Anglican Traditionalist Groups Unite
Episcopal News Service. July 28, 1977 [77252]
ESTES PARK, Colo. -- Several groups of Anglican traditionalists, after many months of division appear to have set aside their disagreements and come together in a united effort to establish a "continuing" Episcopal Church which they have provisionally titled the Anglican Church of North America.
Following a mid-July meeting here, the largest and most comprehensive of the organizations, the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen, announced it had closed ranks with Anglicans United and with two dioceses established by parishes which have separated from the Episcopal Church.
Both the Diocese of the Holy Trinity and the more recently formed Diocese of San Francisco also include several congregations created by Episcopalians who have rejected many actions of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in September, 1976, including the decisions to permit the ordination of women to the priesthood and to revise the Book of Common Prayer.
The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen, an umbrella group representing 15 organizations and publications related to the Episcopal Church, has called a Church Congress for Sept. 14-16 in St. Louis as the first major step toward the establishment of the Anglican Church of North America.
Also involved in the Fellowship's effort is the Council for the Faith and Comment Magazine, both connected with the Anglican Church of Canada, which has also ordained women to the priesthood.
The first parish to secede from the Episcopal Church -- St. Mary's Church, Denver, Colo. -- hosted the first meeting of the Diocese of the Holy Trinity which preceded the gathering of the Fellowship in Estes Park. The Diocese, which was organized in late April, now claims a membership of about 4,000 persons.
The Rev. James 0. Mote of St. Mary's in Denver was named president of the executive branch of the Diocese of the Holy Trinity. The Rev. John D. Barker of St. Mary and the Angels Church, Hollywood, Calif., was elected executive secretary and the Rev. Clark A. Tea of St. Christopher's, Boulder City, Nev., was chosen secretary.
The Rt. Rev. Albert A. Chambers, the retired Episcopal Bishop of Springfield ( llinois), is the spiritual advisor to both the Diocese of the Holy Trinity and the Diocese of San Francisco, which was formed in June. Bishop Chambers has conducted confirmation services in most parishes which have separated from the Episcopal Church, in others that have either "broken fellowship" with their dioceses or have refused to invite their diocesan bishops to confirm, and in several of the newly-formed congregations.
Bishop Chambers is also president of Anglicans United.
Leaders of another Episcopal Church organization, the Evangelical and Catholic Mission, signed a joint statement with leaders of the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen in late June.
The statement expressed agreement from both groups that the General Convention had acted improperly and without authority in voting to ordain women to the priesthood.
In an obvious rejection of the Episcopal Church's stand on abortion, the joint statement also declared that "the Church must proclaim that human life from the moment of its conception is inviolable by man, allowing those narrow exceptions which moral theology has made. "
The statement also opposed a relaxed view toward homosexuality, declaring that the Church "must preach... .the practice of sexual activity only within the bonds of Holy Matrimony...."
However, the statement concluded by saying the two signing organizations might be "compelled to pursue different courses in acting to maintain their common beliefs...." But they agreed to "make common cause" in teaching them and "in seeking to recall the Episcopal Church and Anglicanism to the path of the revealed Catholic faith...."
The Evangelical and Catholic Mission has given no indication it would support the Fellowship's move to establish the Anglican Church of North America.
Bishop Stanley Atkins of Eau Claire, president of the Evangelical and Catholic Mission, said after the release of the joint statement, "It is clear to me, and to all the leaders of the Evangelical and Catholic Mission to whom I have spoken, that we should not quit the Episcopal Church now. Some of us think it will not be necessary for us to do this, ever."
With regard to any "disruption of the Episcopal Church, " Bishop Atkins said, his reaction is, "God forbid."
Perry Laukhuff of Amherst, Va., Fellowship president, said he has been advised by many members of the Evangelical and Catholic Mission in both the U.S. and Canada that they will attend the Church Congress in St. Louis.
"Some of these people," Laukhuff said, "have indicated they no longer feel there is any hope of reversing the present humanistic and secular trends in the Episcopal Church, and the only solution is the formation of the Anglican Church (of North America)."
He added, "We also anticipate, of course, that the Congress will be attended by some Episcopal bishops and clergymen who hope to persuade us to remain in the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and the Anglican Church of Canada.
"But they may find their efforts frustrated," he continued, "because the Congress is being structured so they will have no opportunity to address the meeting. Most people who plan to attend will be in no mood to listen to speeches from anybody who wants to defend or rationalize the current destructive and divisive trends in the Episcopal Church."