George C. Schneller was the second presiding bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church and Metropolitan of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. He was born on February 22, 1921, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 8, 1973, by James Parker Dees, and served as the rector of Holy Cross Anglican Church in St. Louis, Missouri for over two decades. He was consecrated to the episcopate on October 27, 1991, by Hesbon O. Njera, Presiding Bishop of Kenya and Laione Q. Vuki, a bishop in Polynesia, both were bishops of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. Schneller served his alma mater (1973) as the second president of Cranmer Seminary during the same period. Following the death of his wife and having health difficulties of his own, on January 9, 1993, he resigned his position as presiding bishop. He died on June 8, 2000, bequeathing his episcopal vestments, library, and holy vessels to the Orthodox Anglican Church.
A presiding bishop is an ecclesiastical position in some denominations of Christianity.
The Orthodox Anglican Church (OAC) is the American branch of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. Because of similarities in churchmanship and doctrine, it is usually considered to be part of the Continuing Anglican movement, although the church's origins predate the start of that movement and it was publicly critical of the Continuing Anglican churches when they were founded during the late 1970s.
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.
An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. It is the structure used by many of the major Christian Churches and denominations, such as the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Anglican, and Lutheran churches or denominations, and other churches founded independently from these lineages.
The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches that are from the Anglican tradition but that are not part of the Anglican Communion. The largest of these are the Anglican Catholic Church, the Anglican Church in America, the Anglican Province of America, the Anglican Province of Christ the King, the Diocese of the Holy Cross, the Episcopal Missionary Church, and the United Episcopal Church of North America. These churches generally believe that traditional forms of Anglican faith and worship have been unacceptably revised or abandoned within some Anglican Communion churches in recent decades. They claim, therefore, that they are "continuing" or preserving the Anglican line of apostolic succession as well as historic Anglican belief and practice.
The Southern Episcopal Church was established in 1962 in reaction to liberal political and theological trends of the 1960s within the Episcopal Church USA. It was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, by a physician turned clergyman, Burnice Hoyle Webster, and a number of former members of the Episcopal Church USA. Webster became the SEC's first presiding bishop. The SEC now considers itself a "Continuing Anglican" church, but its members point out that the founding of the SEC preceded the start of the Continuing Anglican Movement by a decade and a half.
Nashotah House is an American theological seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism. The seminary opened in 1842 and received its official charter in 1847. The institution is independent and generally regarded as one of the more theologically conservative seminaries in The Episcopal Church. It is also officially recognized by the Anglican Church in North America. Its campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
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.
Frank Tracy Griswold III is a retired American bishop. He was the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
The sacrament of holy orders in the Catholic Church includes three orders: bishop, priest, and deacon. In the phrase "holy orders", the word "holy" simply means "set apart for some purpose." The word "order" designates an established civil body or corporation with a hierarchy, and ordination means legal incorporation into an order. In context, therefore, a group with a hierarchical structure that is set apart for ministry in the Church.
Michael Bruce Curry MStJ is an American bishop. He is the 27th and current presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church. Elected in 2015, he is the first African American to serve as presiding bishop in The Episcopal Church. He was previously bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.
The Anglican Orthodox Church (AOC) claims to be the second oldest conservative Anglican denomination and the oldest to be formed in the United States in the 20th century. The AOC is not in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Church of England. This is due to the perceived abandonment of Reformation doctrine by that church.
