New American Anglican church drafts constitution

Fairfax County
By Gregg MacDonald
Source: Fairfax County Times
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9 2008

As the Anglican District of Virginia celebrated its second anniversary last week, Orthodox Anglican leaders representing more than 100,000 members introduced a draft constitution for a new North American church body that is separate from the U.S. Episcopal Church.

On Dec. 3, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) issued a statement of support for the provisional constitution, which will unite Orthodox North American Anglicans under a new province.

Last week's announcement comes on the heels of a years-long conflict between a minority group of conservative congregations within the Episcopal Church, which is the U.S. branch of the Episcopal Communion. The congregations, including several from Fairfax and Loudoun counties, decided to break away from the parent organization after determining that church leadership was not following a proper reading of Scripture, particularly on the issue of homosexuality.

Among the area congregations now aligned with CANA are Christ the Redeemer in Centreville; Church of the Apostles in Fairfax; Church of the Epiphany in Herndon; Church of Our Saviour in Oatlands; Potomac Falls Episcopal in Sterling; Truro in Fairfax City; and The Falls Church, Falls Church.

Convocation leaders, including Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns, joined representatives of the Common Cause Partnership, a federation representing more than 100,000 Orthodox Anglican Christians in North America, in Wheaton, Ill., to introduce the provisional constitution for the new province.

“This constitution represents a major component of the new Anglican province’s structural and spiritual foundation. We support this constitution, as it reflects the very qualities that all of us in CANA and in Common Cause have hoped for in the new Anglican province: biblically grounded, Christ-centered, mission driven, outwardly focused, committed to evangelism and discipleship, and proudly Anglican,” said Minns.

The landmark event follows the June 2008 gathering of the Global Anglican Future Conference, in which leaders representing half of the world’s 77 million Anglicans called for a new Anglican body in North America as part of a formal declaration of faith.

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