Episcopal Missionary Church

Last updated
Episcopal Missionary Church
Episcopal Missionary Church.svg
Classification Protestant
Orientation Anglican
Polity Episcopal
Presiding bishopVincent McLaughlin
Associations FACA
ACNA
Region United States, South Africa
Founder A. Donald Davies
Origin1992
Separated from The Episcopal Church
Congregations27 [1]
Official website www.episcopalmissionary.church

The Episcopal Missionary Church (EMC) is a Continuing Anglican church body in the United States and a member of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas.

Contents

History

Its founding in the early 1990s can be traced to the protests of members of the Episcopal Church who were concerned that their church had become massively influenced by secular humanism brought about through the adoption of theological liberalism. At first, these clergy and laymen sought to change the direction of their church by working from within it, to which end they formed a voluntary association, the Episcopal Synod of America.

When they later concluded that this approach would not succeed, a new missionary diocese was formed by them, still attempting to remain within ECUSA.[ dubious ] In 1992, however, the missionary diocese withdrew from ECUSA and formed a separate church, the Episcopal Missionary Church. A. Donald Davies, retired ECUSA Bishop of Dallas and Fort Worth, was named the first Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church. [2]

The Episcopal Missionary Church affirms the Holy Scriptures as containing all things necessary to salvation and as the ultimate rule and standard of faith. The church acknowledges the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds and the necessity of the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. It uses the 1928 American edition of the Book of Common Prayer or the Anglican Missal based upon it, and emphasizes the preservation of apostolic succession. The Episcopal Missionary Church embraces a variety of liturgical styles from low church to high church, evangelical to Anglo-Catholic.

The EMC was in contact with the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas. A merger of the EMC and ARJA was agreed upon and in 1994, the ARJA was dissolved and merged with the EMC. [3]

In January 2020, the Episcopal Missionary Church endorsed a concordant of communion with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which was signed by Archbishop Foley Beach and EMC Presiding Bishop William Millsaps on 14 September 2020. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of Nigeria</span> Nigerian Anglican church

The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership, after the Church of England. As of 2016 it gives its membership as "over 18 million", out of a total Nigerian population of 190 million. It is "effectively the largest province in the Communion." As measured by active membership, the Church of Nigeria has nearly 2 million active baptised members. According to a study published by Cambridge University Press in the Journal of Anglican Studies, there are between 4.94 and 11.74 million Anglicans in Nigeria. The Church of Nigeria is the largest Anglican province on the continent of Africa, accounting for 41.7% of Anglicans in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is "probably the first [largest within the Anglican Communion] in terms of active members."

The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Duncan (bishop)</span> American Anglican bishop

Robert William Duncan is an American Anglican bishop. He was the first primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) from June 2009 to June 2014. In 1997, he was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. In 2008, a majority of the diocesan convention voted to leave the diocese and the Episcopal Church and, in October 2009, named their new church the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. Duncan served as bishop for the new Anglican diocese until 10 September 2016 upon the installation of his successor, Jim Hobby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Church in North Texas</span> Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States

The Episcopal Church in North Texas was a diocese of the Episcopal Church from 1982 to its merger with the Diocese of Texas in 2022. The diocese included a geographic area of 24 counties in the north central part of Texas. As of 2021, it includes 13 churches, including a number of other congregations in the process of reorganization. The jurisdiction was the site of a major schism in 2008. This schism was the result of the diocese's bishop, Jack Iker, leading the majority of clergy and parishes to join the Anglican Church of North America as the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. The Episcopal Church diocese is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It announced on April 22, 2022, that it would seek reunion with the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. The merger was finalized by the 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on July 11, 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reformed Episcopal Church</span> Anglican church of evangelical Episcopalian heritage

The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican church of evangelical Episcopalian heritage. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, a former bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

The Holy Catholic Church, Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas (ARJA) was an Anglican traditionalist church originating in 1981 from within the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) in the United States and with the assistance of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church (PICC). Citing political infighting within the Anglican Catholic Church, four of its clergy sought the help of the Philippine church in consecrating them to be bishops of a daughter province in which each of them would serve as bishop ordinary of a diocese covering one-quarter of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Province of America</span> American Continuing Anglican denomination