James Parker Dees was the founder and first bishop of the [Anglican Orthodox Anglican] and the Orthodox Anglican Communion. Dees was born in Greenville, North Carolina on December 30, 1915, the son of James Earle Dees and Margaret Burgwin (Parker) Dees. He graduated in 1938 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in political science and economics, then took a year of graduate study in international relations. From 1939 until 1942, he worked for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in Greenville, North Carolina. For two years after the Second World War, he was a baritone soloist with the New York Opera Company. He then studied at the Protestant Episcopal Church’s Virginia Theological Seminary for his Bachelor of Divinity degree, graduating in 1949. He was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church on June 29, 1949; and as a priest by Thomas Henry Wright, Bishop of East Carolina, at the Church of the Holy Cross, in Aurora, North Carolina, on January 19, 1950. As a member of the Diocese of North Carolina, he served in charges in Aurora, Beaufort, and Statesville. His concerns about advancing liberalism caused him to withdraw from the denomination in 1963. Dees was discouraged from joining the Reformed Episcopal Church by Carl McIntire because of their association with groups perceived as being neo-evangelical. The decision to form a new jurisdiction was made. Dees founded the Anglican Orthodox Church on November 17, 1963 - the first religious body to withdraw from the PECUSA in the modern era. On Passion Sunday, March 15, 1964 Dees was consecrated a bishop by Wasyl Sawyna of the Holy Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church of North and South America, assisted by Orlando Jacques Woodward, a bishop of Old Catholic succession.
The United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA) is an Anglican church that is part of the Continuing Anglican movement. It is not part of the Anglican Communion.
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 and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 30 dioceses and 1,037 congregations serving an estimated membership of 134,593 in 2017. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.
The Orthodox Anglican Communion was established in 1964, as a self-governing worldwide fellowship of national churches in the Anglican tradition. The Orthodox Anglican Communion was one of the first such communions to be formed outside of the See of Canterbury and therefore is not part of the Anglican Communion. The Orthodox Anglican Communion adheres to the doctrine, discipline and worship contained in the classic Anglican formularies, especially in the 1662 English, 1928 American, 1929 Scottish and 1962 Canadian Books of Common Prayer.
William Wesley Millsaps is a bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church. He is the rector of Christ Church in Monteagle, Tennessee, and Presiding bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church. He had served previously from 2001-2010. He was elected again in December 2014 at a Synod held at Christ Church, Warrenton, Virginia.
Scott Earle McLaughlin was the Presiding Bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion, and the Chancellor of Saint Andrew's Theological College and Seminary. On 1 May 1999 McLaughlin was consecrated as a bishop by Herbert M. Groce, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Anglican Rite Synod in the Americas, assisted by Bishop Larry Shaver of the Anglican Rite Synod in the Americas, and Bishop Robert J. Godfrey of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. His apostolic succession is Anglican, Old Catholic, and Orthodox. McLaughlin served as suffragan bishop until 30 April 2000, when Bishop Godfrey retired. He was then elected Presiding Bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church and Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. He was the fourth archbishop to lead the Orthodox Anglican Communion and the Orthodox Anglican Church. He is married with four children; two sons and two daughters.
Robert Joseph Godfrey was the third Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion and the President of Cranmer Seminary. In 1960 Godfrey completed his undergraduate work in South Carolina at The Citadel. He also completed a Msster of Education degree from Western Maryland College, and a Ph.D. from Wayne State University. He continued his education with post-doctoral studies at the University of Southern California, Boston University, Temple University, University of Edinburgh (Scotland), University of Manchester (England), University of Michigan, University of Central Florida, University of South Carolina, Loyola University. He also completed a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees at Trinity Theological Seminary, graduating summa cum laude in both degree programs. Significantly, during his tenure as bishop, Godfrey changed the legal name of the jurisdiction to the "Episcopal Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of America," while retaining the original incorporation. The church is now known as the Orthodox Anglican Church, matching the name of the international communion to which it belongs.
The Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC) is an American independent Catholic church. Its members understand themselves as following the Catholic tradition without being in communion with the Bishop of Rome. The ECC is a confederation of independent communities based in the United States and Europe. The membership of the ECC is about 10,000, including seven bishops, and more than 50 communities across 20 states In 2009, the Ecumenical Anglican Church (EAC), an independent church joined the ECC. The ECC is a member of the National Council of Churches (NCC).
T. Creighton Jones was the Presiding Bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church and Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. His apostolic succession is Anglican, Old Catholic, and Orthodox. He was the fifth archbishop to lead the Orthodox Anglican Communion and the Orthodox Anglican Church.
Thomas E. Gordon is the sixth Presiding Bishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church and Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Communion. On November 16, 2014, Creighton Jones announced his retirement and nominated Gordon, then his suffragan, to be his successor. Gordon became Metropolitan on April 18, 2015.
