”
Only on times. See, if a conservative group is small, that means with them there is “Christian fellowship among its communicants so that all members can come to know one another” so that “The detriment of bureaucracy, so often present in larger organizations, is greatly reduced”. When a “liberal” group is small, though, that’s because they are selling out the Gospel, following the trends of the world, and driving people away from the Church in droves. It’s all in how you look at it.
High Church TEC refugees have taken the Reformed Episcopal Church over and they now have a statement explaining away the Declaration of Principles. Some Evangelical Reformed Episcoplians ahave left, what they perceive is a corrupted denomination!
Were your discussions with +Atwood specific as to his congregations? I would be particularly interested in knowing if St. Luke’s Maysville KY (circa 15 members) is a Kenyan “congregation” “mission” “house church” or other under his supervision
ACiNA
Is it just me or when one pronounces this acronym, does it not sound remarkably like “asinine?”
Simon, just a couple of notes that hopefully will shed some light on the difference between your count and the final number we have been using. 1. The Anglican Mission in the Americas has 40 congregations in formation at the present time. We chose to count those congregations. 2. San Joaquin also has closer to 40 parishes that have continued with them instead of 30. 3. My understanding is that ANiC is also up to at least 22 in Canada instead of 19. 4. The other wild card are a number of Anglican Province in America parishes (I have yet… Read more »
What’s most fun about all this is how the already self delusory claim to “orthodoxy” gets more and more obviously self delusory as times goes by. There is only one thing that unites these groups: a fear of change that has resulted in bitterness and anger. How much “liberal” actions have fed these feelings is another matter although an important one. Still, it’s a good laugh to watch all these groups call themselves “orthodox”, and affirming each other’s “orthodoxy” which they would not have done just a few years ago. It’s kind of like loudly claiming to be Jewish while… Read more »
They are counting all of the Diocese of Fort Worth, which is not accurate at all. As of now, at least 40 percent of the diocese is staying in the Episcopal Church and that number is growing each week.
Same is true of Diocese of Pittsburgh.
As an out gay priest, I have no sympathy with the move to split the church. However, I am also dismayed by the nasty tone of many comments in this thread as well as others. No matter how hurtful their comments and actions, it does not justify any of us going tit for tat. These are my, our, brothers and sisters who, before they left, sat beside us at worship, synods and conventions. Correcting inaccurate information is important and healing our wounds is critical, but only as we continue to live out the grieving love of Christ for all of… Read more »
Thank you, Bob, for that timely reminder of our need of charity. However, when one is already being judged, there is a need for some adequate self-defence mechanism. Total silence here could be just too encouraging of the disdainful.
How does the qua-Diocese of Quincy figure into the totals for the ACinNA? With their Cathedral’s opting to stay Episcopal (and keeping with it something like 400 or more of the roughly 1,800 communicants in the Diocese), the early estimates of the numbers seem to correspond with the over-counting by the ACiNA types as they struggle to Own-the-Spin. With regard to the good folks of the DofQ, these are ‘small’ numbers, I realize…but still and all, some numbers matter. And the same will be surely true in the other dioceses where this stuff is happening. Frustratingly for those choosing to… Read more »
I think the ‘Christian charity’ exhibited by most of these posts illustrates perfectly well why Anglican Catholics in TEC (and indeed elsewhere), feel increasingly marginalised, and pushed back against the fence. The issue is not just dispute about theological fundamentals, but how the debate is handled – particularly by those with power (the establishment) towards those without power. For those of us looking on at American Anglicanism from the sidelines, it makes a pretty embarrassing spectacle. Particularly when the majority, the powerful and monied establishment, cry about how they are being bullied in the playground. Time to grow up a… Read more »