The Anglican Province of America (APA) is a Continuing Anglican church in the United States. The church was founded by former members of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Diocese of South Carolina</span> Anglican diocese in the United States

The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina (ADOSC) is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). The diocese covers an area of 24 counties in the eastern part of the state of South Carolina. In 2019, it had 18,195 baptized members and 47 parishes. The see city is Charleston, home to the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Church of South America</span> South American religious congregation

The Anglican Church of South America is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Church of Cuba</span>

The Episcopal Church of Cuba is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States. The diocese consists of the entire country of Cuba. From 1966 to 2020, it was an extra-provincial diocese under the archbishop of Canterbury. As of 2021, it had nearly 1,600 members and an average worship attendance of more than 600 in forty-four parishes, including the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Havana.

The Church of Nigeria North American Mission (CONNAM) is a missionary body of the Church of Nigeria (CON). It has been in a ministry partnership with the Anglican Church in North America but no longer affiliated with it beyond mutual membership in GAFCON. Founded in 2005 as the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, it was composed primarily of churches that have disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA). CANA was initially a missionary initiative of the Anglican Church of Nigeria for Nigerians living in the United States. It joined several other church bodies in the formation of the Anglican Church in North America in 2009. In 2019, the dual jurisdiction arrangement with the ACNA came to an end, and CANA was reformed as CONNAM, with a special focus on serving Nigerian-American Anglican churches in North America.

The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Church in the Philippines</span> Ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion

The Episcopal Church in the Philippines is a province of the Anglican Communion comprising the country of the Philippines. It was established by the Episcopal Church of the United States in 1901 by American missionaries led by Charles Henry Brent, who served as the first resident bishop, when the Philippines was opened to Protestant American missionaries. It became an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion on May 1, 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Church in North America</span> Anglican realignment province

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 977 congregations and 124,999 members in 2022. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth</span> Anglican diocese in the United States

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. The diocese comprises 56 congregations and its headquarters are in Fort Worth, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foley Beach</span> American Anglican bishop

Foley Thomas Beach is an American bishop. He is the second primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, a church associated with the Anglican realignment movement. Foley was elected as the church's primate on June 21, 2014. His enthronement took place on October 9, 2014. He is married to Alison and they have two adult children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Lines</span> British Anglican bishop (born 1960)

Andrew John Lines is a British Anglican bishop. Since June 2017, he has been the Missionary Bishop to Europe of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a province outside the Anglican Communion. In 2020, he became the first presiding bishop of the Anglican Network in Europe, a "proto-province" recognized by the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. Since 2000, he has been Mission Director and CEO of Crosslinks. He is also the chairman of the executive committee of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), the missionary arm of GAFCON in England. In June 2017, it was announced that he would be made a bishop for ACNA and GAFCON; he was consecrated on 30 June 2017.

The Anglican Diocese of the Trinity (ADOTT) is a diocese of the Church of Nigeria and formerly of the Anglican Church in North America and a sub-jurisdiction of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). It is the first missionary diocese of CANA launched by the Church of Nigeria in the United States and Canada, working as an evangelical church planting movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Church of Chile</span>

The Anglican Church of Chile is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers four dioceses in Chile. Formed in 2018, the province is the 40th in the Anglican Communion. The province consists of four dioceses. Its primate and metropolitan is the Archbishop of Chile, Héctor Zavala.

The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) is a small Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition with churches in Europe. Formed as part of the worldwide Anglican realignment, it is a member jurisdiction of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) and is under the primatial oversight of the chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council. ANiE runs in parallel with the Free Church of England (RECUK). GAFCON recognizes ANiE as a "proto-province" operating separately from the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and other Anglican Communion jurisdictions in Great Britain and the European continent. ANiE is the body hierarchically above the preexisting Anglican Mission in England; the former is the equivalent of a province whilst the latter is a convocation, the equivalent of a diocese.

References

  1. "Locations". 7 March 2021.
  2. Episcopal Archives website, New Denomination Consecrates Former Episcopal Priests as Bishops, article dated April 1, 1993
  3. Encyclopedia website, Anglican Churches: American Anglican Church
  4. College of Bishops Communiqué, ACNA Official Website, January 2020
  5. ACNA and Episcopal Missionary Church enter formal concordat, Virtue Online, 11 September 2020