Diocese of NW Australia Recognises ACNA as “a member church of the Anglican Communion”

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The Diocese of NW Australia, meeting in synod this weekend, passed the following motion,

That this synod:

  • welcomes the impending investiture of the Most Reverend Dr Foley Beach, the Archbishop of The Anglican Church in North America;

  • recognizes the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) as a member church of the Anglican Communion, in full communion with Diocese of North West Australia; rejoices that the orthodox faith is proclaimed in word and deed through ACNA and its member churches;

  • continues with ACNA to pray for and call for repentance from those churches which have turned to a different gospel;

  • calls upon faithful Anglicans around the world to join us in joyful praise to God for the renewal and rebirth evident in ACNA and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.

Just no-one tell the Archbishop of Canterburyย who is reported as saying,

The ACNA is a โ€œfellow member of the church of Christ in the world,โ€ but added the โ€œACNA is a separate church. It is not part of the Anglican Communion.โ€

I understand the motion was passd without opposition, either in speeches or votes. Well done NW Australia!

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This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. Phillip Rutledge

    Thank you and God bless you abundantly.

  2. Will

    Hopefully other dioceses in the Global South will do the same. I am saddened by Abp. Welby’s pronouncement.

  3. RevRon

    I miss the fellowship of my brothers and sisters in Christ in the North-West and the desire to see Christ glorified in the world.

    1. RevRon

      “their desire to see Christ glorified…”

  4. James Wong

    Alleluia! Praise the Lord. God bless our brothers and sisters of ACNA

  5. Robin Jordan

    Is the "orthodox faith" really proclaimed in word and deed through the ACNA and its member churches? Perhaps if you view the unreformed faith of the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church as the "orthodox faith," then your answer would be "yes." The ACNA's doctrinal statements to date, including its trial services and its catechism place the denomination well within the unreformed Catholic camp. They not only take unreformed Catholic positions on key issues, or example, salvation and the sacraments, but also permit the teaching of Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic doctrine in ACNA churches. However, i you view the reformed faith of classical and conservative evangelical Anglicanism, the reformed faith of the Thirty-Nine Articles,the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal, and the two Books of Homilies as the "orthodox faith," then your answer would be "no." In its doctrinal statements, particularly its trial services and catechism, the ACNA does not extend the same license to the teaching of Protestant Reformed doctrine that it extends to the teaching of Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic doctrine. The ACNA does have some churches and clergy that are faithful to the reformed faith of the Anglican formularies but what they teach is contrary to the official doctrine of the denomination. They represent an anomoly in the ACNA. How long they will be able to maintain their precarious existence remains to be seen. Until the ACNA adopts a policy of genuine comprehensiveness for the entire spectrum of conservative schools of Anglican thought, the Diocese of North West Australia's resolution must be viewed as premature.

    1. RevRon

      @ Robin – Wow! Sounds like the Churches of all denominations world-wide. I’ll pray for the witness of the faithful within those Churches, as well as the conversion of those within the same Churches.

    2. David Ould

      hi Robin,

      I think you’ve outlined some of the issues the Reformed have with the direction large segments of the ACNA are moving. The real question for us, as Daryl’s comments point us to, is how much latitude is legitimate and when does that movement mark a step outside the bounds of Anglicanism. And that, as you note, pushes us back to ask what our definition of Anglicanism is.

  6. John

    What does it even mean to recognise ACNA as a member church of the Anglican Communion? As far as I can tell, the ACNA don’t say they’re part of the Anglican Communion – they say they would like to join it. A number of archbishops made the much weaker statement that Foley Beach is “an archbishop of the Anglican Communion”.

    1. David Ould

      thanks John. I think my colleague Matt Kennedy’s remarks are well worth noting:

    2. MichaelA

      The words used by the Archbishops who laid hands on Foley Beach at his investiture: โ€œFoley Beach, We receive you as an Archbishop and a Primate in the Anglican Communion.โ€ See http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/56741/#comments

      In context, that seems a pretty clear rejection of ++Welby’s assertion last week that membership in the Communion depends on recognition by Canterbury. I expect ACNA will just get on with the job of evangelising North America – there is plenty of work to do!

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